INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN IN DAIRY ACTIVITIES

Transcription

1 J. Dairying, Foods & H.S. 26 (3/4) : , 2007 INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN IN DAIRY ACTIVITIES Z. Doomra, K. Singh, M. Mehta and M. Dilbagi College of Home Science CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar , India ABSTRACT The present study was undertaken in randomly selected villages of Fatehabad district namely Kukranwali and Nakhatia. Under Phase-I a sample of 100 respondents actively engaged in cattle milking were selected to study the involvement pattern of women in dairy related activities. The result of the study showed that majority of the respondents were of middle age, illiterate, married and had nuclear family system. Sixty percent of the respondents had medium herd size (3-4 cattles). The mean milk production, consumption and sale (litres/day) was 12.48, 4.29 and 8.19 respectively. Maximum time was spent on cleaning the shed and perceived exertion was maximum for fodder transportation. INTRODUCTION Management of livestock is one of the important allied agricultural activity in which rural women contribute a lot. Most of the work involved in livestock management are considered as traditional responsibility of women. Dairy related task such as fodder cutting, care of animals, grazing, milking of animals, cleaning of sheds etc. are carried out mostly by women only. Despite of dual responsibility of home and farm sector women have to perform all the activities of dairy sector. Dairy farming involved back-breaking tasks as all the activities are carried out in arduous posture. Heavy load in these activities can cause musculo skeletal disorders and disability. Therefore, improved work, worker and work place interaction with intervention of drudgery reducing technologies and tools in dairy sector is the need of the hour. Research on ergonomics of rural women would be helpful in formulating strategies to improve the working efficiency and reducing the drudgery at home and allied fields. MATERIAL AND METHOD The present study was conducted in randomly selected Fatehabad district of Haryana state and further two blocks namely Fatehabad and Bhattu were selected randomly. From each block one village was again selected randomly i.e. Nakhatia and Kukranwali. 50 women from each village who were actively involved in cattle milking was studied through interview schedule especially designed to collect the relevant information with regard to the study of involvement of rural women in dairy activities. Thirty women (15 from each village) of average health status through physical fitness test were selected for the experimental work. Assessment of health status of farm women was measured by two method: 1. With the use of step stool ergometer 2. By calculating aerobic capacity (VO 2 max) of women Other parameters of Health Status: Body composition : It includes lean body mass (LBM) and body mass index. The height of the respondent was recorded by using anthropometric rod and weight with the help of bathroom weighing scale. For calculating lean body mass and total fat weight of the body, the skinfold measurement were taken with the skinfold callipers from body parts of both left and right sides of the body. Various measurements are Biceps, Triceps, Subscapular, Superilliac. The log of sum of skinfolds was calculated Body density : (0.717 x log of sum of four skin folds) Percent fat = (4.95/D-4.5) x 100 Fat weight = Body weight x percent fat / 100 Lean body mass (LBM) (kg) : Body weight fat weight.

