A Situational Analysis Of Women Workers in Sericulture of West Bengal

Women workers constitute one third of the world labour force performing two thirds of working hours but their contributory role remains invisible. Sericulture is such an activity where most of the work is performed by women alone in terms of operations performed and time invested. Despite showing tenacity and persistence, the women workers remain as unpaid family workers or low paid hired workers. The core objective of this paper is to make a situational analysis of these women workers in sericulture sector of West Bengal against the backdrop of their impoverished condition. It is observed that with the increase in household size, more number of male workers are getting attached to sericulture activities while women workers are being crowded out. Actually, domination of women workers are rather observed when less of working days is performed. This paper has designed women empowerment index both in family sphere and social sphere and have shown how this empowerment is influencing the female dominance in sericulture activities. This investigation is based on a primary survey analysis in sericulture rich villages of Malda district in West Bengal.