Muslim Female Work Participation In West Bengal, India

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Muslim Female WorkParticipation In West Bengal,IndiaNazmul Hussain a & Farasat Ali Siddiqui ba Association SNAP , Kolkatab Aligarh Muslim University , AligarhPublished online: 21 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: Nazmul Hussain & Farasat Ali Siddiqui (2013) Muslim Female WorkParticipation In West Bengal, India, Women's Studies: An inter-disciplinary journal,42:3, 291-313, DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2013.764237

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Women’s Studies, 42:291–313, 2013Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0049-7878 print / 1547-7045 onlineDOI: 10.1080/00497878.2013.764237

MUSLIM FEMALE WORK PARTICIPATION IN WESTBENGAL, INDIA

NAZMUL HUSSAIN

Association SNAP, Kolkata

FARASAT ALI SIDDIQUI

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh

The human race is a two-winged bird. One wing is female the other is male.Unless both wings are equally developed, the human race will not be ableto fly. Now, more than ever; the cause of women is the cause of mankind.

—Boutros Boutros GhaliFormer Secretary General of the United Nations

Introduction

India is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-linguistic coun-try. People belonging to many religious faiths live side by side.Muslims constitute the largest minority in the country compris-ing 14 percent of the total population. Islam holds that woman isa human being and she has a soul similar to that of man. Thus,men and women were equal to each other in their origin, theirabode as well as in their place of return and were as such enti-tled to similar and equal rights. It is a matter of great sorrow thatIslam came to India in its bigoted form, especially with purdah,which becomes the prominent hallmark of feudalism with highstatus and respectability. Its enforcement became so pervasive thatany woman found without a veil was ruled as shameless and out-side of decent society (Upreti and Upreti). Purdah is prescribedin Islam and has nothing to do with status in Islam but it isthought that those who follow purdah have higher status or arepure in society. If one examines the status of Muslim women inIndia during the period of Muslim rule, one comes to know that

Address correspondence to Nazmul Hussain, Master Pada, Bhagabatipur (West),PO-Mulaibari, PS-Chanchal, Dist-Malda, 700073, West Bengal, India. E-mail: [email protected]

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292 Nazmul Hussain and Farasat Ali Siddiqui

they were treated as inferior in status and even not consideredfull persons. After the disintegration of Muslim rule, particularlythe Mughal Empire, even the status of upper-class Muslim womengot degraded. The institutions of marriage and family among theMuslims discriminate against women. Early marriage is also verycommon among the Muslims. It creates problems in acquiringeducation for women. After marriage, Muslim women are notallowed to move out without escort; as a result, they cannot con-tinue their education and their participation in other economicspheres. Divorce was commonly practiced; Muslim husbands quitefrequently did it. Polygamy was also prevalent especially amonghigh-class Muslims. Though the purdah system is treated as a markof prestige it isolated Muslim women from the outer world andconfined them to the four walls of their houses. The social and psy-chological restrictions associated with purdah continue to operatehindering their social and educational progress and hitting attheir economic independence. Women of high and well-to-dofamilies are secluded by purdah whereas the women from poorersections had to work outside their houses for their livelihood. Likewomen from other communities, Muslim women are differenti-ated across gender, class, caste, and community and are subjectedto the interface between gender and community within the Indiansocial, political, and economic context. After six decades of India’sindependence, the majority of Muslim women are still the leastliterate, economically impoverished, politically marginalized, andsocially most disadvantaged section of Indian society. This has alsorestricted Muslim women from making a significant economiccontribution either towards individual independence or towardsthe economic expenditure of the family. But there are indicationsthat the inroads of education and modernization are influencingthe Muslim women also. In metropolitan areas rigorous use ofpurdah has been relaxed to a certain extent. Young school andcollege going girls and women working in white collar jobs leavethe houses with purdah but after reaching the destination removeit (Samiuddin and Khanam).

During the British period the system of modern educationwas introduced. The Muslim community first hesitated acceptingmodern education but later acknowledged the necessity of mod-ern education though only for men. No doubt women’s educationin India has made considerable progress and even Muslim parentsare showing some interest to educate their daughters along with

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Muslim Female Work Participation 293

their sons but still their progress is painfully slow because of theirseclusion and life of submission. Even today this trend of denyingmodern scientific education to Muslim women by their own com-munity prevents the creation of critical consciousness among theMuslim women to fight for their rights and better status.

