Empowerment of Rural Women through Income Generating Activities (Social Participation)

The study was conducted to determine the extent of empowerment dimension namely social participation through income generating activities and also to explore relationship between the selected characteristics of the women and their empowerment. All the women of farm household included except the absentee members of the study area. Data were collected from 10 July to 20 August 2013. The extent of empowerment achieved by rural women through income generating activities of decision-making ability was 27.62 percent low, 39.05 percent medium and 33.33 percent high respectively. The coefficient of correlation showed that out of 10 selected characteristics of the rural women, only four viz. education, training exposure, and communication exposure had positive significant relationships with the decision making ability. On the other hand, only age had negative significant relationship for decision making ability. In the study area there were 13 income generating activities found and according to rank order vegetable production was found first, fruit as 2nd, and poultry as 3rd.  Majority of the activities were agriculture related. Handicrafts and tailoring were found out of agricultural activities. In the study area 10.48 percent low, 19.05 percent medium and 8.57 percent of the rural women had higher problem faced in income generating activities