socio-economic status of urban women of kokrajhar …

Indian Journal of Applied Business and Economic ResearchVol. 2, No. 1, 2021 : pp. 9-28© ARF India. All Right ReservedURL : www.arfjournals.com

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To cite this article:

Pradip Brahmachary. Socio-Economic Status of Urban Women of Kokrajhar District of Assam.Indian Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 9-28

SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF URBAN WOMEN OF KOKRAJHARDISTRICT OF ASSAM

Pradip Brahmachary

Associate Professor of Economics, Dept. of Humanities & Social ScienceCentral Inatitute of Technology Kokrajhar, Kokrajhar, Assam, E-mail: [email protected]

Received : 12 February 2021; Revised : 19 February 2021;Accepted : 27 February 2021; Published : 5 June 2021

Abstract: The present paper discusses about the socio-economic status of womenliving in two urban parts of Kokrajhar District of Assam. The study is mainlybased on primary data as well as secondary data. Primary data were collected byfilling responses in structured questionnaires and for that purpose a sample of100 married women from each of the urban area was selected. The study dealswith various socio-economic indicators like sex ratio, work participation rate,literacy rate, level of education, patterns of income- expenditure etc. GenderDevelopment Index is calculated to know the relative status of men and womenon the basis of literacy rate, work participation rate and earned income. The findingof the study reveals that gender disparity is more prominent in Kokrajhar townthan that of Salakati town and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) indicatesthat women’s economic independence is significantly lower than their politicalparticipation with respect to their male counterparts.

Keywords: Sex Ratio, Work Participation Rate, Literacy Rate, Gender DevelopmentIndex, Gender Empowerment Measurement, Equally Distributed EquivalentPercentage

INTRODUCTION

Worldwide, the history of development of human society generally indicatea dominant role either instinctively played or influentially assumed by malemembers at familial, societal, national and even international levels. Theapparently hegemonistic behaviour exhibited by male members oftenstemmed from the perceived need to ensure sustainable livelihood, securityof family, and maintenance of social order. The role of female membersused to be generally relegated to supporting male members in the latter’sdischarging of duties, upbringing progeny, and maintaining familial bonds.Although this apparently discriminatory character of human social system

10 Pradip Brahmachary

may often be deemed natural in the light of observance of distinct rolesplayed by male and female members by many species of the animal kingdomof the world who live in colonies or groups or families, yet the deliberatesubversion and aberrations of the spirit of the system by male members ofthe human societies often result in the despicable phenomenon of “genderdiscrimination” of women by men which, in turn, cause bias in behaviour,conflicts amongst members, rifts in families, asymmetric development ofsocieties and stymieing growth of the nation.

With technological development, knowledge explosion and creation ofnew avenues of opportunities worldwide, many societies are opening uptheir closed systems, and are coming to terms with the realisation thatreorganisation of the control system of families by empowering womenmembers of the family to take decisions and to undertake activitiestraditionally performed by male members would be beneficial. It is alsobeing realized that the status of women in a society is a significant indicatoras well as reflector of the level of social uprightness in that society and it isby and large determined by the active roles played by women in variousspheres of life.

The discourse on the status of women in India is an age-oldmultidimensional issue. The status of women in India has been subjectedto many great changes since ancient times. In ancient Vedic age, womenwere treated equally with men. They were enjoying equal rights, statusand opportunities like their male counterpart. However the status of womenbegan to deteriorate during late medieval period. In pre-British era, beforethe emergence of anti-colonial movement, the position of women was veryhumiliating. Under British rule, some laws were enacted to impose ban onSati Pratha, Child marriage, female infanticide, etc. in order to liberate theposition of women in Indian society.

The Constitution of the independent India not only accorded equality towomen but also empowered the State to combat discrimination againstwomen. There are many Articles in the Constitution which reiterate thecommitment of the nation towards the socio-economic development ofwomen and uphold their political rights and participation in decision making.

However, despite provisions in the Indian Constitution and legalsafeguards, women continue to be victims of exploitation, primarily due tohegemonistic attitudes of their male counterparts in the society.

The focus of the current research primarily being a community namelythe ‘Bodos’ of the north eastern region of India in the perspective of genderequality and gender discrimination, it is imperative to present an overviewof the region’s socio-economic fabrics that are inter-woven and yet distinctly

Socio-Economic Status of Urban Women of Kokrajhar District of Assam 11

positioned. India’s North East Region (NER) is a paradise of a large numberof ethnic communities represented by an innumerable variety of tribes andplains professing a wide range of beliefs, customs, cultures, languages,traditions and social systems. The NER mainly comprises of eight contiguousstates and Assam is one of them. Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)is one of the autonomous regions of Assam which came into existence in theyear 2001. The BTAD consists of four contiguous districts — Kokrajhar,Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri, administered through a council known asBodoland Territorial Council (BTC) which is situated at Kokrajhar. Theboundary of this region shares its proximity with Arunachal, West Bengal,Bhutan and other parts of Assam. The region is inhibited predominantly byBodo language speaking ethnic group, Rajbongshi, Assamese, Bengalis,Rabha, and other indigenous Mongoloid tribes. The region is industriallybackward and lagging behind the other states in respect of human capital,employment of human resources, infrastructure development etc.

