Research Study on Factors Facilitating Participation of Women in ...

Factors Facilitating Participation of Women in Mahatma Gandhi NREGS 57attending social gatherings, visiting relatives, agricultural activities,participation in labour, village development organisations/PRI, ruraldevelopment programmes etc. Information was also sought from respondentswhether the decision was taken by respondent alone, or respondent alongwith husband or others in household jointly or only husband/ others in thehousehold. Results are presented in Table 5.15. Regarding food and clothing,women had a good say across all sample districts. In the areas pertainingto children like their education, health, marriages etc., it was the respondentalong with husband who usually took the decisions. With slight variations,the same trend is observed across sample districts. In Gaya district of Biharand South 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal, there are cases where onlyhusband/other members in the household took decisions on matters relatingto children. Attending social gatherings, visiting relatives and expenditureon self are areas, where decisions were taken either by self or jointly alongwith the husband / other household members.To construct the index of women’s participation in household decision(IWPHD), simple scoring procedure is adopted. Technical note giving detailsis attached (annexure-I).Weights of 2,1 and 0 are assigned to responses if woman is decisionmaker, both woman and her husband are jointly taking decisions and womanis not part of decision making, respectively.2(IWPHD) jfor an item, j = Σ W iP i/ 2i = 0where W iare weights : 0,1 and 2P iare percentage of responses in each category.14The overall index of Women’s Participation Σin Household Decisions = i = 1 (IWPHD) j/ 140