AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONSTRAINTS IN GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN FOOD SECURITY AT HOUSEHOLD LEVEL IN RURAL PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

摘要

This study was conducted in the department of Rural Sociology, University of AgricultureFaisalabad, Pakistan during the years 2017-2018. The objective of the study was ‘to analyze thesocio-cultural constraints in gender mainstreaming in food security at the household level andto evaluate their association with demographic characteristics of respondents. The study wasconducted in 3 tehsils of district Vehari and district Pakpattan. Total 30 villages were selectedrandomly and about 16 women were selected from each village through convenient randomsampling that makes a sample size of 480 respondents. Quantitative data technique was usedin this study. Pre-testing was carried out to inspect the workability of the questionnaire. The datawere analyzed by statistical techniques containing univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis.Findings revealed that 39.8% of the rural women were illiterate and 26.3% were primary pass.Nearly 75.9% of the women exposed that they have the least opportunities for training regardingfood security that’s why about 93.6% of the women had been following the old patterns ofcooking and eating food. In addition almost 72.3% of the household members were concernedabout the taste of the food rather than nutrition. About 67.5% of the women revealed that theiraccess to the market is lesser than male members of the family. Over and above, nearly 70.7%of the respondents told that due to lack of acknowledgment for their services, they lose interestin household matters i.e. food security. Moreover, more than half of the selected women (57.7%)did not have purpose-built kitchen at their houses, that’s why laborious work and a lots of time isrequired to cook healthfully and hygienically, because they cook their meals in courtyard, on therooftop or living rooms, which cause the extra exertion for rural women. All the above mentionedsocio-cultural constraints highly affected the core issue of food security. Research revealed thatthere is an association between age, education level of the women and socio-cultural constraintsthey face. Rural women were restricted by the socio-cultural constraints and cannot play anefficient role in food security at the household level.