When the issue of empowerment comes in north eastern perspectives,it becomes more complex due to multifaceted complex, geo-socioeconomicback ground. There is a perception that the status of bodo women is higherin comparison with the status of women in the rest of the country. Thoughthe women in this region generally enjoy greater mobility and visibilitycompared to the other parts of the country, still like their counterpart ofother region, they have also been encountering a number of specificproblems over ages such as patriarchal social system, lack of access toproductive resources, minimal participation in decision making process, alittle financial autonomy etc.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

In the light of the above, the current research was planned to investigatethe following objectives:

i) To examine the socio-economic status of women in selected urbanpart of Kokrajhar district.

ii) To examine the relative status of men and women, GenderDevelopment Indices (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure(GEM) are calculated as the broad indicators of womenempowerment.

Data and Methodology

The present study is confined to two urban part of Kokrajhar district namelyKokrajhar town and Salakati inhabited by 16,569 and 2,253 femalesrespectively (as per 2011 census). The purpose behind selecting only two


towns i.e., Kokrajhar town (most populous) and Salakati town (leastpopulous) is that they provide an outline of the rest two towns of the district,which remains uncovered in this study, so that an overview of the overallstatus of women in whole urban part of the district may emerge.

A sample of 100 women from each of the urban area is selected. All thesample women are married and preferably belong to the age group 18 to 55years. To cover about 100 respondents, the number of households may bevaried from town to town.

The present study is mainly based on primary data. Primary data arecollected by filling responses in structured questionnaires whereassecondary data are used mainly from District Census Handbook ofKokrajhar district and other government publications. Objective-wisedetailed methodology is explained as follows:

To examine the socio-economic status of the women the analysis hasbeen divided into two parts.

In the first part overall socio-economic status will be examined by usingGender Development Index (GDI) measurement. In the second part, somesocio-economic aspects like the educational status of the women, thedecision making power of the women, freedom of movement within andoutside the locality and monetary accessibility of the women will beanalyzed for knowing their present status on these aspects separately.GDIreflects the status of development of the women. GDI will be measured byconsidering two dimensions viz; social dimension and economic dimensionand it will be calculated following UNDP methodology as discussed below.

District wise GDI values are calculated separately for secondary dataas well as for primary data. In case of GDI computation on the basis ofsecondary data, social dimension is reflected by literacy rate and economicdimension is reflected by work participation rate; whereas for primary data,social dimension is reflected by literacy rate and economic dimension isreflected by earned income and work participation. GDI has been calculatedby the following three steps. Firstly, female and male indices in eachdimension are calculated according to this general formula:

ActualValue MinimumValueDimensionIndex

MaximumValue MinimumValue

Maximum and minimum value would be as per the goalposts valuegiven in Human Development Report 2005.

Secondly, the female and male indices in each dimension are combinedin a way that penalizes differences in achievement men and women. Theresulting index is calculated according to the general formula:


Equally Distributed Index={[female population share(female index 1-є)]+ [male population share (male index 1-є)]}1/1-є

Here, є measures the aversion to inequality. The value of є is the size ofthe penalty for gender inequality. The larger the value, the more heavily asociety is penalized for having inequalities. If є = 0, gender inequality is notpenalized. As є increases towards infinity, more and more weight is givento the lesser achieving group. The value 2 is used in calculating the GDI.This value places a moderate penalty on gender inequality in achievement.

Thus, the general equation becomes:1

female populationshare male populationshareEqually Distributed Index

female index male index

Equally Distributed Index gives the harmonic mean of female and maleindices. Thus GDI is the average of two component indices viz. EquallyDistributed Literacy Index (EDLI) and Equally Distributed WorkParticipation Index (EDWPI), where

Equally Distributed Literacy Index =1

female populationshare male populationshare

female literacy index male literacy index

Equally Distributed Work Participation Index =1


female work participationindex male work participationindex

Equally Distributed Income Index =1


female earnedincomeindex male work participationindex

Gender Empowerment Measurement (GEM) captures the three keyareas in the present study such as political participation, economicparticipation and power over economic resources, such that it can reflectthe political and economic status of women. For each of these above threedimensions, an Equally Distributed Equivalent Percentage (EDEP) iscalculated as a population-weighted average which is similar to the generalformula of Equally Distributed Index. Following UNDP methodology forpolitical and economic participation, the EDEP is then indexed by dividingit by 50. The rationale for this indexation is that in an ideal society, withequal empowerment of the sexes, the GEM variable would be equal 50percent, that is, women’s share would equal men’s share for each variable.


RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Regional geographical profile

Kokrajhar, an administrative district in the Bodoland Territorial Region(BTR) of the state of Assam lies in the extreme west of the state. The totalgeographical area of the district is 3,296 sq. Km that constitutes about 4percent of total geographical area ofAssam, and is pictorially presented inTable 1. The total spread of the district is divided into urban and the ruralareas of about 16.32 sq. km and 3,279.68 sq. km respectively. Out of fourtowns, Kokrajhar Municipal Board (MB) town is the most populous townhaving population of 34,136 while Salakati Census Town (CT) is the leastpopulated one with 4,863 persons as per the 2011 Census of India. As perthat Census, the total population of the district is 887,142, which is 2.84percent of State population, of which 51 percent is male and 49 percent isfemale. Out of the total population of the district, 93.8 percent inhabit therural and 6.2 percent live in the urban areas of the district. The lesspercentage of urban population indicates that most of the population dwellsin rural areas of the district. The total urban female population in the districtis 26,482 which is slightly more than 50 percent of total urban population.

Table 1: Geographical Area and Population in various Towns of Kokrajhar District

Town/District/State Area Total Population(in Sq. Km.)

Persons Males Females

Gossaigaon (TC) 4 9068 4782 4286Padmabil (CT 2.94 6874 3500 3374Kokrajhar (MB) 8.24 34136 17567 16569Salakati (CT) 1.14 4863 2610 2253Dist Urban Kokrajhar 16.32 54941 28459 26482Kokrajhar District 3296 887142 452905 434237Assam 78438 31205576 15939443 15266133

Source: Census of India 2011 and 2001, Office of the Registrar General, India

Area wise, Kokrajhar (MB) is the largest town occupying 50 percent ofthe total urban area of the district whereas Salakati (CT) is the smallesttown occupying only 7 percent of the total urban area of the district.Kokrajhar Municipal Board has total administration over 7,420 houses towhich it supplies basic amenities like water and sewerage. It is alsoauthorized to build roads within its limits and impose taxes on propertiescoming under its jurisdiction. Salakati Census Town has total administrationover 985 houses to which it supplies basic amenities like water andsewerage.


Sex Ratio

An important indicator of gender disparity is the number of females perthousand males. The district had a sex ratio of 959 which is higher than thestate sex ratio of 958 as per the Census of 2011.

The Table 2 depicts the sex ratio of four towns in the Kokrajhar districtover the period from 2001 to 2011. In 2011, out of these 4 towns, Padmabil(CT) recorded the highest sex ratio of 964, and the lowest of 863 sex ratio isseen in Salakati(CT). Padmabil (CT) has also witnessed the highest childsex ratio with 1,018 females per 1,000males in 2011. Thus, Padmabil censustown registered less gender disparity in 2011. The lowest child sex ratio of915 females per1,000 males is seen in Kokrajhar (MB).

It is observed from the table that the aggregate sex ratio of all towns inthe district was 931 as per census 2011where as in 2001 it was 887. Thus, theaggregate sex ratio of all the towns has increased by 44 females per 1,000males during the period 2001 to 2011. The highest change in sex ratio wasobserved in Salakati (CT) town and the lowest change is observed inGossaigaon town during a decade of 2001 to 2011.Though a positive changein sex ratio of all the towns indicates an increase in number of femalepopulation per 1,000 male population during the years from 2001 to 2011,the overall trend of the sex ratio of the various towns of the Kokrajhardistrict has remained unfavourable towards the female population.

Literacy rate

Women’s access to education which is one of the important sources ofempowerment can be measured by gender gap in literacy rates. Table 3describes the numbers of literates, illiterates and literacy rate(excludingchildren under 6 years of age) by sex in towns of Kokrajhar district. In thedistrict, the number of literates in urban is 43415, which is 79 percent of the

Table 2: Sex Ratio in Towns of Kokrajhar District

Town/District/State Sex Ratio Child Sex Sex Ratio Change in Sex(2011) Ratio (2011) (2001) ratio

for 0-6 age group

Gossaigaon (TC) 896 963 882 14Padmabil (CT) 964 1018 0 -Kokrajhar (MB) 943 915 906 37Salakati (CT) 863 986 813 50Dist(Urban) Kokrajhar 931 947 887 44Kokrajhar District (Rural+Urban) 959 954 946 13Assam 958 962 932 26

Source: Census of India 2011 and 2001, Office of the Registrar General, India


Tab

le 3

: Nu

mb

er o

f L

iter

ates

, Ill

iter

ates

(al

ong

wit

h p

erce

nta

ge m

enti

oned

in

bra

ces)

an

d L

iter

acy

Rat

e in

Tow

ns

of K

okra

jhar

Dis

tric

t

Tow

n/D

ist

No.

of L

iter

ates

No.

of I

llite

rate

sLi

tera

cy R

ate

Lite

racy

Gap

Pers

ons

Mal

esFe

mal

esPe

rson

sM

ales

Fem

ales

Pers

ons

Mal

esFe

mal

es

Gos

saig

aon

(TC

)73

0740

2932

7817

6175

310

0890

.21

93.9

486

.01

7.93

(80.

58)

(84.

25)

(76.

