| Abstrakt: |
The present study aimed at assessing the women empowerment through women dairy cooperatives in Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka. The sample comprised of 240 rural women including 100 respondents from women dairy cooperatives (WDCs), 100 from general dairy cooperatives (GDCs) and 40 from private sellers (PSs). women's empowerment in livestock index (WELI) tool was used in assessing the empowerment of women in agriculture with a special focus on livestock sector. The WELI was found to be 0.64, 0.54 and 0.51 for WDCs, GDC's and PS's, respectively, indicating a positive impact of WDCs on empowerment of rural women. Decisions related to nutrition and agricultural operations were found to be the important dimensions. Control and use of income dimension were found to be contributing least in the case of WDC's and GDC's i.e., 14.06 and 11.85 per cent, respectively, whereas access to and control over resources (11.96 per cent) is least in the case of PS's. PS's access to training, information and group participation was lower compared to that of women involved in cooperatives. The herd size categories were shown to be positively associated with the WELI. The study concluded that there is a need for bringing more rural women under WDCs to increase their social participation and empowering them and also for strengthening the existing policies of encouraging rural women for self-employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