Women participate in economic activities in several ways.As home-makers and mothers, they provide unremunerated ser-vices towards caring for their family and therefore contributeindirectly to the work productivity of family earners. Their jobs areto manage the house and rear the children (Urmila). Additionally,they contribute directly to production by participating personallyin the work process as paid laborers or by supporting and supple-menting the direct work contributions of family earners throughadditional unpaid labor. Education is an indispensable means forhelping the Muslim women to come out of their economic mis-ery because economic dependency is another factor contributingto the low status of women. Illiteracy plays as a major barrier toparticipation in economic activities (Sen). Jayachandran in hisstudy found that school attendance rate is positively affected byadult literacy and female work participation whereas it is nega-tively affected by poverty, household size, caste (for girls only),and school accessibility. Other studies carried out by Kingdon,Dostie and Jayaraman, Broach and Iyar, Drèze and Kingdon,and Srinivasan and Kumar on the determinants of school par-ticipation and attainment in India acknowledge socio-religiousdifferences in the population and document the profile of educa-tional achievement by caste, religion, and gender. Some scholarssuch as Kothari, Saha and Mathur, and Malathay examined thesocio-cultural factors affecting the education and work partici-pation of women, occupational structure of population, and itsdistribution by major categories and residence are highly relevantto productivity and economic growth. Rafiullah and Siddiqui havealso analyzed this with reference to its implications in terms ofa series of independent variables. Dak, in his study “Women andWork in Society,” has concluded that social norms have not beenuniform in all sections of society and therefore two contrary trendsare clearly discernible with respect to female work participation:(i) active participation of some women in productive activities,and (ii) seclusion or abstention of some women from work. Thefemale work participation rates (FWPR) are strongly influencedby socio-economic and biological factors. In India many studies

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indicate that Hindu and Christian FWPRs are higher than theFWPRs of other religions, especially Islam. As per 2001 census,the overall (include all religious groups) FWPR at country levelis 25.62 percent whereas the Muslim Female Work ParticipationRate (MFWPR) is only 14.13 percent. In West Bengal, the MFWPRis 20.54 percent which is 16.23 percent lower than the overallFWPR (36.77 percent). The position of the Muslim female is theworst as compared to the other religious groups in India in gen-eral and in West Bengal in particular. The low level of literacy andWPR of Muslims is well documented in research studies.

It may be noted that the above cited works show the fea-tures of regional disparities in literacy and work participationrate, while as in the present study, an attempt has been madeto find out the regional disparities in Muslim female WPR andtheir influence on the level of education. The present article is anattempt to analyze the relationship between the level of Muslimfemale work participation and other socio-economic determinantsin West Bengal. It provides a broad spectrum investigation into thesocio-economic status of Muslim women in West Bengal and delvesinto the roots of their underprivileged conditions of life. This arti-cle is an effort to capture the emerging picture of female’s statusin West Bengal with special reference to Muslim women.

This article is a modest diagnostic study on employment ofMuslim women in West Bengal. To make the study more meaning-ful and comprehensive, district is considered as the smallest levelfor analysis purpose. The main objectives on the present studyare to examine the decadal trends of Muslim population growth;Muslim literacy and employment by sex and residence, and toexplain and test the interrelationship between them showing theircause and effect relationship using West Bengal as a case study.

West Bengal is one of the 28th medium-sized states situatedin the eastern part of India. It lies between 21◦ 10’ N and 27◦

38’ N latitudes and 85◦ 50’ E and 89◦ 50’ E longitudes, and com-prises 3 sub-divisions and 18 districts (Figure 1A). West Bengal isa multi-religious and multi-cultural state and still nurses the ideaof unity and diversity. The state occupies an area of 88,752 km2

with a population of 80.18 million. According to the 2001 censusof India, Muslims constitute 25.25 percent (20.24 million) com-prising of 10.46 million (51.70 percent) male and 9.75 million(48.29 percent) female. West Bengal stands fourth amongst thestates of India in terms of Muslim population.

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FIGURE 1 West Bengal: Administrative Divisions and Muslim Female WorkParticipation Rate in West Bengal.

Unfortunately the existing sources of data on the status andsocio-economic transformation of the Muslim community in Indiais inadequate, fragmentary, scattered, and disjointed. The dearthof sound data on the present status of Muslims in India as wellas on the process of empowering them in terms of affirmativeaction by the state acts as an impediment in the total under-standing of the state of affairs of the Muslim community in thecountry. In the study, the authors attempted to analyze the socio-economic aspects of Muslim working women. The present analysisis based on secondary sources of data. For this study, data havebeen obtained from the Census of India supplemented with infor-mation collected from District Statistical Handbooks. Statisticaltechniques have been used to compute and analyze data in spatialperspective at the district level. The relationships between femaleoccupational structure and female literacy rate have been exam-ined and tested with student’s’ test by SPSS-12. The values soobtained have been presented in a scattered diagram. GIS Arc

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View (Version 3.2) has also been used to construct regions basedon standard class intervals.

As far as the nature of Muslim population growth in thecontext of aggressive level and also at the disaggregate level is con-cerned, the decadal rate of population growth reveals a decliningtendency of the same in West Bengal since independence (1951–2001) with wider inter-decadal fluctuations. In fact, the decadalanalysis discloses the fact that the rate of population growth in thestate has declined from 41.82 percent in 1951–1961 to 29.55 per-cent in 1971–1981 followed by an increase to 36.89 percent during1981–1991 and again a decrease of 25.91 percent in 1991–2001.Thus it is clear that there is a substantial increase in the rate ofMuslim population growth during the period 1981–1991. In thiscontext, it is to be mentioned that during the 1980’s sizeable num-ber of tribal’s as well as Muslims from Bangladesh have reportedlymoved into West Bengal. In the state of West Bengal, the annualgrowth rate over the period of 1951–2001 has an average of4.46 percent for general population and 6.22 percent for Muslims.Therefore, we can say that the growth rate of Muslims populationis quite higher than the general population growth rate.

