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

who show greater inclination to shoulder the sericulture responsibility
get a recognition that is reflected in crucial decision making. Some
women consciously decide not to take an active role in sericulture lest ,
they lose their men's patronage and intimacy that is possible under the
pretext of sericulture.
In some of the sericulture families, mostly of marginal and small
categories, there is a tendency to withdraw their children from schools,
on the final days of rearing, when the worms start spinning cocoons.
However, this tendency soon disappears as they gain experience and
expand their social networks and interactions. It takes a positive turn, as
they improve their standard of living in the process of successful
sericulture crops over the years. Most children going to the English
medium schools in these villages are from sericulture families, who have
improved their living status with the help of sericulture. The educated
youth in the rural areas prefer sericulture to agriculture activities, in the
event of their rural unemployment, which otherwise drives them towards
urban centres. Sericulture has created a new health consciousness and a
sense of cleanliness among the sericulturists. In quite many households,
the intervention of supernatural elements in the performance of activities
like sericulture is highly believed. This is true especially of those
sericulturists who are left with fewer resources in high risky situations
like sericulture. Some of the sericulturists tend to rationalise the
traditional beliefs like lizard killing. There are some sericulturists who
discard some beliefs after due experimentation, as for instance, the
belief related to purity and poliution.
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