Naz Nzish IJSRR 2018, 7(4), 2111-2130 Review article Available online www.ijsrr.org ISSN: 2279–0543 International Journal of Scientific Research and Reviews A Spatial Analysis of Rural Female Work Participation Rate in Moradabad District of Uttar Pradesh, India Naz Nazish Department of Geography Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Work participation rate is a key factor determining the level of socio-economic development and growth of a nation. To empower the women, it is essential to develop them economically and their economic development can be achieved by increasing their participation in workforce. In other words the empowerment of women depends on their economic activities. However The participation of women in work has increased significantly in recent years yet there is considerable disparity not only in country but also among the states, districts, even small unit like tehsils and blocks. Therefore, considering all these into mind, the present paper has been carried out to understand the spatial pattern of female work participation rate and the variations in their work participation rate among the blocks of Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. The entire work is based on secondary sources of data collected from the Research Scholar, Department of Geography Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Primary Census Abstract, census of India, 2011. The boundary of block has been taken as the smallest unit of study. The major findings of the paper reveal that the regional distribution of female work participation varies considerably across the blocks of Moradabad district. It has been observed that majority of blocks come under the low category of rural female work participation rate. KEY WORDS: Employment, Female work participation, Rural Female Workers, Occupational Category, Moradabad Districts. *Corresponding author Nazish Naz Research Scholar Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, U.P. INDIA. Email: [email protected], Mob No – 8923071196 INTRODUCTION IJSRR, 7(4) Oct. – Dec., 2018 Page 2111 Naz Nzish IJSRR 2018, 7(4), 2111-2130 Work participation plays an important role in determining the level of development and growth of a nation. The work participation rate shows the supply of labour in the economy and the composition of the human resources of the country. The analysis of the labour force participation is helpful in determining employment policy and policy formulation for human resource development. It is also very critical in poverty reduction and improving the women’s status. Women’s empowerment, which has become a need of day and a concerned, depends to great extent on their participation in economic activities. Work participation of women is considered essential for women as it enhances their economic status which ultimately strengthens their role in decision making in their households. It has been also been a signal of declining discrimination against them. In other words, the status of women is intimately connected with their economic position which depends on opportunities for participation in economic 1.Any women who in addition to her household work if engages herself in work for sale of wages or in domestic service against wage is treated as workers. REWIEW OF LITERATURE: A large number of studies focusing on the work participation rate of women, its role in their development and determinants of women work participation have been carried out by a number of scholars. Moinuddin1 attempted to explore how the education influence the women’s contribution in the working force of the country considering the fact that education is one of the strong agent of human development. Education and employment are two major factors which may contribute a lot in improving the women’s status. It is generally assumed that women’s education and work participation are positively correlated. In other words higher the education, higher the rate of employment. But, in India, the condition is reversed. In the country, the level of women’s education has improved over recent years, but their participation in work is still low. In this context, Nagaich and Sharma2 tried to develop a link between the educational condition of women and their work participation. In their study they have found that work participation of women is not increasing with the rise in status of education. There are many other factors which have been observed influencing the level of work participation rate of women greater than the education. In fact women’s employment status in our country is an outcome of the traditional attitude of society regarding the women’s household duties including the childcare, religious restriction, social norms and taboos. Several studies have identified some of the possible determinants of female work participation in India3, 4. The major findings found through these studies disclose that level of education and number of young children affects adversely women’s participation in labor force. Singariya and Shekhawat5 pointed out that literacy is one of IJSRR, 7(4) Oct. – Dec., 2018 Page 2112 Naz Nzish IJSRR 2018, 7(4), 2111-2130 the important socio-cultural variables affecting the extent and nature of women’s gainful employment. A high level of literacy is expected to have a negative impact on female employment as literacy raises the expectation of women about jobs. Bardhan6 found that lower caste and tribal women participate more in labor force than higher caste women even in rural. Likewise, Biswas7 assessed that in rural areas, the socio-economic status, cultural practices, availability of suitable occupation determine the fraction of women in work participation. He further found that people of upper caste and upper social status, having better socio- economic condition have low work participation in work while the people belonging with lower caste and lower socio-economic status have higher women work participation. The participation of rural women is higher than urban women. In rural areas, the agricultural sector requires a large number of agricultural laborers at a very cheap wages. The women, being illiterate and economically impoverished, happily agree to work at lower wages. Another reason responsible for the higher share of rural women in work is that they can perform their household duties along with their works. Moreover, agricultural and allied works do not require any special education and training as required for women works in urban areas. All of these factors contribute to raise the rural female work participation rate. In Moradabad district, the work participation rate of rural women is about 10 percent while it is only 8 percent for urban women. Thus, the ratio of rural workers exceeds of urban women workers. But the majority of the rural women are engaged in cultivation and agricultural laborers where they are paid low wages as compared to urban areas. The urban female workers are lower than rural workers, but most of them are involved in household industry and other works where they find comparatively higher wages than rural female workers. Census survey of India, 20118 divides workers in two main groups i.e. main and marginal workers. Those workers who had worked for the major part of the one year reference period of census(i.e. 6 months or more) are termed as main workers, while those workers who had not worked for the major part of the reference period (i.e. work for less than 6 months) are termed as marginal worker. Both main and marginal workers consist of the four main categories of workers (i.e. 1 2 3 4 cultivators , agricultural Labourers , household industry workers ,other workers ) 1. A person is classified as cultivator if he or she is engaged in cultivation of land owned or held from Government or held from private person on payment in money, kind or share. Cultivation includes effective supervision or direction in cultivation. Cultivation involves ploughing, sowing, harvesting and production of cereals and millet crops such as wheat, paddy, jowar, bajra, ragi, etc., and other crops such as sugarcane, tobacco, ground-nuts, IJSRR, 7(4) Oct. – Dec., 2018 Page 2113 Naz Nzish IJSRR 2018, 7(4), 2111-2130 tapioca, etc., and pulses, raw jute and kindred fiber crop, cotton, cinchona and other medicinal plants, fruit growing, vegetable growing or keeping orchards or groves, etc. Cultivation does not include the following plantation crops - tea, coffee, rubber, coconut and betel-nuts (areca). 2. A person who works on another person's land for wages in money or kind or share is regarded as an agricultural labourer. She or he has no risk in the cultivation, but merely works on another person's land for wages. 3. Household Industry is defined as an industry conducted by one or more members of the household at home or within the village in rural areas and only within the precincts of the house where the household lives in urban areas. 4. All workers, i.e., those who have been engaged in some economic activity during the last one year, but are not cultivators or agricultural labourers or in Household Industry, are 'Other Workers (OW)'. The type of workers that come under this category of 'OW' include all government servants, municipal employees, teachers, factory workers, plantation workers, those engaged in trade, commerce, business, transport, banking, mining, construction, political or social work, priests, entertainment artists, etc. It has been attempted to show the variations among the all occupational categories of rural female workers along with their total work participation rate. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 1. To analyze the spatial pattern of rural female workers in Moradabad District. 2. To inspect the regional variations in rural female work participation rate across the Moradabad districts. STUDY AREA: Moradabad districts of Uttar Pradesh has been selected for the present study The geographical location of Moradabad district lies between the parallel of 28⁰ 21’ to 29⁰ 16’ north and longitudes of 78⁰ 4’ to 79⁰ 0’ east covering an area of 3817 square kilometers.