Impact of farm mechanisation on family and marriage systems

Pages: 1580-1583
Neeru Bala (Department of Sociology, Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Chakkan, Sirsa, Haryana)
Darpan Saluja (Junior Programmer, GJUS&T, Hisar, Haryana)

Combined with other technological innovations, farm mechanization has brought about great change in economy of society. As farming has made less arduous; the increased productivity led to increase in production; subsistence production is substituted by production for the market, however, the same has been affected greatly by the varied levels of farm mechanization Like other aspects of social life, family and marriage is also affected by technological changes The study attempts to examine the impact of farm mechanization on the family and marriage The study was conducted in rural agricultural Haryana following the criteria of advancement and backwardness of the agricultural area. For the purpose two districts were selected, one in which certain forces of changes and development were present and other where they were absent. A block was randomly selected from each district, i.e., Asandh block from Karnal district and Bawani Khera block from Bhiwani district. From the selected cluster of -villages a list of all the farmers of the village was prepared and from that list 150 respondents were selected randomly keeping in proportion farmers to the total population of the villages identified in the cluster. So on the whole a total of 300 respondents were selected from the identified clusters. Association between selection authority and farm mechanization was found to be significant Associated with the family is the institution of marriage about which tractor-owners were found more liberal than bullock owners. This so particular in case of giving freedom to children in respect of selection of marriage partner, rigid adherence to caste consideration in marriage, regarding formal talk of concerned persons before marriage etc. Likewise, education of the partner was also considered important by tractor owners than bullock owners. The relatively liberal attitude in terms of different aspects of marriage on the part of tractor-owners seems to be due to their higher education, greater exposure to outside world, more contacts with educated and urbanised functionaires etc. Also preference for same occupationin marriage declined sharply which reflects desire for contacts with non-farming families and greater comforts for their daughters.