MSc

The study entitled Participation of women in
Agricultural Development Programmes under People's Plan in
Thiruvananthapuram district was undertaken to study the
extent of participation of women in planning implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of Agriculture Development Programmes
in People's Plan, perception of women about People's Plan
campaign attitude of women towards People's Plan programme and
and to identify the constraints as perceived by women and women
office bearers while undertaking this programme.
The study was conducted in eight grama panchayath of
Thiruvananthapuram district selected randomly. A sample of two
hundred respondents were selected using a mu l t i s t ag e random
sampling. Data were collected through well structured and
pretested interview schedule.
Majority of rural women (64.37%) had medium extent of
participation in planning while 67.57 per cent office bearers
had high participation in planning. Great majority of rural
women (98.7%) were low in their participation in implementing
and majority (67.50%) of women office bearers were in high
participation category.
Around fifty two per cent of rural women having low
level of participation in monitoring and evaluation while

bearers extension orientation, achievement motivation, training
and leadership propensity had positive significance with their
perception.
Annual income, economic motivation, innovation prone-
ness. achievement motivation, training of rural women had
positive and significant relationship with their attitude
toward People's Plan. No variable was significantly correlated
with attitude of office bearers about People's Plan.
With respect to extent of participation of rural
women revealed that economic motivation innovation proneness
achievement motivation, training, level of aspiration, mass
media participation leadership propensity and self confidence
was significantly related to extension orientation, achievement
motivation, training and leadership propensity had positively
significant relationship with perception of women office
bearers. Leadership propensity, annual income and self-
confidence had positive and significant relationship with
extent of participation of women office bearers.
The stepwise regression analysis revealed that
economic motivation, leadership propensity, training, extension
orientation, mass media participation, annual income, level of
aspiration, political orientation, age and self confidence
contributed 36 per cent of variation in perception of women
while in case of office bearers 63 per cent of variation in

perception was contributed by variables like achievement



mo t i vat ion, ex ten si 0 nor i en tat ion,
leadership propensity and education.


innovat ion proneness,



Variables like economic motivation and selfconfidence
contributed only 15 per cent variation in the attitude of women
whereas occupation, economic motivation, innovation proneness,
achievement motivation and leadership propensity contributed 16
per cent variation in the attitude of women office bearers.
Twenty five percentage variation in extent of-participation of
rural women in ADPs under pp was explained by economic
motivation, achievement motivation, training, leadership
propensity and selfconfidence and in case of women office
bearers variables like marital status, innovation proneness,
achievement motivation, training, level of aspiration,
leadership propensity, and self confidence contributed 65 per
cent variation in extent of participation.
The important constraint perceived by rural women was
political interference in the selection of beneficiaries under
People's Plan Campaign and that of women office bearers was non
involvement of all members in implementing the programme.
Spearman's rank order correlation revealed that there
was no agreement with rural women and women office bearers in
the order of ranking.