48)

(19.

42)

(15.

75)

(23.

52)

Padm

abil

(CT)

4893

2664

2229

1981

836

1145

81.6

086

.95

76.0

810

.87

(71.

18)

(76.

11)

(66.

06)

(28.

82)

(23.

89)

(33.

94)

Kok

rajh

ar (

MB)

2792

314

929

1299

462

1326

3835

7589

.96

93.5

986

.11

7.48

(81.

80)

(84.

98)

(78.

42)

(18.

20)

(15.

02)

(21.

58)

Sala

kati

(C

T)32

9219

4013

5215

7167

090

176

.93

83.7

768

.87

14.9

(67.

69)

(74.

33)

(60.

01)

(32.

31)

(25.

67)

(39.

99)

Dis

t U

rban

Kok

rajh

ar43

415

2356

219

853

1152

648

9766

2987

.86

91.9

783

.44

8.53

(79.

02)

(82.

79)

(74.

97)

(20.

98)

(17.

21)

(25.

03)

Kok

rajh

arD

ist

4893

0527

5220

2140

8539

7837

1776

8522

0152

65.2

271

.89

58.2

713

.62

(Urb

an+R

ural

)(5

5.16

)(6

0.77

)(4

9.30

)(4

4.84

)(3

9.23

)(5

0.70

)

Sour

ce:

Cen

sus

of I

ndia

201

1: A

ssam

, D

istr

ict

Cen

sus

Han

d B

ook,

Kok

rajh

ar P

art

A:

Vill

age

& T

own

Dir

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acce

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thr

ough

htt

p://

cens

usin

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gov.

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total urban population of which 82.79 percent are males and 74.97 percentare females. If we look at the number of illiterate persons, number of maleilliterates surpasses the female illiterates in the case of all four towns aswell as the district as an aggregate. Among the towns in the district,Kokrajhar (MB) recorded the highest and Salakati (CT) recorded the lowestnumber of literates as well as illiterates. In terms of literacy rate, Gossaigaon(TC) is the highest with 90.21percent and Salakati (CT) the lowest with76.93 percent. Salakati (TC) recorded the highest gap in male-female literacyrate with 14.9 percent, and the lowest is seen in Kokrajhar (MB) with 7.48percent. It is notable that the female literacy rate is much lower than maleliteracy rate in all the four town areas of Kokrajhar district. Though themale and female literacy rates of all the towns under study are much higherthan the State’s overall average, but the female literacy rates of all the townsare lagging far behind the male literacy rates. This is also clear from theliteracy gaps existing in all four towns which indicate a serious cause ofconcern as men outperform women in basic educational attainment.

Work Participation Rate

The work participation rate indicates the access of the people to the meansof livelihood (Barman and Morang, 2016). Women’s work force participationis a critical indicator of economic empowerment. Table 4 shows the numberand percentage of main workers, marginal workers and non-workers bysex in towns of the Kokrajhar district as per the Census of2011. It may beseen from this table that the percentage of total workers in all the towns is38.49 percent, with 58.31 percent males and 17.2 percent females. The mainworkers recorded 33.17 percent with 52.63 percent male and 12.26 percentfemale whereas marginal workers recorded 5.32 percent with 5.67 percentmale and 4.94 percent female. Among the towns Salakati (CT) recorded thehighest percentage of total worker with 47.93 percent, and the lowest isseen in Padmabil (CT) with 32.38 percent. In main-workers category thehighest percentage is seen in Salakati (CT) with 42.69 percent and the lowestis seen in Padmabil (CT) with 25.55 percent. In marginal-workers categorythe highest percentage is seen in Padmabil (CT) with 6.84 percent and thelowest is seen in Gossaigaon (TC) with 2.53 percent. Looking at the male-female participation, huge variation is observed in the category of mainworkers in case of aggregate urban areas of the district as well as in all fourtowns. In case of all the towns, much differences are not observed betweenmale-female segregation in the case of marginal workers but a significantvariation is observed in main workers category which ultimately leads tocolossal variation in male-female in case of total worker category which inthe end leads to the conclusion that female work participation rate is far


Tab

le 4

: Dis

trib

uti

on o

f W

ork

ers

and

Wor

k P

arti

cip

atio

n R

ate

by

sex

in T

own

s of

Kok

rajh

ar D

istr

ict

- 20

11(P

erce

nta

ge o

f w

ork

ers

men

tion

ed i

n b

race

s)

Mai

n W

orke

rsM

argi

nal W

orke

rsTo

tal W

orke

rsW

ork

Part

icip

atio

n R

ate

Tow

n/D

ist

Pers

ons

Mal

eFe

mal

ePe

rson

sM

ale

Fem

ale

Pers

ons

Mal

eFe

mal

ePe

rson

sM

ale

Fem

ale

Gos

saig

aon

(TC

)29

9025

9939

122

912

010

932

1927

1950

035

.50

56.8

611

.67

(32.

97)

(54.

35)

(9.1

2)(2

.53)

(2.5

1)(2

.54)

(35.