2 170 J. DAIRYING, FOODS & H.S. Body mass index : Body mass index was derived by measuring weight and height of the woman using Quetlet index in the following formula : Weight Q.I. = Height (m 2 ) The BMI scores obtained were interpreted as follows : Score Presumption diagnosis <16.0 CED grade-iii (severe)* CED grade-ii (moderate)* CED grade-i (MILD)* Low weight normal Normal Obese grade-i >30.0 Obese grade-ii *CED = Chronic energy deficiency Body type according to Quetelet s index is graded as follows : < 20 Ectomorph Mesomorph >25 Endomorph RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Period and reason of involvement in cattle milking : Table 1. depicts that less than half of the respondents (43.0%) were involved in milking from past 6-10 yrs followed by 41.0 per cent women engaged for more than 10 years. Only small number of (16.0%) respondents were involved from last 1-5 years in milking. Majority (73.0%) of the respondents reason of involvement in milking was traditional role setting followed by work division (12.0%) and 8.0 per cent of them emphasized that they were engaged for the economic independence and fewer number of respondents (7.0%) were involved because of interest in milking activity. TABLE 1: Reason and period of involvement in cattle milking Variables and categories Frequency Percentage Period of involvement 1-5 yrs yrs Above 10 yrs Reason of involvement Traditional role setting Work division Interest in work Economic independence Time and purpose of milking : Table 2. reflects that majority i.e. two-third of the respondents (70.0%) performed milking activity both in morning and evening time followed by 20.0 per cent who performed only in morning and remaining 10.0 per cent respondents performed only in evening. One time milking was done mostly in late lactation of cattle or in cattle in which lactation was disturbed due to calving problem and early mortality of calf. Table2 also shows that two-third (70.0%) of the respondents were doing milking activity both for the sale purpose and for own use at home, followed by for own use only (30.0%) and there was no respondent who was doing cattle milking only for sale purpose. TABLE 2: Time and purpose of cattle milking n=100 Variable and category Frequency Percentage Time Morning Evening Both Purpose For own use For sale use - - For both Daily milk production consumption and sale : Perusal of Table 3 indicates that milk production level of cattle among little more than half of the

3 Vol. 26, No. 3/4, respondents (58.0%) was above high level followed by medium level of milk production (37.0%) by cattle. Five per cent respondents were having low milk production per day. Regarding consumption of milk, majority of the respondents (70.0%) had high milk consumption followed by medium level of consumption (22.0%) whereas selling of milk was concerned, 44.2 per cent respondents had high level of sale followed by medium (41.4%) and low (14.2%). Further Table 3and Fig. 1. depicts that mean milk production, mean consumption and mean sale (litres/day) was 12.48, 4.29 and 8.19, respectively. TABLE 3: Daily milk production, consumption and sale (litre) Categories Frequency Percentage Production Low (3-6 lit) Medium (6-9 lit) High (9 & above) Consumption Low (upto 2 lit. ) Medium ( lit.) High (3.5 lit & above) Sale Low (1-2 lit) Medium (2-8 lit.) High (8 lit. & above) TABLE 4 : Mean milk production, consumption and sale Variables Mean (litres/day) Production Consumption 4.29 Sale 8.19 Utilization of milk : Table 5 reveals that all the respondents used the milk daily and also utilized making milk for butter, curd and lassi respectively. Ghee, paneer, cream was made by 32.0, 5.0 and 20.0 per cent respondents, regularly. Selling of milk : Table 6 highlights that majority of the respondents (88.5%) sold milk to the milk men followed by locall (11.4%)sale. There were no respondents who sold milk to government institution and daries as they did not feel to go out for selling purpose. TABLE 5 : Utilization of milk per day* Milk Butter Ghee Curd Lassi Paneer Cream Khoa - - *Multiple responses TABLE 6 : Selling of milk n=70 Locally Milk men Profit from dairy business : Perusal of Table 7 and Fig. 1. indicates that little less than half of the respondents (45.7%) reported dairy as highly profitable followed by moderately profitable (32.8%) and somewhat profitable (21.4%). Percentage Highly profitable Moderately profitable Somewhat profitable Category TABLE 7. : Profit from dairy business N=70 Highly profitable Moderately profitable Somewhat profitable Training in dairy : Table 8 reveals that hundred per cent of the respondents had undergone no training in any aspect of dairy. The findings are also supported by Singh et al. (1979), Gupta

