ABSTRACT
Throughout Asia women make an important contribution to family income. The lower the socio-economic level of the family, the greater the proportion of total income contributed by women. In Thailand, where decreasing availability of land is disrupting kindred association based on exchange of labour and services in rice agriculture, reducing traditional subsistence, women are taking greater advantage than men of alternative sources of raising cash. In Bangladesh, women whose families own less than 2,000 square meters of land contribute 33 per cent of family income, while women from larger landholding households contribute only 15 per cent. The Indian Planning Commission has contested the findings of the 1971 Census that the proportion of women workers had declined from 28 per cent in 1961; there had been gross under-estimation of female participation because of the emphasis on primary occupation.
