Gender Disparities in Agricultural Labour Participation: Evidences from the Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal, India

The Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal mostly depends on agriculture to nurture its economy. This is the sole sector where females are also traceable in terms of workforce participation. The prime issue of the district is that the representation of females as main agricultural labourers dropped by 1.89% against males in 2011. However, their representation as a marginal workforce is drastically rising. The study aims to determine both genders' block-wise disparity and the concentration of female agricultural labourers for censuses 2001 and 2011. The research deals with secondary data from the Primary Census Abstracts 2001 and 2011. Sopher's modified disparity index is applied to compare the gender disparity among agricultural labourers, the location quotient to indicate the concentration of female agricultural labourers, and the Duncan Segregation Index has been applied here to find out the percentage of women workers who need to change their occupation to maintain the equilibrium. The study concludes that women are found where the male workforce is absent. Besides, they mostly occupy the time slot of 0-3 months as seasonal agricultural labourers. The result of the Duncan Dissimilarity Index for main agricultural labourers is higher, showing that 10.68% of females need to change their jobs to maintain parity. While for marginal agricultural labourers, it is just 1.88%, showcasing a greater female domination in the study area. Despite females' considerable contribution to this sector, they are under-represented. That is why the study has been conducted to know the overall scenario, which will be beneficial for future research.