Bidisha Mahanta
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, DoomDooma College. Email: sonmoni_mahanta@yahoo.co.in
Volume 12, Number 1, January-March, 2020 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n1.26
Abstract
The present paper aims to analyse the status of gender gap among the BPL households of Panitola Block of Dibrugarh District of Assam. The target households are divided into two groups –village and tea gardens and then compared the gender gap status of the two groups using indicators like education, employment, political participation, household decision making and attitude towards unequal gender role. The study reveals that gender gap exists in areas like education and employment. However gaps in educational attainment and employment are more in village households as compared to tea garden households. In household decision making also gender gap exists and it is more prominent in tea garden. However in regard of political empowerment, not a single person of the study area is a member of even the Gaon Panchayat. So their political empowerment is analyzed through their participation in political process merely by casting vote. All the respondents from the study area show negative attitude towards unequal gender role and reported that they do not support wife beating and treat both male and female child equally. From the study we have found that tea garden women are more empowered than village women as less gender gap prevails in tea garden as compared to village.
Keywords: BPL, Village, tea garden, Gender gap, Gender disparity