In a recent Research Note, Yoshifumi Usami and I had examined women’s work in livestock and animal rearing, and we had argued that women constitute the primary work force in the animal resources sector (Swaminathan and Usami 2016). While we had data on the number of women participating in animal rearing activity, we did not have information on the time spent in animal care. Information on these lines is now available from a pilot time-use survey conducted last week in Siresandra village, Kolar district, Karnataka.

Siresandra was surveyed in 2009 by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (Swaminathan and Das 2017). As part of a project on Women in Agriculture and Rural Production in India, the Foundation for Agrarian Studies has begun a time-use survey in selected villages. A part of the questionnaire canvassed among working women is a labour diary. A pilot survey, in which we tested the questionnaire, was conducted from May 11 through 19, 2017, in Siresandra. The survey covered 14 women from different socioeconomic classes. They were interviewed several times a day for seven days.

There were three main findings on women’s work in animal care: (a) if there are animals in a household, women were almost always engaged in animal care activity; (b) time spent on animal rearing ranged from two to eight hours a day; and (c) animal care involved physical activity, including strenuous manual labour.

The following are notes from our diaries.

G belongs to a rich peasant household that owns 15 acres of land. This is a joint family with four brothers, their wives, and children, all living with the elderly parents of the four men. The eldest male is the head of household. G is his wife. The household owns five Jersey cows. After interviewing G for seven days continuously, the following are the animal rearing activities in which she is typically engaged. The tasks begin at dawn and last until nightfall.

Cleaning the area where animal are tied (outside and in a shed) and dumping cow dung and waste at a site by the side of a field: 40 minutes twice a day or a total of 80 minutes.

Milking the cows: An hour twice a day, or a total of 120 minutes.

Taking the milk to a collection spot twice a day: 20 minutes each time, or a total of 40 minutes.

Feeding the animals and giving water to them: at least twice a day, 20 minutes each time, or a minimum of 40 minutes.

In short, G spends about 4 hours and 40 minutes a day in livestock rearing.

The time she spends in animal rearing in a year is the equivalent of 213 8-hour working days.

V is a female head of household. She has two teenage children.V is alandless manual worker. She has taken a pregnant cow on lease, and will return the cow to the owner after the calf is born, but gets to keep the calf if it is female. Her main task is feeding the animal. Since she is poor, and has no land of her own, she spends about 2 hours and a half a day on animal rearing. She has to walk about half a mile in search of fodder, and the time taken to find, cut, collect, and bring fodder is about 90 minutes to two hours. Siresandra has suffered two drought years and it is not easy to find fodder. V also spends about 30 minutesto an hour a day giving feed and water to the cow, which is tied up outside her small house, and cleaning the area where it is tied, and dumping the dung by the road side.V takes care of this cow before and after her usual day of agricultural labour.

S is an elderly woman who belongs to a poor peasant household. The household owns 2 acres of crop land. Since the land is rain-fed, it has been kept fallow over the last two years of drought. S spends 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening on the collection of fodder, which is now not so easy to find in the village. She has to walk almost half a mile in search of fodder. She also spends an hour twice a day on milking the two cows and taking the milk for sale. Further, it takes an hour in total to clean the animal shed and dump the cow dung at a specified site. Feeding the cows and giving them water takes at least an hour in the day. In total, she spends almost 8 hours a day on animal-rearing activities. Twice a week, she also takes the cows to a nearby pond to bathe them, an activity that takes an hour and a half. The housework is taken care of by her unmarried daughter. The income from animal resources is of significant importance to this poor peasant household.

These three women are from different socio-economic classes, and the economic returns from livestock rearing are also different for them. G belongs to a rich peasant family and the income from sale of milk is an important contribution to the family income. V earns her daily income from wage labour but hopes to make a small additional income from her leased-in cow. For S, income from milch cattle is critical given the drought of the last two years and failure of crop cultivation.

The main point here is the urgent need to recognise the two to eight hours a day spent by women in caring for animal resources as being productive economic activity, and a contribution to household incomes and to the larger livestock economy.

References

Swaminathan, Madhura and Yoshifumi Usami, 2016, “Women’s Role in the Livestock Economy,” Review of Agrarian Studies, 6, 2.

Swaminathan, Madhura and Arindam Das (eds.), 2017, Socio-economic Surveys of Three Villages in Karnataka, Tulika Books, New Delhi.

Study team: M. Asha, Sanjukta Chakraborty, Divya Devadiga, Ritam Dutta, Ritika Goenka, Rakesh Kumar Mahato, S. Niyati, V. K. Ramachandran, T. Sivamurugan, Madhura Swaminathan, Shreya Thaker, R. Vijayamba, Vijaykumar.