Women's perception about development programmes and their participation

Abstract

The study was conducted in the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad of Karnataka State during 2018-19. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are the most disadvantaged groups of the Indian society due to socio-historical and geographical isolation and they were treated as untouchables and were low in caste hierarchy. To bring them into mainstream the government introduced several programmes for the social, economic and political upliftment. In the present study, SC/ST development programmes such considered were Self-Employment Programme (SEP), Micro Credit Scheme (MCS) and Land Purchasing Scheme (LPS). Samples were drawn from Dharwad, Gadag and Belagavi districts of Karnataka State. From each district, two Talukas were randomly selected and from each Taluka 3-4 villages were selected based on the availability of the beneficiaries. Thus total sample constitutes four hundred fifty women beneficiaries of SEP (200), MCS (200) and LPS (50). The data collected on participation, benefit availed, empowerment, problems and suggestions about development programmes with the help of self structured pre-tested interview schedule. Results of the study revealed that, 50.50 per cent of women beneficiaries were belonged to high level of overall perception of SEP followed by medium level of perception. where as in MCS 91.00 per cent of women and in LPS 98.00 per cent of women beneficiaries had medium level of perception. The over all index was found to be 67.34 in SEP, 58.73 in MCS and 52.43 in LPS. The results on level of participation in the programme showed as, d 90.50 per cent of participation in SEP, 78.50 per cent in MCS and 56.00 per cent of participation was found in LPS programmes. The overall participation index found to the extent of 76.76 per cent in SEP, 77.30 per cent in MCS and 66.14 per cent in LPS programme. With regard to empowerment of beneficiaries, 41.50 per cent were empowered in SEP programme, 84.00 per cent were empowered in MCS and 54.00 per cent were empowered in LPS programme. The over all empowerment index found to be 72.06 in SEP, 79.02 in MCS and 68.90 in LPS. Education was positively and significantly correlated with perception in all three development programmes. Age of the women was positively and significantly related with perception level of MCS programme. Correlation between participation and development programme indicated that in SEP and MCS programme were positively and significantly correlated with education of women beneficiaries. With respect to perception, regression analysis highlighted that education and age were the most contributing variables for predicting the perception of all the three programmes. With regard to participation, education and age found to be most contributing factors of SEP and MCS programme. In case of LPS programme, age was the significant predictor. Cent per cent of women beneficiaries faced the problems like more procedure and formalities in getting loan and also delay in sanctioning of loan, difficulty in repayment of loan, 88.88 per cent of women beneficiaries faced lack of transparency in implementation of programme. About 84.44 per cent of them faced problem of lack of time in repayment of the loan.