Sex-ratio is an important social indicator. Demographers gen-erally use to it to describe the proportionate share of female inthe population. Sex ratio is defined as number of females perthousand males. The sex ratio of population of a country or acommunity is an important indicator for measuring the extent ofprevailing equality between males and females at a given pointof time. As per census 2001, overall (combined all religions) sexratio in West Bengal is 934 i.e., one point more than the sex ratio(933) of the country. In West Bengal, the sex ratio of Muslims is933 which is one point higher than the Hindus (932) and simi-lar to the national overall sex ratio (933). Whereas at the nationallevel, the Muslim sex ratio is 936 which is two points higher thanthe state overall sex ratio (934) and three points higher than thenational overall sex ratio as well as state Muslim sex ratio (933).This feature indicates lower status of girl child in Indian soci-ety. It probably presents the position of women who have beenworsened considerably. A decline in sex ratio over the period isthe consequence of obsolete conditions of health for the survivalof women. It may be concluded that the gap between male andfemale survival rate has widened. However, the scores for sex ratio

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among Muslims are higher when compared with overall sex ratioin general. One can say that sex ratio among Muslims show edgeover Hindus both at national as well as state level. It indicates thatfactors like infanticide, feticide, child mortality rate, and practiceof child preference prevails less among Muslims than others.

Literacy and Work Participation Rate (WPR)

The Indian government has expressed a strong commitmenttowards the universalization of education. However, India is stillcharacterized by the lowest female literacy rate in Asia (Velkoff).Within this broader image of social deprivation, the literacy lev-els of Muslim men and women are further skewed towards thebottom. As per 2001 census, the literacy rate for the Muslim pop-ulation of 7 years and above is 57.47 percent, which is much lowerthan the state average literacy rate (68.64 percent). The ruralMuslim literacy rate is 55.59 percent and the urban is 66.25 per-cent (Table 1). Kaneer states that women in rural areas today tendto be treated as second class citizens, their primary responsibilitiesare to look after the family and household as well as their partici-pation in the agricultural activities. A similar trend is also observedfor the education of women in urban areas. In rural areas, themale and female literacy rate is 62.92 percent and 47.87 percent,respectively, whereas in urban areas, the corresponding figures are72.04 percent and 59.23 percent, respectively. The average gender

TABLE 1 Muslim Literacy Rate by Sex and Residence in West Bengal, 2001

Literate Illiterate

Unit of AreaLiteracy

Rate Male FemaleSex

Ratio Male FemaleSex

Ratio

West Bengal 9456400 5521860 3934540 713 3024501 3973742 1314(57.47) (64.61) (49.75) (35.39) (50.25)

Rural 7535908 4378043 3157865 721 2580598 3439117 1333(55.59) (62.92) (47.87) (37.08) (52.13)

Urban 1920492 1143817 776675 679 443903 534625 1204(66.25) (72.04) (59.23) (27.96) (40.77)

Note: Values in brackets are in percentage.Source: Census of India 2001, Religion Data, Final Population Totals, West Bengal, 2005.

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gap in the literacy rate among Muslims is 14.86 percent and inrural and urban areas, it is 15.05 and 12.81 percent, respectively.Behera argues that the importance of the education of women inthe society is as essential as a moon in a dark night. Pacione, Nuna,and Raza and Agarwal are of the opinion that the educational dis-parities (both between male–female and rural–urban areas) maybe the result of the socio-economic conditions.

The Indian government has failed to secure primary and sec-ondary education for most of its citizens and its policies havedeprived people of their right to education. Table 1 reveals thatMuslim illiteracy rate is 42.82 percent; further by sex it is 35.39 per-cent for males and 50.25 percent for females. The male illiteracyin rural areas (37.08) is about 9 percent points higher than themale illiteracy in urban areas (27.96 percent). The general sexratio among illiterate Muslims in West Bengal is 1314 and the cor-responding figures for rural and urban areas are 1333 and 1204,respectively. It may be noted that Muslim women have not beenable to take full advantage of the opportunities in the society asavailed by men. Available literature indicates that there is a closerelationship between the spread of female education and socialstatus. Safia Iqbal acknowledges this in her book Women and IslamicLaw (1999) and states that the greatest problem discerned by theMuslim women is the lack of proper knowledge of their faith.Sharma supplements Safia’s argument by arguing that becauseof this lack of knowledge, men sometimes mistreat their women.This disadvantaged educational condition of Muslim women is amatter of concern and therefore due attention should be givento it (see Table 1). The role of literacy in gearing up the educa-tional parameter of human development is well understood withrelated issues. It is the most vital parameter that leaves its imprinton economic parameters, i.e., skilled workers, their wage rate andper-capita income.

