The landscape is identified as an intimate intermingling of physical, biological, and cultural features. Historically, the Indian rural landscape was known for its agricultural practices. Traditionally, agrarian works were gendered, where men engaged in ploughing and axe works and women engaged in plantation, weeding and harvesting. However, in recent times, the rural landscape has been undergoing drastic changes in the name of development. Hence, this study seeks to understand how gendered work and roles are affected by the changes in rural occupation. This study has been undertaken in Southern parts of Karnataka, where a large part of agricultural land is converted into industrial use. This empirical study has used household schedules semi-structured interviews and case study methods to collect field data and an intersectionality framework to analyse the information.
The results have shown that men and women are moving out to work in the manufacturing sector. Besides, the mechanisation of agriculture has reduced the availability of agricultural works. The study perceived that continuous availability of work and on-time payment are some of the reasons why agricultural labourers shift to non-agricultural activities. The study forecast that an uninterrupted shift to the non-agricultural sector, in the long run, may gradually lead to the loss of disseminating traditional agricultural knowledge.
Further, this study observes that workers in factories receive equal wages with no gender bias. The status of working women in the family has been raised. But does that make any change in gender roles and responsibilities of rural women is addressed in this paper.
