KNOWLEDGE OF RURAL WOMEN ABOUT HOME SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES

Women in rural areas undertake many non-farm activities both inside and outside their homes. They have many responsibilities right from crop cultivation to processing, storage and marketing of food products. They also collect fuel, fodder and water from long distances. Women shoulder these responsibilities along with reproductive and nurturing roles. They are, therefore contributing directly as well as indirectly to the family income, welfare and living. Many women undertake these responsibilities with little or undervalued knowledge and with poor, out-dated tools and equipments. Women need new technologies and practices to improve upon the old ones, which necessitates the transfer of appropriate home science technologies. The study was carried out in the two villages of Dharwad Taluk of Dharwad district of Karnataka state. Eight home science technologies were diffused in the two villages through lectures, demonstration and exhibition. The entire social system was studied now to the acceptance. Eighty rural women, who accepted these technologies constituted the sample size of the present study. The results of the study indicated that the knowledge of rural women about the home science technologies was low before the knowledge intervention and this knowledge increased to medium and high level after the intervention. The‘t' values showed that there is a significant difference in the mean scores before and after intervention (0.05 percent). The study found significant and positive relationship between knowledge and scientific orientation.