Being a Woman Livestock Keeper in Rural India

Abstract

The mounting global evidence suggests that women’s participation and active engagement in livestock keeping and livestock product markets trigger financial gains and enhanced household food security alongside several tangible and intangible outcomes. However, to overcome systemic and structural gendered barriers, there is a pertinent need for systematic efforts to increase women’s access, participation and benefit sharing in livestock keeping. Being a woman livestock keeper with legitimate recognition of contribution and benefit-sharing remains a culture-specific phenomenon that has a bearing on the overall impact of gender-equitable livestock development interventions. A focused phenomenological inquiry was conducted to explore and document the lived experiences of women livestock keepers in rural India. The pathways to becoming a woman livestock keeper run through several hurdles yet well-planned inputs, supportive institutional arrangements and culturally suitable gender-sensitive handholding play enabling roles for women livestock keepers to realize their equitable roles and position themselves in the growing livestock product markets. Furthermore, this study suggests that it is critical to put interventional emphasis on converging multimodal efforts to equip women to effectively bargain and engage in the marketing and benefit-sharing process.