50)

(56.

86)

(11.

67)

Padm

abil

(CT

1756

1515

241

470

291

179

2226

1806

420

32.3

851

.60

12.4

5(2

5.55

)(4

3.29

)(7

.14)

(6.8

4)(8

.31)

(5.3

1)(3

2.38

)(5

1.60

)(1

2.45

)K

okra

jhar

(M

B)11

403

9374

2029

1969

1059

910

1337

210

433

2939

39.1

759

.39

17.7

4(3

3.40

)(5

3.36

)(1

2.25

)(5

.77)

(6.0

3)(5

.49)

(39.

17)

(59.

39)

(17.

74)

Sala

kati

(C

T)20

7614

9158

525

514

511

023

3116

3669

547

.93

62.6

830

.85

(42.

69)

(57.

13)

(25.

97)

(5.2

4)(5

.56)

(4.8

8)(4

7.93

)(6

2.68

)(3

0.85

)D

ist

Urb

an K

okra

jhar

1822

514

979

3246

2923

1615

1308

2114

816

594

4554

38.4

958

.31

17.2

0(3

3.17

)(5

2.63

)(1

2.26

)(5

.32)

(5.6

7)(4

.94)

(38.

49)

(58.

31)

(17.

20)

Kok

rajh

arD

ist

2531

1019

8804

5430

688

021

3751

850

503

3411

3123

6322

1048

0938

.552

.224

.1(2

8.53

)(4

3.90

)(1

2.51

)(9

.92)

(8.2

8)(1

1.6)

(38.

45)

(52.

18)

(24.

14)

Sour

ce:

Cen

sus

of In

dia

2011

: Ass

am, D

istr

ict C

ensu

s H

and

Book

, Kok

rajh

ar P

art A

& P

art B

: Vill

age

& T

own

Dir

ecto

ry (a

cces

sed

thro

ugh

http

://c

ensu

sind

ia.g

ov.in

)


Tab

le 5

: Per

cen

tage

dis

trib

uti

on o

f th

e ca

tego

rica

l va

riab

les

of t

he

sam

ple

res

pon

den

ts

Var

iabl

eC

ateg

ory

Kok

rajh

ar (

MB)

Tow

nSa

laka

ti (

CT

) To

wn

Freq

uenc

yPe

rcen

tC

umul

ativ

eFr

eque

ncy

Perc

ent

Cum

ulat

ive

Perc

ent

Perc

ent

Rel

igio

nH

ind

uis

m82

82.0

82.0

7575

.075

.0Is

lam

1313

.095

.023

23.0

98.0

Chr

isti

an5

5.0

100.

02

2.0

100.

0O

ther

00

100.

00

010

0.0

Soci

al C

ateg

ory

Gen

eral

1616

.016

.06

6.0

6.0

SC7

7.0

23.0

1111

.017

.0ST

6565

.088

.058

60.0

67.0

OB

C12

12.0

100.

025

23.0

100.

0Fa

mily

com

posi

tion

Nu

clea

r93

92.0

92.0

8989

.089

.0E

xten

ded

78.

010

0.0

1111

.010

0.0

Age

of

resp

onde

nt<2

5 yr

s8

8.0

8.0

1616

.016

.025

-35

yrs

4141

.049

.039

39.0

55.0

36-4

5 yr

s49

49.0

98.0

3939

.094

.046

-55y

rs2

2.0

100.

06

6.0

100.

0M

arit

al s

tatu

sM

arri

ed95

95.0

95.0

9696

.096

.0D

ivor

ced

44.

099

.01

1.0

97.0

Wid

ow1

1.0

100.

03

3.0

100.

0O

ccu

pati

onN

il7

7.0

7.0

5353

.053

.0A

gicu

ltur

e5

5.0

12.0

1010

.063

.0Se

lf E

mp

loye

d14

14.0

26.0

99.

072

.0B

usin

ess

3939

.065

.012

12.0

84.0

Serv

ice

3232

.097

.010

10.0

94.0

Oth

ers

33.

010

0.0

66.

010

0.0

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

, Ju

ne, 2

018-

Dec

, 202

0


lower than male work participation rate. This implies that low workparticipation rate of female is an indication of less women’s participationin economic activities.

Descriptive Analysis of respondent women and Surveyed Households

In this section results of an empirical study are presented. In order to carryout this empirical analysis a primary level household survey was conductedin two selected towns of Kokrajhar district of Assam. From this survey andfield observations information about socio-economic and demographiccharacteristics of households of the study areas was collected. The empiricalstudy is based on information collected from 200 households, 100 each fromtwo selected towns surveyed during the period 2018-19.