Women form an integral part of the Indian workforce. Indiais one of the developing countries where women’s participation inthe workforce continues to remain quite low both in absolute aswell as in relative terms. According to the information provided bythe Registrar General of India, the WPR for female has improvedfrom 22.27 percent in 1991 to 25.63 percent in 2001. The twoimportant aspects that need to be mentioned are: while there hasbeen an improvement in the WPR of women, it continues to be

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substantially less in comparison to the WPR of men. In 2001, theWPR for women in rural and urban areas was 30.79 percent and11.88 percent, respectively. In the rural areas, women are mainlyengaged in cultivation and also work as agricultural laborers.In the urban areas, almost 80 percent of the women workersare working in the unorganized sectors such as household indus-tries, petty trades and services, and construction work. Deshpandeand Deshpande found that about 90 percent of the women work-ers in the country are reportedly employed in the unorganizedsector characterized by low wages, high levels of insecurity ofemployment, and appallingly poor conditions of work.

Giddens says that in modern economies, it has been esti-mated that the house work is equivalent in value to about a third ofthe total production per year. Since most of women work at homeor outside the formal economy and are also unpaid. Muslim malework participation rates (MMWPR) in both rural and urban areasare fairly high whereas MFWPR is substantially low in both ruraland urban areas. Apart from the lack of work opportunities, thesocial and cultural factors viz, practice of purdah and traditionalstatus of women might have affected MFWPR. Low aggregateof MWPR is essentially due to the much lower participation ofMuslim women in workforce. One of the reasons for lower WPR ofMuslim women may be higher dependency rates due to relativelyhigher share of younger population in the community, resultingin women staying at home (GOI). This is also true for West Bengalas WPR Muslims in the state is 32.89 percent and this is lower thanthat of the general WPR in the state (36.77 percent) as well as ofthe country (39.46 percent). The gender gap observed in WPR ishigh. The sex ratio among the Muslim workers is 258. In ruralareas, the respective figure is 277 which is somewhat approxi-mate to the country average (278); whereas in urban areas, it is174 which is much lower than that of the country (227) as whole.In the rural areas, 14.66 percent women are workers whereas inurban areas; the corresponding figure is 10.48 percent. In total,about 88 percent of Muslim women in West Bengal are employedin rural areas.

Table 2 reveals that WPR of Muslim females is not as good asthat of males. In general, the male and female WPR in West Bengalis 50.52 percent and 13.99 percent, respectively. There exists awide gender gap in WPR throughout the state. The gap in WPR is

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TABLE 2 District Wise Muslim Work Participation Rate (WPR) by Sex in WestBengal, 2001

Districts Total Male Female Difference Ranks

1 Darjeeling 29.97 47.25 10.08 37.17 102 Jalpaiguri 36.12 51.27 20.02 31.25 143 Koch Bihar 36.78 52.18 20.64 31.54 134 Uttar Dinajpur 35.51 49.21 21.09 28.12 155 Dakshin Dinajpur 34.54 53.28 14.94 38.34 96 Malda 40.09 51.35 28.23 23.12 187 Murshidabad 33.52 49.64 16.69 32.95 128 Birbhum 31.89 50.91 11.91 39.00 89 Barddhaman 31.84 52.16 9.77 42.39 2

10 Nadia 33.87 54.29 12.10 42.29 311 North 24 Parganas 30.59 50.95 8.67 42.28 412 Hugli 31.81 51.61 11.14 40.47 613 Bankura 39.64 52.37 25.86 26.51 1614 Puruliya 34.48 46.27 21.88 24.39 1715 Medinipur 30.56 47.75 12.52 35.23 1116 Howra 29.53 49.51 7.57 41.94 517 Kolkata 35.11 55.70 7.24 48.46 118 South 24 Parganas 27.71 46.83 7.53 39.3 7

WEST BENGAL 32.89 50.52 13.99 36.53 −Source: Calculated from Census of India 2001, Religion Data—2005.

highest in Kolkata (48.46) followed by Barddhaman (42.39) andNadia (42.29). It may primarily be due to a high level of urbaniza-tion in the areas as compared to other parts/districts of the stateand the poor literacy and educational conditions of women whichenable them to get the chance to work. The lowest gap in WPRis recorded in Malda (23.12 percent) and Purulia (24.39 percent)and this indicates that large numbers of females are working inthe agricultural sector (as labor) and the household industry likesilk. Bidi binding is also prominent in these two districts.

