DEVOLUTION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT - Vasundhara

Income from selling NTFPs and wages earned by women are controlled by thewomen themselves. They spend such income on food, new clothes and buying paddy.The decision of spending income on most items is taken jointly by the husband andwife. The degree of freedom of making decisions by the female members of the houseincreases as we move from the higher to the lower castes. Women of lower castes, ascompared to ones in the upper castes play a much larger role in supporting theirfamily financially. Almost all women from the lower caste families like Harijan,Gauda, Dhanuar, Kisan, Mochi, etc. go to work as labourers. As already mentionedthey also carry out the sale of forest products. So they exercise a greater control overtheir earned income and influence decisions in the family.15