Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Abha Singh, Pragya Ojha, Sumant Pratap Singh and Namita Joshi

Abstract:
Women constitute about 50% of total population, yet their status in the society pitiable. They put in 15 hours of work daily but their wages are less than men. The income generation activities undertaken by women are yet to prove its impact on them or it is more a self employment activity rather than a substantial source of income. Therefore there is a need to study if these micro income generating activities provide empowerment to rural women. The objective of this study is to find out if income generating activities under taken by rural women have increased their participation in decision making process. In this study income generating activity has been treated as independent variable and women empowerment as dependent variable. The study was conducted in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and both income generating and non income generating 150 women from each group were selected as sample. The pace of empowerment may be due to small amount of income generated. As a result of this, U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) government initiated several projects. Under this scheme women are encouraged to undertake some income generating programmes to raise their income which will their self confidence, bargaining power, promote stronger household food security and investment in children’s schooling. From review paste researchers and personal experiences the following model is designed to show how women empowerment takes place. A similar model was tested by Estudillo and Esutka 1988, but model differs in measuring empowerment in terms of women participation in decision making. The study revealed that income earned by women has improved their status and empowerment is taken place but the speed of empowerment is slow.