Dhaka, Feb 25 (UNB) - Rural women in Mymensingh and Netrakona districts are very keen to get involved in income generating works to ensure food security for their families, according to a recent study.

The study revealed that in the food-insecure group, about 80 percent of rural women in the two districts are willing to take up more income generating works to support their families. Of them, over 75 percent responded that they are willing to work outside their homes.

Principal Investigator Rushidan Islam Rahman, Anwara Begum and Harunur Rashid Bhuyan of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) carried out the study with technical support from the `National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme (NFPCSP)’ of the FAO and the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, and financial support from USAID and EU.

The study, titled `Impact of Paid Employment and Self Employment on Income and Prospects of Food Security’, was undertaken to analyze the household status of food security in Mymensigh and Netrakna districts.

It said that a slightly higher percentage of food-insecure women in Mymensingh district showed the willingness to more as compared to their counterparts in Netrakona district.

Among the food-secure households in the two districts, the study found that on average about half of the women expressed their willingness to do more work to augment their income. The share of such women is slightly lower among the self-employed heads of households compared to the wage-earners.

In the wage-earner group, about 56 percent of women were found keen to work more. Of them, nearly 43 percent were willing to take work outside their homes.

The study, however, showed that women may be unwilling or rather unable to take up more economic activities due to a variety of constraints arising from the social attitude or from burden of domestic work.

The female-headed households were more vulnerable with nearly 90 percent facing food insecurity during the study period. Among the male-headed households, about 55 percent experienced food insecurity.

In terms of distribution by number of days of food insecurity, the study showed that the share of female-headed households experiencing severe food insecurity (more than 36 days a year) were much higher than male-headed households. Average food insecurity among female-headed and male-headed households was 65 days and 28 days a year respectively.

The study identified two periods of more severe food insecurity in the two districts. These are Falgun-Chaitra (February-March) and Ashwin-Kartik (September-October).

The female-headed households have experienced a higher number of days of food insecurity in each month compared to male-headed households. Seasonality of food insecurity is somewhat different for male-headed and female-headed households.

The rural women have less opportunity of self-employment for most of the months than men. In the wage-earner category, both male-headed and female-headed households were employed for higher number of days.

Despite their hard work, the female-headed households suffered more days of food insecurity than male-headed households, the study concluded.