Micro-level Evidences on Women's Access to Resources and Decision-making — Insights from Eastern India Ahuja Usha Rani, Jain Rajni, Kumar Anjani, Choudhary Dharminder, Singh Amarjeet National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi-110 012 Online published on 10 September, 2013. Abstract The paper has studied the extent of accessibility of rural women to productive resources and has examined their role in decision-making on various farm, non-farm and domestic activities in three eastern states, namely Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 480 households by conducting survey in 12 selected villages of these three states. The study has shown that their access to assets like, land, credit, investment, machinery and livestock and production inputs, viz. fertilizers, labour, pesticides, seed, etc. was limited in the selected states and only 15 per cent women had access to these resources in spite of their significant contribution to farm activities. In case of participation in decision-making, the role of women has not been found very promising as only 10–15 per cent women were part of the decision-making process. Further, the role of women was confined to the activities having less financial implications. Since the majority of the women are involved in the agricultural operations, their access to resources and their participation in decision-making is crucial to boost agricultural production in the study area. The study has recommended that rural women should be given more access and control to the use of resources to alleviate poverty in the state. Top Keywords Women empowerment, access to resources, decision-making, eastern India. Top |