Estimation of the Economic Role of Gaddi Tribal Women through Market and Non-Market Work Vis-a-vis Health Status and Drudgery

摘要

In India there is little evidence of standard techniques of evaluating women's work and its contribution to the economy vis-à-vis health status and resultant drudgery. There is tendency to ascribe greater value to ‘exchange value' compared to ‘use value', that is, to ignore the unpaid household labour of women. A woman who specializes in the creation of ‘use value' through household production, rather than ‘exchange value' through paid employment is considered as ‘not working'. The study aims to estimate and compare the economic role of women and their contribution to the national output by various methodologies. Approaches: Two approaches were employed to estimate the economic role performed by respondents: i) Market Alternative Individual Function Cost method (MAIFC) and ii) Opportunity Cost method. The Market Alternative method is an accounting technique that uses the cost of purchasing comparable services in the market to determine the value of non-market work time, whereas, the opportunity cost method equates an individual's value of work in non-market activities to the value of alternative activities that are precluded by performing non-market activity. Methodology: The study was conducted in North Western Dhauladhar Himaylayan range on Gaddi Tribe population in notified ( Tribal areas notified by the government due to the differences in financial and welfare policies) Gaddi tribal area of Tehsil Bharmour, District Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India. A multi-stage purposive cum random sampling method was followed to select the study area, villages, households and respondents. A sample of 200 respondents that is, 100 employed and 100 non-employed were selected. The data were gathered using a pre-tested interview schedule. Food Consumption pattern was reported for each household by recall (24 hr) method. The quantity of food intake was evaluated on the basis of adequacy of calories in diet per consumption unit which was compared with recommended dietary allowances of Indian Council of Medical Research. Results: Minimum monthly value of non-market work for employed respondents was estimated by MAIFC at Rs. 602.10 and by the Opportunity Cost Approach at Rs. 620.12 as employed respondents spent less time in non-market work than non-employed respondents. The Market Alternative and Opportunity Cost methods did not show much difference in estimating the value of time spent in non-market work. This might be due to the fact that a majority of employees in the sample were illiterate, therefore, their revenue earning capacity was limited. In the MAIFC method, the wages of unskilled/semiskilled workers were to be imputed for value of non-market work. Tribal households consumed mostly home grown cereal based diet with sparing use of other food groups. Few employed households reported purchasing fruits and vegetables from market during the off seasons. A majority of the sample households were non-vegetarian. Conclusion: Both the methods i.e. MAIFC and opportunity cost are appropriate in the prevailing context of the study to enumerate non-market work of women.