PATIALA: After studying in-depth the exploitation of women labourers in rural Punjab, especially the dalits, a team from Punjabi University in Patiala has laid bare some startling facts about the high debts, sexual exploitation, gender disparity, caste discrimination and exclusion from the political process of these women.
The study ‘Socio-Economic Conditions and Political Participation of Rural Women Labourers in Punjab’ by Professor Gian Singh, an expert on rural economics, along with his team, Dharampal, Gurinder Kaur, Veerpal Kaur and Jyoti, highlighted the plight of rural women labourers in the state and will help policy makers take informed decision.
According to the study, 92% of the rural women labourers are dalits, 7.08 % come from other backward castes and the remaining are from the general category. The researchers have collected primary data from 1,017 households across 12 districts of Punjab and it revealed that women labourers were suffering as a direct consequence of the agrarian crisis that gripped the state.
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