Role of Working and Non-working Women in Decision Making About Farm Activities in Haryana

Agriculture is an important engine of growth and poverty reduction in India. Women’s contribution to the farming sector in respect of participation and decision making has largely been ignored. The present study was attempted to ascertain the extent of participation and decision making pattern of working and non-working women in farm activities. The study was conducted on 256 women of two districts i.e. Hisar and Kaithal of Haryana state. Four villages were selected from each district for the rural study and district headquarters were selected for the urban study. From selected villages, 8 working and 8 non-working women were selected and 32 working and 32 non-working were selected from district headquarter were surveyed with the help of pre-designed interview schedule as per objectives. It was found that joint decisions were taken by working women regarding use of loans (92.45%), taking loan (77.36%), storage of grain (71.70%) and sale /purchase of farm machinery (67.92%). Independent decisions in respect to farm activities were very low. Hence, it is the need of hour that both male and female should jointly take the decisions and women farmers should be encouraged and motivated to participate in farm decisions.