Table 2 shows that the highest MFWPR is observed in Malda(28.23 percent) followed by Bankura (25.86 percent) and Puruliya(21.88 percent), whereas the lowest is observed in the Kolkatadistrict (7.24 percent). The district wise distribution of FWPRmay be arranged into three categories (Figure 1B). The dis-tricts bearing high percentage (above 20.00 percent) of MuslimFWPR are identified in two pockets. One lies in the north-ern part and includes Malda (28.23 percent), Uttar Dinajpur

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(21.09 percent), Koch Bihar (20.64 percent) and Jalpaiguri(20.02 percent) districts and the other lies in the westernpart incorporating two districts of Bankura (25.86 percent) andPurulia (21.88 percent). The districts of moderate level/mediumgrade of Muslim FWPR (10.01-20.00 percent) do not forma notable zone and the respective districts are Darjeeling(10.08 percent), Dakshin Dinajpur (14.94 percent), Murshidabad(16.69 percent), Birbhum (11.91 percent), Nadia (12.10 percent),Hugli (11.14 percent), and Mednipore (12.52 percent). The dis-tricts of low level of Muslim FWPR (below 10.00 percent) form anidentifiable region in southern part of the state. These are Howrah(7.57 percent), Kolkata (7.24 percent), and South 24 Parganas(7.53 percent). Another district of this grade is Bardwan (9.77 per-cent) lying in the central southern part of the state.

Occupational Structure of Muslim Population

The census of India has identified four major categories ofoccupations namely (a) Cultivation, (b) Agricultural Labor, (c)Household Industries, and (d) Other workers. The proportionsof workers engaged in cultivation, agricultural labor, householdindustries and other works in West Bengal are 20.30 percent,26.59 percent, 12.60 percent, and 30.84 percent, respectively(Table 3). The corresponding figures for rural areas are 24.12 per-cent, 31.53 percent, 11.54 percent, and 32.82 percent and forurban areas, the respective figures are 1.02 percent, 1.67 percent,17.99 percent, and 79.32 percent.

Table 3 shows that the percentage of Muslim females engagedin cultivation is 11.01 percent in general, 12.37 percent in rural

TABLE 3 Sex Wise Muslim Workers by Major Categories of Occupation in WestBengal, 2001

Total Rural Urban

Workers Person Male Female Person Male Female Person Male Female

Cultivation 20.30 22.70 11.01 24.12 27.37 12.37 1.02 1.03 0.94Agri. labor 26.59 28.50 19.21 31.53 34.27 21.62 1.67 1.73 1.32HH. Industries 12.60 5.79 38.95 11.54 4.41 37.31 17.99 12.24 51.11Other works 40.51 43.00 30.84 32.82 33.96 28.70 79.32 85.00 46.62

Source: Census of India 2001, Religion Data, Final Population Totals, West Bengal.

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areas, and 0.94 percent in urban areas in particular. Similarlythe total percentage of Muslim females working as agriculturallaborers is 19.21 percent. This share is 21.62 percent and 1.32 per-cent in rural and urban areas, respectively. The share of Muslimfemale in household industries in rural areas is about 37.31 per-cent, which is 13 percent points lower as compared to urban areas(51.11 percent). Total percentage of Muslim females registeredin other works is 30.84 percent and the corresponding figures forrural and urban areas are 28.70 percent and 46.11 percent, respec-tively. This indicates that in rural areas, about 60 percent or whatwe can say three out of five Muslim female workers depend on thenon-primary occupations (other than agriculture). It is as highas 97 percent in the urban areas. The reason for this high depen-dency on non-primary occupation might be traced in the religiousvalues as Muslim men don’t like their women to work in agricul-tural fields. The districts of West Bengal in terms of female workers

TABLE 4 District Wise Muslim Female by Major Occupations Groups in WestBengal, 2001

Districts Cultivation Agri. Labor HHIW∗ Other Works

1 Darjeeling 7.25 28.49 2.75 61.512 Jalpaiguri 20.34 47.55 1.99 30.123 Koch Bihar 30.77 53.32 3.29 12.614 Uttar Dinajpur 25.47 45.33 11.81 17.405 Dakshin Dinajpur 23.05 31.41 6.66 38.896 Maldah 4.88 14.16 51.42 29.537 Murshidabad 3.61 4.14 74.13 18.118 Birbhum 9.76 12.90 46.25 31.109 Barddhaman 11.39 16.83 27.53 44.25

10 Nadia 18.91 7.95 24.57 48.5711 North 24 Parganas 7.50 15.30 23.28 53.9212 Hugli 12.83 14.48 29.30 43.3913 Bankura 17.58 19.52 39.40 23.5014 Puruliya 20.07 55.50 12.46 11.9715 Medinipur 12.65 27.19 31.12 29.0416 Haora 2.50 5.24 52.01 40.2517 Kolkata 1.76 0.67 13.04 84.5318 South 24 Parganas 10.27 29.51 21.22 39.00

WEST BENGAL 11.01 19.21 38.95 30.84

Note: ∗HHIW-Household Industries Workers.Source: Computed form the Census of India 2001, Religion Data, West Bengal.

