socio-economic profile of rubber tappers in the small holding sector

CHAPTER IV
Problems And Prospects Of Women Tappers
The socio-economic status and decision-making power of women in a society can
be assessed only by analyzing the nature of distribution of labour contribution and
benefits of production among the members. Women constitute the largest section of the
unemployed in not just urban areas but rural areas as well.
Nature of crop and social and economic factors are determinants of participation of
women in agricultural works. For example as far as plantation crops are concerned,
women participation is highest in tea because, the harvest is more or less completely
carried out by women. In smallholdings of rubber the participation of women in tapping
labour is very low. Along with the nature of crop, economic backwardness of family,
social factors, the approach of rural households to tapping job, the wage rate etc. are also
to be considered as determinants of demand and supply conditions of women tappers.
This part of study tries to understand whether the problems of women tappers are
similar to those of agricultural women workers as a whole, to see the peculiar problems
and prospects of women tappers etc. But the study has a limitation that there are only 15
women tappers in the study area. Even though a generalization with the findings from this
limited sample may have its own drawbacks, we can reach some general ideas regarding
the socio- economic status of women tappers.
Total number of agricultural labourers of Kanjirappally taluk is 11067 where 9557
are male and 1510 are females. The predominant involvement of men is vivid. Since male
domination in tapping is obvious it is clear that the need for employing females arises
under a condition of shortage of male labour as a result of their out migration and increase