Women's drudgery in firewood collection.

Abstract

While it is a commonplace that women in r-ural areas wvork jutst as harcd as men do (if ncot lharder), much of their wvork in maintenance tcasks of the fcatzily, such ais collecting> fuiel and water, cooki,u, lookig, cafter children, goes by u1nnoticed ancd unappreciated. A quick field investigactioni cnidulctd in Gujatat revealed that a substantial portion of women's wi orking time and eneryg is devoted to sulchI tasks. Among the poor-er houzseholds, difficulties in C )llectiung firewood acnd f[iel are on the increacse, increasintg( women's drudgery. People seem to be caught betwveent a prcwess of imnimiserisati.:n cauised by inicrecasing pressure o0i scarce reslorces (antid their poor command of the resources to begin with), o0i the one hand, anid the process of developnment wvhich hcas led to. valucable alternative u.ses for resouzrces so far considered waste (anid alvailable to them free of cost), on the other. Thuls, the increasing druidgery of riural wuimen is ani iniseparable part of their overall deepenbing povertly in the rural areas.