From Table 5, it is clear that majority of the respondents and theirhouseholds of both the selected towns are Hindu. Sample households belongto Islam emerges second religious group whereas number of Christianrespondents is minimal. In case of social category, the number of Scheduletribe respondent is much higher than any other category (65 percent and 60percent respectively). This is so because the areas under study are tribaldominated. As the sample survey covers only married women belong toage group 18-55 years, the number of married respondents in both thesample towns is significantly high where as the number of divorcee andwidow is almost negligible. Moreover, maximum number of respondentsbelongs to age group of 36-45 years. Regarding occupation status, 39 percentof women are engaged in business activities, where as 32 percent are jobholders in Kokrajhar (MB). On the other hand, in Salakti (CT) more than 50percent women are not engaged in any economic activities. This meansthat as far as occupation status is concerned, women in Salakati town areless empowered than their counterpart in Kokrajhar (MB) town.

Demographic Characteristics of the Surveyed Population

From Table 6, it may be seen that on an average each family of Kokrajar(MB) town has 3.69 members while maximum number in a family is 7. Thistable shows that the half of the sample families has more than 1 child. Theaverage age of respondents in Kokrajar (MB) town is 37.22 years while theaverage age of respondents’ husband is 40.99 years which results in 3.77years spousal age gap. The high values of Standard Deviation (SD) for‘Duration of marriage’ and ‘Age at marriage time’ reflect wide variation inthese two demographic characteristics. The average dependency ratio is44.93 percent. This means that almost half of the family members on averagedepend on others for their bread and butter.


Tab

le 6

: Rel

evan

t D

emog

rap

hic

pro

file

of

sam

ple

hou

seh

old

s of

Kok

rajh

ar T

own

Des

crip

tive

Fam

ily s

ize

Num

ber

ofA

ge o

fA

ge o

fSp

ousa

l age

(in

Yea

rs)

Age

at

Dep

ende

ncy

stat

isti

cs(i

n N

umbe

r)ch

ildre

n R

espo

nden

tH

usba

ndga

pm

arri

age

tim

eR

atio

(%)

(in

Yea

rs)

(in

Yea

rs)

(in

Yea

rs)

(in

Yea

rs)

Mea

n3.

691.

0937

.22

40.9

93.

7711

.85

25.3

744

.928

57M

edia

n4

155

6010

1224

.550

Max

73

2140

031

3910

0M

in2

037

423

118

0SD

1.06

480.

5495

9.90

0110

.203

42.

3145

417.

2688

284.

7405

817

.725

31

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

, Ju

ne, 2

018-

Dec

, 202

0

Tab

le 7

: Rel

evan

t D

emog

rap

hic

pro

file

of

sam

ple

hou

seh

old

s of

Sal

akat

i T

own

Des

crip

tive

Fam

ily s

ize

Num

ber

ofA

geA

ge o

fSp

ousa

l age

Dur

atio

n of

Age

at

Dep

ende

ncy

stat

isti

cs (

in N

umbe

r)ch

ildre

n(i

n Y

ears

) H

usba

ndga

pm

arri

age

mar

riag

e ti

me

Rat

io (%

)(i

n Y

ears

)(i

n Y

ears

) (i

n Y

ears

) (i

n Y

ears

)

Mea

n5

1.46

3237

48

2553

.522

9M

edia

n5

132

354

725

60M

ax8

351

5812

2636

100

Min

20

2024

-20

180

SD1.

6941

070.

787.

0306

7.11

772.

2517

4.91

913.

6874

20.7

663

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

, Ju

ne, 2

018-

Dec

, 202

0


It is also clear from Table 7 that on an average each family of Salakati(CT) town has 5 members while maximum number in a family is 8 and theminimum is 2. It is also obvious that the half of the sample families hasonly 1 child. The average age of respondents in Kokrajar (MB) town is 32years while the average age of respondents’ husband is 37 years whichresults in 4 years spousal age gap. The high values of Standard Deviation(SD) for ‘Duration of marriage’ and ‘Age at marriage time’ reflect widevariation in these two demographic characteristics; but these variations areless than that of Kokrajhar town.

The average dependency ratio is 53.52 percent. This means that morethan half of the family members on average depend on other for their breadand butter.

Education status of Sample Households

Educational status is an important aspect under the social status of womenempowerment. Table 8 reveals the status of education between womenrespondents and their husbands. It is clear that all the respondent womenand their respective husbands belong to both the towns had receivedminimum formal education. In the case of higher education, wives are foundmore educated than their husbands in both the towns. In Kokrajhar (MB)town, the percentage of men having middle, high and higher secondaryeducation is more than their female counterparts. But in Salakati (CT) townthe percentage of women having high and higher secondary education ismore than their male counterparts. Thus, women of Salakati (CT) town arefound as being more qualified than their male counterparts in comparisonto women of Kokrajhar (MB) town.

Table 9 and Table 10 describe income-expenditure figures of samplehouseholds of Kokrajhar (MB) and Salakati (CT) town respectively. Theaverage monthly per capita income of the families is more than their medianof monthly per capita income (PCI) in both the towns. This means that themajority of the sample households lies above poverty line. The maximum,minimum and Standard Deviation values indicate that the variations inmonthly PCI in Kokrajhar town are relatively higher than that of Salakatitown. In case of expenditure under various heads, families of both townsspend relatively more on food and less on fuel. The differences betweenmonthly PCI and monthly per capita consumption expenditure indicatethat most of the households have the tendency of saving a part of theirincome.