4 172 J. DAIRYING, FOODS & H.S. and Singh (1986) and Ranjan (1987) who reported that though dairy task were carried out by women, but no women were included in training course for the care of cattle. TABLE 8 : Training in dairy Training in dairy Frequency Percentage Trained - - Not trained ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH STATUS OF SELECTED RESPONDENT Health status of women was a selection criterion of the respondents for the study. Women possessing high average and above health status were selected for the ergonomic evaluation. It was determined by physical fitness index and aerobic capacity (VO 2 max.). Physical characteristics of the respondents : Age : The mean age of the selected women was 31 yrs with a standard deviation of ±8.2 yrs. Weight : Body weight is an important factor that influences person s capacity to do work. The average body weight of the women was found 55.0 kg with SD calculated was ±7.3 kg. TABLE 9 : Physical characteristics of women involved in cattle milking Variables Mean ±S.D. Age (yrs) Weight (kg) Height (cm) Lean body mass (kg) BMI VO 2 max. (ml/kg x min) Fat percentage Height : Table 4.15 clearly shows that mean height of the selected respondent was 156 cm with standard deviation ±4.0 cm. Lean body mass : Lean body mass of an average women was 47.2 kg with S.D.±2.4 kg. Body mass index : Body mass index of women was 21.9 which falls in normal category. Body mass index an important indicator of an adequacy is revealed in Table 10 and Fig. 3. According to classification of the body mass index, more than half of the respondents (56.7%) fall in the category of normal. Remaining 26.7 per cent has low weight normal followed by Obese grade I (10.0%) and CED grade I (6.7%). Fat percentage : Fat percentage of an average women was 6.0 per cent with S.D.±2.0. TABLE 10 : Categorization of the respondents according to body mass index Variables Frequency Percentage CED Grade-III(Severe <15.0) - - CED Grade-II (moderate ) - - CED Grade IMild Low weightnormal Normal Obese Grade I CED = Chronic energy deficiency Body type : Regarding body type, data in Table 11 reveals that majority of the respondents were having mesomorph body type (63.3%) which is considered as the perfect body type. Remaining 26.7 per cent had ectomorph that is thin body. Only 10.0 per cent respondent had endomorph body type which represents fatty body. Normal, 56.6 Obese Grade 1, 10 CED Grade 1, 6.7 Low weight Normal, 26.7 TABLE 11 : Distribution of respondent according to body type Body type Frequency %age Ectomorph Mesomorph Endomorph

5 Physical fitness and aerobic capacity of selected women : Physical fitness index : Physical fitness of the women has direct link with the work capacity of the women. Good physical fitness leads to higher work efficiency and vice versa. Physical fitness of women involved in milking activity was measured and the results are presented in the Table 12. The result shows that physical fitness of 56.7 per cent of women involved in milking was of high average, followed by good physical fitness (40.0%). Only meagre per cent (3.3%) fall in the category of excellent physical fitness category. TABLE 12 : Physical fitness and aerobic capacity of selected women Category Frequency %age PFI Poor Low average High average Good Very good Excellent VO 2 /kg x min Poor Low average Vol. 26, No. 3/4, High average Good Very good 0 0 Excellent Aerobic capacity : The women with higher VO 2 are considered to be healthy and many have higher work productivity. More VO 2 max means more vital capacity of lungs, therefore more oxygen intake in one breath. Higher oxygen intake of any of the person is useful indicator of higher work efficiency and less fatigue. The maximum oxygen intake or maximum aerobic power or aerobic capacity (VO 2 max) is regarded as direct measure of physical fitness (Varghese et al., 1996). Aerobic capacity was measured on the basis of score of physical fitness of the women and is presented in Table 4.18 it was observed that on the basis of VO 2 max., the physical fitness of 53.3 per cent women fall in the category of high average, followed by good physical fitness (43.3%) and very few of the respondents (3.3%) falls in the category of excellent. After assessing the physical fitness of the women involved in the selected milking activity, it can be said that the physical fitness of the farm women involved in selected activity was of average level. REFERENCES Bimla, Rana, K.; et al (2001). In : International Congress on Humanizing Work and Work Environment. IIT, Mumbai. Gupta, D.D. and Singh, V.K. (1986). In : Seminar Role Of Development Programme On Socio-Economic Status Of Women held at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Ranjan, C.V. (1987). Kurukshetra. 35 (8) : 9. Singh, J.N.; et.al. (1979). India. J. Ext. Edu. 15 (3 & 4) :