Quality of work life among Women in Plantation Sectors: with special reference to Kodagu

District of Karnataka State

Saravana K
Research Scholar
Department of Studies and Research in Social Work, Tumkur University
Email: sarwanmass@gmail.com, Mob: 9739244374

Dr. Lokesha M.U

Assistant Professor
Department of Studies and Research in Social Work, Tumkur University

Abstract

The major employment source for plantations is human resource, majority

women workers were engaged plantation related work such as plucking
coffee seeds, applying pesticides to coffee plants etc., rather than male
worker. The cultivation of coffee is a century old practice in Karnataka,
coffee was planted at chandradrona hill of Chikkamagaluru District of
Karnataka state by a Mecca pilgrim Bababudan in the year of 700AC.
Cultivation of Coffee dominated in the hill tracts of South India, in that
Karnataka dominant 79.3 percentage of total coffee production in India.
Employees in plantation were working since numerous generations the
wretched state of this sector has made plantation workers life factually
miserable. Insecure working circumstances build them collectively as well as
economically pathetic, which robotically keep out them from the social
strata. Women needs perform different role in the society, she has to
manage both house and quality of work life at a time. This study attempts to
assess the quality of work life of women employees working in selected
coffee plantations in Koorg (Kodagu) of Karnataka by adopting quality of
work life tool prepared by Swamy D R et.al. The study was conducted based
on primary level data that followed stratified sampling method with
descriptive research design and reviewing some related literatures from past
research reports. The results also highlighted that employed women are not
constructively positioned and this has harsh inferences on the families,
organizations and society in general.
Keywords: Quality of Work life, Economic, Plantation, Women

Introduction
Balancing work, working in kitchen and raring-caring responsibilities of children can be tough
which can result in work family conflict. This can be extremely costly to both groups and
employees within them (Kikul & Posing, 2004), the term quality of work life (QWL) achieved
its significance in the late 1960s as a way of alarms about effects of work on the health and
common wellbeing and ways to positively control the quality of a persons work experience.
During 1970 employers were gave importance to work design and working conditions of their
employees. However, in the next decade the concepts like job satisfaction level of employee
included in QWL, which have been impacts directly on the productivity and the life style of the
employees (Krishnamurthy & Vanmalar, 2016). Quality of Work Life usually makes efforts to
motivate employees by equity, security, pride, internal democratic system, autonomy, flexibility
and responsibility (Srivastava & Rooma, 2014).
Coffee and women employment in Karnataka
Cultivation of tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom in more than five hectares is considered
as a plantation in India (PLA, 1951). Since colonial period the plantation sector had been
considered as a major source of export earnings for the country. There has been tea, coffee and
spices had jointly constituted about 51 per cent of Indias total agricultural export earnings
during 1970-71 (Vishwanathan & Shah, 2012). In plantation women workers are active in
plucking seeds, which involves intensive labour. Nevertheless, the main reason plantations
employ such a high proportion of women in plucking because of low wage (Saravana &
Lokesha, 2016).
Significance of the Study
At present working women are performing dual role and they are facing inner conflicts of
dual commitment and the practical complexity of combining work with their domestic activities.
at the same time recognizing the role of women to economic development, it is necessary to
examine the atmosphere of plantations in Kodagu, where women work and the circumstances

under which they become important members contributing to economic growth of household.
This research study tried to assess the quality of work life of women workers in plantations.
Because majority of human work in plantations occupied by the women, they are utilized for
maximum work with minimum wages without breaking hour. Empowerment of women was
took major importance since past three decades, in this regard quality of work life is are
emerging where employees are seeking out more meaning. The basic factor that assess the
quality of work life is the working condition which decides the working conditions felt
contributing to the women employees of the plantations industries, followed by the individual
benefits such as sufficient salary, overtime wages, emergency advances, PF, transportation, etc.
which are all the reasonable compensations required to be understood by the women employees
in the plantation industry, health benefits such as ESI,, safety tools, avoidance of occupational
diseases, special notice for health and safety is the problems reduced with respect to work
bearing, etc. which are the health related issues that needed much attention for women
employees. Wages leave benefits and maternity benefits that are necessary for the married
working women are sufficient to attain their quality of work life. It is also significant to examine
whether all these benefits are enough and whether there are any problems that are not satisfying
the working women in the plantations were taken into concern and a opinion about their working
conditions considered to inspect the Quality of Work Life. Therefore it becomes important to
measure problems related to the Quality of Work Life based on the determinants to understand in
the plantations of Kodagu.
Objectives of the study
The study carries following objectives
1. To study the socio-economic profile of women workers in plantation
2. To assess quality of work life among women worker in plantation
Hypothesis
Based on the objectives researcher formed following hypothesis
H0:

There is no significance relationship between quality of work life and work

experience of the women workers in the plantation

Material and Method

The present research was conducted by applying descriptive research design. Stratified
and purposive sampling was applied to select samples. In the first phase of sampling selection 8
plantations were selected in the Kodagu district through stratified sampling technique. In second
phase, 75 women plantation worker were chosen to participate in the study based on sampling
selection criteria of 5 percent confident level. And in the third phase samples were selected based
on the nature needed by the study, namely, married women worker in plantation with at least one
child. The data was collected through Swamy D R et.al and computed with SPSS 19.0.
Result and Discussion