Skill gap analysis of rural women for capacity building

Pages: 265-269
Manjot Kaur and Ritu Mittal (Department of Extension Education and Communication Management, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab)

In Indian houses, women make every effort for the integrity of the family whole-heartedly and take care of family members sincerely. Women are more responsible for nutritional, emotional and social needs of the family especially in rural areas. But their contribution has hardly been recognized due to lack of few basic and advance skills. Therefore, the current study was planned to capture the skill gaps of rural women for short duration training courses. The study was carried out on 120 rural women from Punjab State. Majority of the women were from schedule caste, landless, low economic strata, young, educated only up to intermediate level and were home makers. Skill gap analysis shows that skill on stain removal was most preferred by the rural women. This was followed by tie and dye, therapeutic diets, geriatric care and consumer rights besides other skills. Their interest in tie and dye bakery, preservation and flower arrangements depicts that women want to create resources for their families by using locally available inputs. These skills if polished properly will help them to generate income and contribute to family income as majority of women were from low socio economic status families.