Rural Gender Roles

Women, in the rural context, are equally engaged in productive work, reproductive work and rest. They perform reproductive activities within the family boundaries and are unpaid and unaccounted for even by themselves. A major chunk of work is performed by them either with or without any support. All the household chores and child care activities are accounted for together. This makes it difficult to get an actual estimate of time spent on care of children only. Presence of multiple caregivers, in the household or neighbourhood, is advantageous to support mothers in a few households which enables the mother to carry out other productive activities simultaneously. This is more so in the tribal communities where the family stays within close proximity

Men do share certain domestic responsibilities such as childcare (mostly relieving the mother while at work and entertaining the child). However feeding the child, toileting, washing clothes and cleaning vessels are strictly in the women’s domain. Even during peak agricultural season, the women have to make additional effort to combine childcare tasks with other roles (field survey, 2016). Mothers combine childcare with multifarious activities and mostly carry their children tied to their chests. Neighbours, children (both boys and girls) and grandparents also contribute to child care. It is amusing, how gender roles are internalized very early as is evident with girl children as young as five years old pumping water and girls from the age of eight washing clothes. Hardly any men or boys are seen near the

Women are among the major contributors to the development of agriculture and the rural economy in the developing countries. FAO (2011) lauds women for managing complex households and multiple livelihood strategies transforming the rural setting and approach towards agriculture in particular. The sociological analysis clearly points out that men and women have varied time use patterns and burdens (Padmaja, 2015). The time available is important for mothers who have taken responsibility of the home and agricultural operations. A number of determinants influence the women’s use of time like the crop cycle, age and social group. The diverse nature of women’s roles makes generalization impossible. However, the study clearly indicates an impact on the women and the child’s nutritional status owing to the woman’s time