Women street vendors especially face tremendous challenges in terms of their financial security. Using banks for their financial transaction will give them respite from private money lenders, thereby leading to these ’’women’s’ financial inclusion in the society. To convince these women street vendors to increase their usage of banks, it is proposed to garner the help of workers from the public distribution system (PDS). It is hypothesized that these PDS workers will act as influencers in convincing the women street vendors (SVs)to use the banks in a better manner. Two sets of questionnaires were developed. Initially, one was administered to get their bank usage pattern and PDS workers were then requested to educate the Women SVs on the benefits of banks. After six months, the second questionnaire was administered to find any significant change in behavior with the same set of women street vendors. The effect of age and education level of the women SVs in accepting the advice of PDS workers to use banks is investigated using a Multivariate generalized linear model (MGLM). The results of the MGLM suggest that education level of the SVs has an evident and contingent influence on their acceptance of PDS worker’s advice, while age makes no significant difference. To compare whether the mean of the dependent variable (knowledge about bank) is the same or changed (change in knowledge about bank) before and after the PDS workers have educated the women SVs, paired-samples T test is used. Based on the results, it is concluded that the PDS workers make a difference in educating the Women SVs on the benefits and purpose of using banks. In order to find out exactly where the difference occurs between the groups a post hoc test is carried out. The outcome of the post-hoc test suggests that the impact of PDS workers is higher with the Women SVs whose education levels are lower. However, there is no improvement on the opinion in the women SVs whose education level is higher. It is suggested that policymakers use PDS workers to target women SVs with lower education levels to educate them on the benefits of using banks for financial transactions instead of relying on private money lenders.

The present study was undertaken to study the work, worker, and workplace interfacing in the selected standing type of kitchens in Behbalpur village of Hisar district. The study was conducted on 50 women respondents from the age group of 24-47 years who were involved in kitchen activities for the last 2 years with at least 2 hrs daily. No separate counter was found for preparation, cooking, and washing activities. Only one work counter was found for all purposes with height and depth of x = 94.2 ± 4.44 cm x = 61.8 ± 7.8 cm, respectively. It can be concluded that the height of the counter was not adequate and was either too high (20.0%) or too low (38.0%) in more than fifty percent of the kitchens. Regarding the depth of counter surface, the mean value of counter depth was (x = 61.8±7.8 cm) significantly higher than the usual horizontal reach of women (x = 47.6 ± 5.9 cm). In all three groups, p values were less than 0.005 (5.82E-09, 2.3E-17, and 3.44E-10), representing the significant difference in means of each group, i.e., between counter height and standing elbow height, and between counter depth and horizontal reach(s).

The present study was conducted in Madurai East and North blocks of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu to assess the performance of self-help groups and cooperatives. A total of 120 respondents were drawn from SHGs and cooperatives for this study. Being a comparatives study of SHG and Cooperative, the study would also reveal the assistance to weaker sections as compared to Cooperatives. The SHGs have helped the beneficiaries to increase their income had increased by ` 24176.53, which is nearly eight times the pre-loan income. Repayment performance in SHGs is better than cooperative beneficiaries. The beneficiaries of SHGs gained additional 154.90 man-days in crop enterprise activity, 273.78 man-days in milk enterprise, and 235 man-days in petty shop business, while cooperative beneficiaries gain 35 additional man-days only in milk enterprise activity. A multiple linear regression fitted to identify factors contributing to the total income of the beneficiaries showed that the number of earning members, membership in SHGs, and ownership of milch animals significantly influenced the total income of the beneficiaries. Policy measures can be initiated for promoting the SHGs credit to help the weaker sections.

The present paper has described the market share of pesticides in Jammu district. In Jammu and Kashmir vegetables are grown over an area of 63.1 thousand ha with annual production of 1395.5 thousand MT and average productivity of 22.1 MT/ha, which is higher than national average of 17.6 MT/ha. Pesticide market is currently lead by insecticides products followed by fungicides and herbicides, reportedly insecticide demand accounts for 65 per cent of the total pesticide market share. The company namely Insecticide India Limited stands first in the sale of insecticides namely Nuvan with a share of 14.98 per cent followed by Bayer (Fame) and Gharda (Hamla 500) with a share of 14.11 per cent and 11.97 per cent, respectively. The company namely Indo FIL leads in the tally with a market share of 17.38 per cent for selling M-45 Juba in case of fungicides whereas in weedicides Monsanto has highest share in the market (17.27%). Awareness about pesticide companies among farmers of Jammu district indicates that 86.67 per cent respondent farmers were aware of Bayer Crop Science followed by 75 per cent (Monsanto), 66.67 per cent (Crystal), 62.67 per cent (Dupont), 55.00 per cent (Syngenta), 55.00 per cent (FIL) and 40 per cent (UPL). The retail trader influence, company representative influence and on farm demonstration are the key factors influencing farmers’ for purchase of pesticides.

