A tool to assess women empowerment due to socio-technological interventions in dairying

Abstract

A study was undertaken in two villages namely Pingli and Jundla of Karnal district in Haryana to assess the level of women empowerment due to socio- technological interventions under a research project namely, “Empowerment of farm women through livestock technologiesâ€. Twenty members of farm women group in each village was formed which was taken as experimental group and10 members from each village were selected randomly as control group where the respondents did not undergo any interventions. A women empowerment index was constructed with due consultation with experts and relevant procedure. Data were collected from experimental and control group for assessing the level of empowerment and analyzed by mean, correlation, t- test and regression. Four indicators emerged in the order of importance namely economical, social, technological and psychological with index value ranging from 470 to 168. Most of respondents secured a score nearer to 300. Significant change could be observed in the study area in their income, control over use of income, self confidence, decision making ability, attitude towards self empowerment and achievement motivation due to socio- technological interventions. Level of empowerment had positive and significant correlation with explanatory variables namely age, education and dairy farming experience and negative correlation with family size. Rate of adoption, training received and income were found to significantly contribute to women empowerment. The study recommends large scale adoption of group approach to enhance technological adoptions in order to empower the resource poor women for additional income generation in collaboration with line departments and ATMA.