Role of Women in Sericulture and Community Development

Abstract

In any discourse on sociology and anthropology, one fact that clearly emerges is that women can generally be trusted to perform their duties with utmost care and attention. This is more so in the case of agriculture and allied activities. No wonder women are playing a very important role in the sericulture industry. Their qualities like maternal instincts and loving care of those under their charge prove to be very helpful in the successful breeding of silk worms. The sericulture industry has opened up phenomenal employment avenues and helped women to become important players in the decision-making process—whether in the household or in the community at large. The active involvement of women is very essential for the success of the any community development initiative. This has been proved on many occasions all over the world—more so in the developing countries. For instance, the success of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Andhra Pradesh and other states of India is all due to the active role played by women. The thrust of this article is on the role of women in promotion of sericulture activities in the village, and how their participation has led to community development. Given the above backdrop, the present article is based on an empirical work undertaken in Kotha Indlu village, Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh in South India. Sericulture is an important means for generating employment, income enhancement crop enterprises, and is a most appropriate household activity. In all these activities, women have shown their mettle and performed their tasks most skillfully. In the village under study, women are playing an important role in silk rearing and processing activities. This article will endeavor to show how “sericulture,” an agro-based activity, has brought about overall development of individual households, the village, and the community at large.

The impacts and effectiveness of support for people bereaved through advanced illness: A systematic review and thematic synthesis

“… 96 The value of thematic synthesis for exploring causal mechanisms and contextual factors was well-demonstrated in this review and should be further utilised for evidence reviews of these types of complex interventions, along with more theory-driven, mixed-methods approaches such as realist synthesis. 33 , 36 …”

“… 32 , 33 In recognising this complexity and the importance of understanding participant experiences, this review is informed by the epistemological and ontological commitments of critical realism 34 , 35 and the methodological endeavours of realist and process evaluation. 36 – 38 It considers evidence from all study designs, aiming to unpack the relationships between context, mechanisms and outcome, 36 – 38 while also assessing the evidence for effectiveness.…”

Lens on Tropical Sericulture Development in Indonesia: Recent Status and Future Directions for Industry and Social Forestry

“…The proportion of labor costs for silk cultivation reaches 73.14% [ 85 ]. Sericulture business actors, especially the upstream sector in Indonesia, are still dominated by people with low levels of education, mostly at an elementary school level [ 17 , 44 , 79 , 135 ]. However, some of them have a high school or undergraduate education [ 41 , 136 ], and the majority are aged between 15 and 64 years [ 137 ].…”

“…Women play an important role in natural silk cultivation [ 142 , 143 ]. According to [ 17 , 143 , 144 ]. silk activities involve distributed gender roles through internal agreements [ 145 , 146 ], and this condition is different in each region [ 40 ].…”

“…Sericulture is a prospective and potential activity that can regularly generate higher income [ 15 , 16 ]. Apart from its ability to provide gainful employment and economic improvement for people in rural areas due to the high selling price of its products [ 15 , 16 ], sericulture also plays an important role in preventing the migration of rural people to urban areas in search of employment [ 17 , 18 ]. The silk industry is labor-intensive [ 19 ] and so provides employment for 7.9 million people in India and 20,000 weaver families in Thailand [ 20 ].…”