The food production must increase substantially in pace with the population growth. However, the food production is limited due to land availability, climatic conditions, water resources, and many other biophysical factors. Quantifying the food production in every hectare is necessary to take counter measures to improve the yield growth. The yield gap is the variation between the average actual yield and the average expected yield. This study quantifies the yield gap in significant regions of the Tirunelveli district concerning Food Crops production. The study involves the historical information of Tirunelveli for a range of 20 years. This gap is likely due to degraded, less fertile soils, pockets of endemic cropping systems, and a low adoption rate of high yielding technologies by farmers. . The yield gap in India reveals the bridgeable gap to be quite broad. The districts are clustered based on productivity and the yield gap. The inferences will help to take necessary precautions to reduce the yield gap and keep pace with the demand and the supply of essential food crops.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was implemented by Government of India (GOI) with the objective of enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment resulting in the creation of durable assets. Despite of the fact that huge allocations have been made by the central government for alleviation of poverty through MGNREGA, the standard of living of the people has not improved to the desired extent, and the employment opportunities for the youths are few and far between. Hence, it becomes imperative to identify the antecedent factors which unable to comply with the promises made during their introduction. The present study was conducted in the Imphal East and Churachandpur districts of Manipur. The data were collected from 108 respondents (100 were beneficiaries & 8 were functionaries of MGNREGA). The findings revealed that non-availability of 100 days of work, late payment of wages, underpayment of wages, non-availability of tools & worksite facilities etc. were the constraints perceived by the beneficiaries. While, constraints perceived by the functionaries of MGNREGA were scarcity of funds and non-acceptance of labor budget, failing to upload Management Information System (MIS) report timely and low Information Education Communication (IEC) campaign.

Vitamin D deficiency is rising as a serious public health issue, affecting a major section of the population across the world. Considering the numerous health implications of vitamin D deficiency, it is of dire significance to identify this epidemic and work for its eradication. The women in the tea plantations are among the most vulnerable groups in Assam and are reported to have the highest mortality rate in the state. The present study is conducted to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among women in the tea plantations of Assam. An attempt is also made to study the factors correlated with the vitamin D status of women. 370 working women are selected from two tea estates of Assam. Serum vitamin D status is assessed. Socio-economic background, morbidity profile, sunning practice, substance (alcohol and tobacco) abuse pattern and dietary intake is obtained through a standard protocol. The prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency is at the rate of 69.50 percent. Vitamin D status of women suffering from disease conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cancer, chronic fatigue, and body pain is significantly lower than healthy women. A significant correlation between the vitamin D status and clothing pattern, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and dietary intake of the women is observed. This study extrapolates the urgency to recognize vitamin D deficiency as a serious epidemic prevailing among women. The various factors identified to exaggerate the deficiency need to be brought to light through proper awareness and health education.

Northeast India was affected lately compared to the other parts of India in the first phase of COVID-19 in 2020. This had a devastating impact on the poor women who survived by doing domestic labor pre-COVID and during COVID times. Most of these women were independent working women, with or without supporting members in their families. There was unavailability and denial of essential services and resources, which made their situation worse. Since in India, a large number of female domestic workers are employed in private households. Female Domestic Workers generally workday long for wages that are below the minimum wage. There is no such safeguard to protect these domestic workers from exploitation and violence. This makes their work largely unregulated and denies them excess to fundamental rights with others. This paper focuses on the conditions of the domestic workers during the COVID-19. There is a need for the state and central governments to revise a draft law that complies with international standards.

