SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

Table 6.1 presents the distribution of different types of families
among sericulture households. Sericulture is predominantly practised
among nuclear families followed by matro-nuclear families. However,
looking at the proportion of these families in the village as a whole, there
do not seem to be any definite preference for these types of families.
Sericulture is not, however, totally new to the extended family types.
With extensive labour requirements in sericulture, the extended family
types, which include more than one nuclear unit, either at the lineal.
lateral or mixed levels, may seem to be appropriate for sericulture. In
reality, no absolute preference is seen for extended families too. There
are hardly any mixed extended families (which include both lineal and
lateral nuclear units), in the rural scenario today.
There has been just one mixed extended family in Seripura,
which has also adopted sericulture. There were two cases in M R Pura.
In such cases, the activity, however, involves some kind of division of
labour at different levels mainly based on the individual's interests and
inclination. This, in effect, takes away or reduces the labour advantage
of extended families. Thus, sericulture in such families is an activity
exclusively of one of the nuclear units or of the unmarried sibling within
the extended family. In most of the cases, there would, however, be a
supportive involvement of the parents, especially of the mother. The
others would actively involve in farm or non-farm activities with a least
involvement in sericulture. While this is true of families in M R Pura,
the participation of a majority of the members is evident in the case of
Seripura.
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