Thus, it may be concluded from the income as well as expenditurepatterns of surveyed households that the focus would be to examine the


Tab

le 8

: Ed

uca

tion

al S

tatu

s of

Wom

en R

esp

ond

ents

an

d t

hei

r H

usb

and

s (i

n p

erce

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ge)

Tow

nsR

espo

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t W

oman

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No

form

alPr

i-m

ary

Mid

dle

Hig

hH

.S.

Gra

duat

e &

No

form

alPr

imar

yM

iddl

eH

igh

H.S

.G

radu

ate

&ab

ove

abo

ve

Kok

rajh

ar T

own

07.

015

.036

.027

.015

.00

4.0

22.0

37.0

30.0

7.0

Sala

kati

Tow

n0

16.0

26.0

35.0

20.0

3.0

016

.051

.028

.05.

00

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

, Ju

ne, 2

018-

Dec

, 202

0

Tab

le 9

: In

com

e-E

xpen

dit

ure

(in

Rs.

) ch

arac

teri

stic

s of

sam

ple

hou

seh

old

s of

Kok

rajh

ar T

own

Des

crip

tive

PC

IM

onth

ly E

xpM

onth

lyM

onth

lyM

onth

ly E

xpM

onth

lyM

onth

lyPe

r C

apit

ast

atis

tics

(mon

thly

) o

n E

dnEx

p fu

elEx

p fo

od h

ealt

hEx

p te

leM

isc

cons

um e

xp(m

onth

ly)

Mea

n16

431.

1740

66.0

018

62.0

015

000.

0078

45.0

033

60.0

011

395.

0012

115.

00M

edia

n15

000.

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00.0

020

00.0

015

000.

0080

00.0

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010

000.

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000.

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000.

0025

000.

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00.0

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000.

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in33

33.3

30

500.

0050

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080

0.00

500.

0050

0.00

2950

.00

SD85

88.9

936

82.0

1667

0.34

5035

.87

3966

.65

1690

.56

5717

.21

4682

.94

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

, Ju

ne, 2

018-

Dec

, 202

0


Tab

le 1

0: I

nco

me

Exp

end

itu

re (

in R

s.)

char

acte

rist

ics

of s

amp

le h

ouse

hol

ds

of S

alak

ati

Tow

n

Des

crip

tive

Mon

thly

Mon

thly

Exp

Mon

thly

Exp

Mon

thly

Exp

Mon

thly

Exp

Mon

thly

Exp

Mon

thly

Mis

cPe

r C

apit

ast

atis

tics

PC

Ion

Edn

on fu

elon

food

on h

ealt

hon

pho

neex

pco

nsum

exp

(mon

thly

)

Mea

n89

05.2

940

12.0

021

10.0

014

010.

0061

25.0

028

32.0

078

80.0

079

43.5

8M

edia

n83

09.2

940

00.0

020

00.0

015

000.

0060

00.0

030

00.0

080

00.0

074

16.6

7M

ax25

000

1000

0.00

4000

.00

2200

0.00

1200

0.00

5000

.00

2000

0.00

2050

0.00

Min

2500

.00

080

0.00

6000

.00

1000

.00

500.

0010

00.0

053

4.65

SD39

05.3

2439

.77

787.

8537

61.6

426

81.7

712

82.8

037

07.5

131

67.7

7

Sour

ce:

Cal

cula

ted

from

the

dat

a of

pri

mar

y su

rvey

June

, 201

8-D

ec, 2

020


empowerment status of women of middle income grouped society of thetwo selected towns.

Construction of Gender Development Index (GDI)

In this section, an attempt is made to construct town-wise GenderDevelopment Index (GDI) on the basis of available secondary data andinformation collected from surveyed data as shown in Table 11. In fact, theGDI is a gender-inequality adjusted measure of overall human development(Klasen and Schuler, 2009) and is calculated to know the relative socio-economic status of men and women. In Table 11, the Equally DistributedLiteracy Index (EDLI) and the Equally Distributed Work Participation Index(EDWPI) were first calculated on the basis of Census data of 2011, separatelyfor both the towns, and then GDI was calculated by taking the average ofthese two indices. Thereafter Equally Distributed Income Index (EDII) andEqually Distributed Economic Index (EDEI) in additon to EDLI and EDWPIwere calculated on the basis of primary data (the procedures of calculationare elaborately discussed in methodology part). EDEI is the average ofEDWPI and EDII whereas GDI is the average of EDLI and EDEI.