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OTHER WORKS HOUSEHOLD INDUSTRIES

CULTIVATION AGRICULTURAL LABOR

C D

BA

FIGURE 2 Occupational Composition of Muslim Women in West Bengal, 2001.

by four major occupations groups (cultivation, agricultural labor,household industry and other work) have been arranged intothree categories-high, medium and low with the help of mean andstandard deviation (Figure 2 and Table 4).

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Literacy v/s HH Industries

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FIGURE 3 Relationship between Female Literacy Rate and Female Populationby Major Occupation Groups (color figure available online).

Cultivation

The share of Muslims females in cultivation varies considerablyfrom a maximum of 30.77 percent in Koch Bihar and a mini-mum of only 1.76 percent in Kolkata. The spatial distribution ofMuslim females engaged in cultivation shows that there are sevendistricts in the state where a high percentage of Muslim females(above 17.57 percent) are engaged in cultivation. They form threezones; one lies in northern part which comprises of four districtsof Jalpaiguri (20.34 percent), Uttar Dinajpur (25.47 percent),Dakshin Dinajpur (23.05 percent), and Koch Bihar (30.77 per-cent); the second stretches out in southwestern part and includesthe districts of Puruliya (20.07 percent) and Bankura (17.58 per-cent); and the third zone lies in the central part and incorporatesthe district of Nadia (18.91 percent).

The medium level (8.42–17.57 percent) of Muslim femalesin cultivation is observed in a continuous chain from the centralto southern part of the state comprising of five districts of thestate. These districts are Birbhum (9.76 percent), Barddhaman

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(11.39 percent), Hugli (12.83 percent), Medinipur (12.65 per-cent), and South 24 Parganas (10.27 percent). The remainingsix districts in the state having a low level (below 8.42 percent)of Muslim female’s engagement in cultivation are (Darjeeling) inthe hilly region; Malda and Murshidabad in the central part andNorth 24 Parganas (7.50 percent), Howrah (2.50 percent), andthe capital (Kolkata) in the southeastern part of the state.

Agricultural Labor

The female participation in agricultural labor is 12.37 percent inthe state as whole. A high proportion (above 32.42 percent) offemales in agricultural labor is found in four districts of the state.Three of them, namely Jalpaiguri (47.55), Koch Bihar (53.32),and Uttar Dinajpur (45.33) form a continuous zone in the north-ern part and another district of this slab is Puruliya (55.50) in thesouthern part of the state. Generally, the diversity in farm hold-ing, lack of industry, low level of education, and dense populationcause an over representation in agricultural labor. The mediumproportion (17.12–32.42 percent) is found in five districts, threeof them namely, Bankura (19.52), Medinipur (27.19), and South24 Parganas (29.51) form a continuous zone in the southernpart. The other two districts of Darjeeling (28.49) and DakshinDinajpur (31.41) are far apart and they fail to constitute a notableregion. Half of the districts (9) record a low percentage (below17.12 percent) of females in agriculture labor; they form a con-tinuous region in the central part of the state (Figure 2B). Hereit may be mentioned that all these districts have a relatively highpercentage of Muslim population.

Household Industry

The highest proportion (38.95 percent) of females are engagedin household industry. Household Industry relates to the produc-tion, processing, service, repairing or making, and selling (butnot merely selling) of goods. Muslim women are employed pri-marily in the unorganized sector of household industry (i.e., inpetty trades and services, buildings and construction). Household

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industries workers are more unevenly distributed across the dis-tricts of the state. Murshidabad district shows the highest shareof females engaged in household industries with 74.13 percent,whereas Jalpaiguri is at the bottom of the scale with only 1.99 per-cent. The general trend found there is that, the districts whichhave high concentrations of Muslim population register a highproportion of females in household industry.

Five districts of the state record high share (above 36.28 per-cent) of females engaged in household industry. Three ofthem Murshidabad (74.13 percent), Malda (51.42 percent), andBirbhum (46.25 percent) form a compact zone in the centralpart of the state, where women are basically engaged in bidibinding and silk work. These districts are the Muslims domi-nant districts of the state. It may be also noted that Malda isthe only north Bengal’s district which records high proportionof females in household industry. The other two districts of thisslab are Bankura (39.40 percent) and Howrah (52.01 percent).A medium percentage share (20.09–36.28 percent) of femalesengaged in household industry is observed in six districts whichform a continuous zone in the southeastern part of the state.Whereas a low percentage (below 20.19 percent) of femalesengaged in household industry is reported in seven districts of thestate. They are Jalpaiguri (1.99 percent), Koch Bihar (3.29 per-cent), Uttar Dinajpur (11.81 percent), Darjeeling (2.75 percent),and Dakshin Dinajpur (6.66 percent) in the northern part andPuruliya (12.46 percent) in the southwestern part and Kolkata(13.04 percent) in the southern part of the state.

