A CRITICAL STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN RURAL AREAS IN SRIKAKULAM DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

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Date
2009
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ACHARYA N.G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, RAJENDRANAGAR, HYDERABAD
Abstract
Women and Children constitute 67.70 per cent of the country’s total population as per the census 2001. Women exclusively accounted for 495.7 million constituting 48.30 percent of the country’s population. To empower women economically and socially, Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) was launched as sub scheme of IRDP. It was initially started as pilot project in 50 selected districts in all states during 1982- 1983. During, the IX plan almost all state governments started implementing DWCRA activities in rural areas.. The objectives of this programme are to organize women into socio-economic activity groups with the dual purpose of providing selfemployment opportunities and social strength to them. Besides, providing financial support for income generating activities, DWCRA also increases women’s access to basic services of health, education, children’s nutrition, safe drinking water, sanitation and environment. Three divisions, Six mandals and Twelve villages of Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh were chosen by purposive sampling and a total of 120 respondents were chosen from the selected DWCRA groups, one each from the twelve villages selected purposively. The study was conducted by following Ex-post-facto research design. The data were collected by personal interview method through pretested structured interview schedule. Appropriate statistical procedures were employed to analyse and interpret the data. Findings of the study indicated that, majority of the women beneficiaries of DWCRA are middle Aged (46.67%), Illiterate (44.17%), medium in their Family Size (48.33%), had Agriculture labour as their occupation (39.16%), medium Socio-Economic Status (63.33%), medium level of Income (50.00%), Received Training (55.83%), medium level of Innovativeness (65.83%), medium level of Self Reliance (64.17%), medium level of Risk Orientation (67.50%), and medium level of Market Orientation (60.00%). Majority (73.33%) of the women beneficiaries of DWCRA had medium level of awareness followed by the remaining with high (15.84%) and low (10.83%) awareness. Majority (63.33%) of the women beneficiaries of DWCRA had medium extent of participation in various activities followed by the remaining with high (20.00%) and low (16.67%) extent of participation. Out of eleven selected Personal and Socio-Economic characteristics, Age, Education, Family Occupation, Socio-Economic Status, Income Generation, Training Received, Innovativeness, Self Reliance, Risk Orientation and Market Orientation were positively and significant in their relationship with Awareness of women beneficiaries of DWCRA at 0.01 level of probability. Age, Income generation, Training received and Self Reliance have contributed significantly towards their Awareness. Similarly, out of eleven selected Personal and Socio-Economic characteristics, Age, Education, Family Occupation, Socio-Economic Status, Income Generation, Training Received, Innovativeness, Self Reliance, Risk Orientation and Market Orientation had positive and significant relationship with Extent of Participation of women beneficiaries at 0.01 level of probability. Income Generation has contributed significantly towards their Extent of Participation. Important problems faced by women beneficiaries of DWCRA in rank order of their importance Procedural delay in obtaining the loan amount followed by Poor marketing facilities, High cost of inputs, Lack of remunerative price to the produce , Insufficient loan amount , Lack of market demand to produced items , Inadequate training programmes related to income generating activity, Lack of supervision/ guidance by organizational officials, Use of traditional methods to perform the activity, Poor transport facilities, lack of awareness about income generating activities, Lack of new skills for carrying out the activity, Illiteracy among the group members, Non availability of inputs, Repayment of loan amount and Inadequate supply of inputs, respectively. Important Suggestions elicited from the women beneficiaries of DWCRA in rank order of their importance were; Timely provision of loan amount, Provision better marketing facilities, Provision of remunerative price to the produce, Provision of sufficient loan amount, Providing supervision/ guidance by organizational officials, Create market demand to produced items, creating awareness about income generating activities, Conducting training programmes related to income generating activity, Imparting new skills to carry out the activity, Timely provision of inputs, Reduction of cost of inputs , Providing better transport facilities, Adequate supply of inputs, Adoption of modern methods to perform the activity, and Promoting co-operation among the group members, respectively.
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CRITICAL, STUDY, DEVELOPMENT, WOMEN, CHILDREN, RURAL AREAS, SRIKAKULAM DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH
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