Table 11: Town wise Gender Development Index in Kokrajhar District

Town Calculated on the basis of Calculated on the basis ofSecondary Data Primary Data Rank

EDLI EDWPI GDI EDLI EDWPI EDII EDEI GDI

Kokrajhar 0.29133 0.10573 0.19853 0.97542 0.34737 0.49499 0.42118 0.69830 1(MB)Salakati (CT) 0.23481 0.13882 0.18681 0.94457 0.33686 0.40406 0.37046 0.65751 2

Source: Calculated on the basis secondary data collected from census 2011 as well as from thedata of primary survey, June, 2018-Dec, 2020Income indicator is considered as PPP US$. Income in terms of Rs. is converted to US$(1 US $ = Rs. 76.48 as on April, 2020).The goal post values are considered from the Human Development Report 2005

Table 12: Calculation of Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) based on Primary Data

Town EDEP EDEP (Work EDEP GEM Rank(Political participation) Participation) (Income)

Kokrajhar MB) 1.65267 0.69474 0.04164 0.79635 1Salakati (CT) 1.36719 0.67372 0.01721 0.68604 2

Source: Calculated from the data of primary survey, June, 2018-Dec, 2020Income indicator is considered as PPP US$. Income in terms of Rs. is converted to US$(1 US $ = Rs. 76.48 as on 12th April, 2020).The goal post values are considered from the Human Development Report 2005


It may be observed from the Table 11 that there is a wide differencebetween Equally Distributed Literacy Index (EDLI) and Equally DistributedWork Participation Index (EDWPI) in two towns as far as secondary andprimary data are concerned. The EDLI values are much higher than EDWPIof which means that most of the literate women in these two towns arehaving very low work participation rate. When towns are ranked as perGDI value it is clear that Kokrajhar (MB) town is ahead of Salakati (CT)town. In other words, women in Salakati (CT) town are relativelyunderprivileged in respect of literacy rate, work participation rate andearned income.The high values of Equally Distributed Indices calculatedon the basis of primary data indicate that gender inequality in education iscomparatively very high.

The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), an index that focuses onthree variables that reflects women’s participation in political decision-making, their access to professional opportunities and their earning poweris calculated in Table 12. It is observed that gender empowerment isrelatively high in both the towns. The Equally Distributed EquivalentPercentage (EDEP) of political participation is very high compared to thatof work participation and income. The Equally Distributed EquivalentPercentage (EDEP) of income is very low in all the areas which in turnresults in lowering the value of GEM. This means that women’s economicindependence is significantly lower than their political participation withrespect to their male counterparts.

CONCLUSION

In recent perspectives, empowerment of women has become a serious areaof study. In fact, empowerment of women is a social-political idealenvisioned in relation to the wider framework of women’s rights. It wouldbe achieved only when advancement in the conditions of women isaccompanied by their ability to influence the direction of social changegained through equal opportunities in economic, social and political spheresof life. In light of results and analyses appeared above, the findings of thestudy can be summarized as follows:

1. Sex ratio in selected towns is well below District’s aggregate sexrato. This brings out the fact that there are less number of womenper 1000 men in the area under study which is not at all a healthytrend for any society.

2. There exists significant gap between male and female literacy ratewhich indicates that a significant number of women are devoid ofgetting basic education facility.


3. In case of work participation rate female work participation rate isfar lower than male work participation rate which is an indicationof less women’s participation in economic activities.

4. The percentage of bodo and non-bodo women in Kokrajhar townwas 65 and 35 percent respectably whereas in Salakati town itwas and 60 and 40 percent respectively. This is so because theareas under study are tribal dominated and therefore status ofwomen can’t be analysed separately for bodo and non-bodowomen.

5. Incidents of less domestic violence in both the towns indicate thatwomen are not physically humiliated.

6. It is observed that there is a wide difference between EquallyDistributed Literacy Index (EDLI) and Equally Distributed WorkParticipation Index (EDWPI) in two towns. The EDLI values aremuch higher than EDWPI which means that most of the literatewomen in these two towns are having very low work participationrate. If we rank towns as per GDI value it is clear that Kokrajhar(MB) town is ahead of Salakati (CT) town. In other words, genderdisparity is more prominent in Kokrajhar town with respect toliteracy rate, work participation rate and earned income.

7. The various components of GEM reveal that women’s economicindependence is significantly lower than their political participationwith respect to their male counterparts in case of both the towns.The greater GEM value of Kokrajhar town divulges the fact thatwomen of Kokrajhar are more empowered than their counterpartof salakati town.

8. In case of educational qualification, though the total number ofhighly qualified women is more in Kokrajhar (MB) but the womenof Salakati (CT) are found as being more qualified than their malecounterparts in comparison to women of Kokrajhar (MB) town.

Acknowledgement

This paper is an outcome of the project work funded by ICSSR New Delhi vide F/NoF/NO 02/15/2017-18/RP/Major. The author is thankful to the funding agency forawarding and sponsoring the project and his institution Central Institute of TechnologyKokrajhar for providing necessary support while carrying out this project work.

References

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Shiba Ram Narzary, (2014). ”Empowerment of Bodo Women in Kokrajhar District ofAssam” accessed from (http://www.academia.edu/27484960/Empowerment_of_Bodo_Women_in_Kokrajhar_District_of_Assam_India on 29th Aug, 2017)

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