Other Works

This occupation stands second in terms of females’ work. It variesby district from 11.97 percent in Purulia to 80.53 percent in theKolkata district. The high percentage of Muslim females in otherworks is due to their poor economic conditions, which forcethem to take up any kind of work which come in their way asthis (other works) category includes innumerable kind of works,all government servants, municipal employees, teachers, factoryworkers, plantation workers, those engaged in trade, commerce,business, transport, banking, mining, construction, political or

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social work, priests, entertainment artist, and so on. In this waythis is the residual category of workers which includes workersof innumerable kinds having varied socio-economic status in soci-ety and life chances in market situations. Therefore, it is difficultto decide in which kind of work they are engaged. The highestpercentage of Muslim females (84.53 percent) engaged in otherworks is in the district of Kolkata. It may show that Muslims havebetter socio-economic conditions and are engaged in better qual-ity of occupations. But it is not true, it is reported that aboutthree-fourths of Muslim population in the Kolkata MunicipalCorporation (KMC) live in the slums or the areas of substandardhousing, locally known as bustees (Siddiqui). These slum dwellersare engaged in lowly occupations.

Under the grade of high percentage (above 45.72 percent)of females in other works is observed in four districts of Kolkata(84.53 percent), North 24 Parganas (53.92 percent), and Nadia(48.57 percent) they constitute a compact zone in the south-eastern part and Darjeeling (61.51 percent) in the extreme north-ern part of the state. About half of districts (ten) lie under themedium slab (18.36–45.72 percent) of females engaged in otherworks they are found in three zones. One lies in the southern part,which comprises eight districts and form a dominant region, thesecond occurs in the central part to include the districts of Malda(29.53 percent) and Dakshin Dinajpur (38.89 percent) and thethird zone comprises the district of Jalpaiguri (30.12 percent) inthe northern part of the state (Figure 2D). The rest of the four dis-tricts of Murshidabad (18.11 percent), Uttar Dinajpur (17.40 per-cent), Koch Bihar (12.61 percent), and Puruliya (11.97 percent)lie under the low slab (below 18.36 percent) of female engaged inother works. They are too scattered to form any notable region.

Relationship between Female Literacy Rate and OccupationalComposition

Naqvi and Shahnaz and Shah in their studies have found thateconomic participation of females is significantly influenced byeducation. For a causal analysis of the Muslim female literacy rateand female occupational composition a correlation matrix hasbeen prepared for six different variables. They are percentage of

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TABLE 5 Correlation Matrix of Female Literacy and Female Workers, 2001

Variables Y1 X1 X2 X3 X4 X5

Y1 1.00X1 −.630∗∗ 1.00X2 −.341 .466 1.00X3 −.493∗ .457 .785∗∗ 1.00X4 .105 .053 −.588∗ −.665∗∗ 1.00X5 .502∗ −.698∗∗ −.547∗ −.564∗ −.204 1.00

Note: ∗Significant at p = 0.05 ∗∗ Significant at p = 0.01.Source: Computed by authors based on Census of India 2001.

female literacy rate (Y1), female work participation rate (X1), per-centage of females in cultivation (X2), percentage of females inagricultural labor (X3), percentage of females in household indus-tries (X4), and percentage of females in other works (X5). Eachof the variables once selected as a dependent variable and theremaining as independent variables are tested with the assump-tion that linear relationships exist in all the cases (Siddiqui). Thecorrelation matrix of six variables is depicted in Table 5.

The pattern of relationship between Y1 (female literacy rate)and the independent variable of female workers reports thatthree of them are significantly correlated, but their magnitudesof direction of relationship are dissimilar. The variables whichare negatively correlated are X1 (FWPR) at 1 percent level andX3 (female in agricultural labor) at 5 percent level. However,it is positively associated with X5 (females in other work) at1 percent level. They against their correlation coefficients are X1

(−0.630), X3 (−0.493), and X5 (0.502). The relationship ascer-tains the fact that an increase female literacy rate can reduce thefemale work participation, which can be explained through thefact that total workers includes a large scale of cultivation agri-cultural labor, households industrial workers and other low-paidjobs which do not bear a strong dependency on literacy. Furtherincreasing female literacy rate may diminish rate of females inagricultural work and may enhance the participation in otherwork. Figure 3 represents the linear regression between female lit-eracy and female population by major occupational groups. Thus,that increasing or decreasing in literacy rate has simulate rising ordeclining efforts on the percentage of other workers.

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The results of correlation coefficient between FWPR and themajor occupation categories groups report that only X5 (femalesin other works) is negatively significant at 1 percent level (r =−0.698) and all others are directly proportional to FWPR withoutany significant level. It may be inferred that higher female WPRmay significantly reduce their participation in other works. Thevariable X2 (females in cultivation) is negatively related with X4