Farming families in states like Himachal Pradesh face enormous hardship in sustaining livelihood from fragmented small and marginal landholdings. Vegetable farming-based self-help groups have emerged as a significant transformation tool for the rural economy in hills. Now it is possible to address farm problems in a group rather than struggling for individual farms. Vegetable farming-based self-help groups have paved a new path in rural economic development. Self-help group is a small economic venture at the village level. It can be defined as sustainable if it can work for its basic goal of development by meeting out all day to day expenditures without any external aid while creating profit, social upliftment of members and without deterioration to the environment that ultimately brings prosperity in a rural area. Knowing the sustainability of self-help groups helps in planning and executing rural development policies. Various researchers developed various tools to assess the sustainability of self-help groups but these tools do not fit well for all geographical areas with diverse rural communities. Present study was conducted in Himachal Pradesh to assess the sustainability of vegetable farming-based self-help groups. The study reveals that women farmers constitute a major portion of SHG framework, the average size of SHG in Himachal Pradesh was 14, and the majority of the groups had bank linkages. The majority of self-help group members were contributing above ` 100 per/month and generally held group meetings once a month. 80.00 percent of the -help groups were found with above 90 percent attendance in monthly meeting and family problem was a major reason for non-repayment of loan. Self help group capabilities need to be strengthened by more training, village-specific training content, and better financial management for planning group corpus. As a policy intervention, self-help groups require more training on maintaining records and financial management, which can enhance the scope for cross cross-learning between self-help groups where SHGs could learn from the experience of better-performing one.

Sericulture is an important agro-based industry that involves the production of silk by rearing silkworm. India is blessed with mulberry and vanya silk production due to its favourable climatic and topographic conditions. The ongoing covid-19 crisis has caused a drastic impact in the whole world. This has affected all walks of life, resulted in severe disruptions in all the world’s economic activities, and the Indian economy is not an exception. The nationwide lockdown declared by the Indian Government has brutal consequences in every country’s sectors from the economic growth and development point of view. Like other sectors in India, the sericulture sector has also witnessed the impact of the global pandemic. Due to the disturbance in the demand-supply chain, all the activities involved in the silk value chain have been hard hit by the covid-19 pandemic. Severe disruptions had happened in the availability of the inputs, cocoon and silk prices, raw silk production and marketing of the silk goods.

The present investigation was an attempt to study the qualitative and in depth relationship among siblings of middle age through case study method. A representative sample of 20 middle-aged adults between the age of 40-60 years were selected from Udaipur city of Rajasthan state of India. These 20 respondents were selected from the main sample of 240 on the basis of all the five typologies i.e. Intimate, Congenial, Loyal, Apathetic and Hostile generated from Adult Sibling Relationship Scale. The results reveled that Loyal and Apathetic type of relationship between brother-brother dyad are guided by societal expectations, parental favoritism and property dispute that affected the relationship. Life transitions leads to congenial relationship among brother-sister dyad. Sister-sister dyad reported intimate relationship resulting out of emotional closeness. Sister-brother dyad showed hostility because of the discrimination and parental favoritism faced by sister during her childhood years. Results also highlighted that middle aged adults do confide in or share their matters with their sibling,but the sharing is mostly superficial.

Dairy cooperatives provide sustainable livelihood to millions of households in rural Gujarat. Largely, rural people engage in the farm as well as non-farming activities like animal husbandry and Dairy. The study has analysed the socio-economic Empowerment of member Dairy Farmers through dairy Cooperatives. The primary data have been collected from 200 Members Dairy Farmers in the Mehsana district by convenience sampling method. Google form was used for data collection. The tools used for the analysis were simple percentage methods. From the study, it can be concluded that Dairy Cooperative playing an important role in the social and economic development of member dairy farmers of the Mehsana District. Member Dairy Farmers contribute significantly to Dairy in Gujarat, their participation in dairy farming is considered as an important tool for alleviating poverty and enhancing the quality of life of the rural community.

The present study attempts to identify the socio-economic profile of vegetable farmers of Jammu district of Jammu and Kashmir UT. The study was conducted in ten blocks of Jammu district. Data for the study was collected from a sample of 240 vegetable growers. The findings of the study reveal that, the 21.25% of the vegetable farmers were illiterate and 78.75 % were literate. Out of which maximum number of farmers have attend the education up to middle school 22.91 per cent. Among the sample about 65.83 per cent of farmers were marginal having less than 1 hectare land. As far as fixed resource structure is concerned, tractor constitute the highest overall average percentage 94.04 per cent with a value of ` 193542.00 while least percentage 0.31 per cent share was observed in knap sack sprayer with a value of ` 653.00. The study revealed that the livestock resource structure of the sampled vegetable firms shows the highest value in cow. The socio-economic status of the farmers can be improved by imparting technical knowledge/ training to vegetable farmers, increasing their education level and increasing their social participation.