Participation of women in decision making process in rural Garhwal of Uttarakhand

The study was based on 110 women respondents selected randomly from Chamoli district of Uttarakhand with the aim to examine the participation of women in decision-making process related to home and farm affairs. The study revealed that the overall pattern of decision-making process related to home and farm affairs, the maximum decisions were taken by all family members (33.64%) followed by 27.27%, 20.91% and 18.18% decisions taken by women and male, women alone and male alone, respectively. The study also revealed that the participation of women in decision-making process related to home affairs was comparatively lower (13.64%) than farm affairs (28.18%), while in case of males, the situation was just reverse as the participation of male in decisions related to home affairs (27.27%) was higher than the farm affairs (7.27%). Thus, males were dominating the scene regarding decisions related to home affairs as compared to their female counterparts, whereas in decisions relating to farm affairs it was the women who dominate the scene. This is a unique situation of the rural Garhwal of Uttarakhand, where women perform more than 80% home and farm activities but their participation in decision-making has been less than 20.91%. It shows that there was a clear-cut gender bias in the society, which explains traditionally subjugated status of women, as well as their role in decision-making process. These gender biases shall improve with the improvement in the education of women in rural areas of Uttarakhand.