Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women through Women Dairy Co-operatives: A Study of Begusarai District of Bihar

Abstract

The present study intends to establish the role of women dairy co-operative societies in socio-economic empowerment of women dairy farmers. For this purpose, the concept of Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index developed by feed the future was used. The index includes 5 Domains of Empowerment (5DE) and Gender Parity Index (GPI). Percentage of women dairy farmers disempowered across the five domains is less for the non-members when compared to the members. Also, disempowerment decreases as the herd size increases. The non-member group had a higher intensity of disempowerment when compared with that of the member group across the different herd size categories. In 25.32 per cent of member households, women had gender parity with their male counterparts while the same was 22.50 per cent in the case of non-members. Although gender parity was higher for women members still the figures were very meagre. The average empowerment gap between men and women of gender parity inadequate households were found to be more for non-member group (41.55 per cent) than member group (27.09 per cent). The Women's Empowerment Index, which indicated the empowerment achieved due to membership in WDCSs, was found to be more for members than that of non-members indicating a positive impact of Women Dairy Co-operative Societies in making the women empowered.