(females in household industry) and X5 (females in other work)is significant at 5 percent level and it is positively associated with X3

significant at 1 percent level. They against their correlation coef-ficients are X4 (−0.588), X5 (−0.547), and X3 (0.785). It may beargued that an increasing percentage of females in cultivation mayincrease females in agricultural labor. Again it may be said that anincreasing share of females in the household industry and otherwork may significantly reduce the percentage in cultivation. It isbecause of the fact that the low earning from agriculture make cul-tivation bound to shift them from agriculture to non-agriculturalsectors. The same inference may be drawn from the negative rela-tionship of X3 (females in agricultural labor) with X4 (percentageof females in household industry) at 1 percent and 5 percent levelof significance, respectively with correlation coefficient values of−0.665 and −0.564. Figure 3 and Table 5 explained the fact thatprimary (basically cultivation and agriculture labor) does not beara strong dependency on the level of literacy, while that of otherworkers includes all workers engaged in any category of economicactivities other than cultivation and agricultural labors and house-hold industrial worker. It includes all government servant, teacher,trade, commerce and business persons, banking employees etc.,which have a great dependency on the literacy and level of educa-tion. One can say that increase in literacy and level of educationhas influenced the number of skilled workers. The consequentreduction in manual labor, therefore, has a great deal to do withqualitative literacy.

Conclusion

At a glance, Muslims have a poor socio-economic status, with amarginal presence in public life. Being 25.25 percent of Bengal’stotal population Muslims form the principal minority group. The

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present study identifies some notable characteristic on the basis ofwhich certain findings can be drawn. In the sex ratio Muslim malesoutnumber their females. The review of socio-economic data onMuslims in West Bengal shows that they are poor and by far edu-cationally lagging behind. They are least educated and the furthereducational status of their women is too low. Economically andeducationally they are not very developed. In the case of femalesthe literacy rate is quite low as compared to male literacy. The datashows that there exists a wide gender gap in work participationrate. A low level of female WPR is significantly determined by lowlevel of literacy, large family size, and low level of urbanizationand lack of various facilities. The general distribution patternsof agricultural labor is relatively different from that of the otherkinds of workers. The higher share of agricultural labor could besynchronously traced and hyperlinked with the most underdevel-oped areas. The lack of social opportunities for Muslim women isa crucial issue needing urgent action. An improvement in literacyrates would directly influence Muslim women’s socio-economicand political status as citizens of India.

However, it may be mentioned that all is not lost in the caseof Muslim women. Many educated Muslim women have come for-ward in the country to fight against the gender discriminationin the community. Human rights groups in general and thoseamong the Muslims in particular started examining the statusof Muslim women and fighting to put an end to gender dis-crimination. Gradually secular education as opposed to Madarasaeducation is being preferred both for the boys and girls. EducatedMuslim women entering into white collar jobs both in the pub-lic and private sectors has become quite common. But progressachieved so far in the upliftment of Muslim women is meagerand requires concerted efforts from governments, Muslim elites,Muslim women activists, and so on.

In light of these findings it is suggested efforts should bemade for the development of the status of Muslim women.An improvement in the level of literacy among Muslims cangive better employment opportunities and minimize the regionalimbalances in female work participation and their category in thestate. Under the present socio-political situation and level of eco-nomic development of the country in general and Bengal in par-ticular the Muslims of the middle stratum suffer from frustrations,

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insecurity, anxiety, fear psychosis, and disadvantages. In generalthe results have indicated a wide gender gap in the work partici-pation rate in the state. According to the social situation of Muslimwomen in India, the government should implement proper pro-grams to improve and increase awareness among Muslim womenabout the equal status of women with that of men and this beliefis translated into actual practice through several institutions, cus-toms, and practices. It is essential to implement legislations toprotect Muslim women’s rights and it should be imparted throughadvertisement, plays, films, and so on. It is very much needed forthe government to acknowledge the problems and enact a lawthrough legislation that will protect Muslim women’s rights. Thebasic intent of such a law should be widely publicized by differ-ent media and also by social activists. Thus Muslim masses lackan effective leadership of modern orientation from this section.Political intervention is necessary for development of any groupin any society. But there is lack of political leadership in BengaliMuslim society. There are some Muslim leaders from the Muslimsociety but they have no goal to work for this backward commu-nity. It is an urgent need of the times to have a young politicalleader with the right, secular vision to represent not only the singlecommunity but the communities at large.

In this period of economic liberalization and globalization,the quality of women’s employment will depend upon severalfactors. The foremost among these are access to education andopportunities for skill development. The solution lies in creatingawareness among women about their legal rights and duties andby providing them adequate opportunities to upgrade their skilllevels. Besides these protective measures, policies, which encour-age education, skill development, and training among women,also need to be given priority.

In the era of the knowledge economy, much needs to bedone to push the greater lot of women towards achieving theirdreams of attaining educational parity with not only men but alsowomen of the developed world. The Indian government needs toprioritize women’s education and enhance opportunities of jobs,especially in rural areas. The wheel of progress has to be keptgreased and moving by empowering human resources with state-of-the-art learning facilities as India has developed an edge overother countries in regard to its young workforce. In this context,

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it is worthwhile to recall the words of pt. Jahawar Lal Nehru whosaid that “In order to awaken people, it is the women who has to beawakened. Once she moves the country moves and then we builda better India.”

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Documents

Muslim Female Work Participation In West Bengal, India