Socio-Economic Status of Bamboo Artisans of Karnataka, India

Aim: To study the demographic profile and socio economic status of the bamboo artisans of Northern Karnataka districts.

Study Design: Exploratory design was used.

Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in Northern Karnataka districts of Dharwad, Belgavi and Uttar Kannada in the year 2019-2020.

Methodology: Random sampling method was applied to select a sample size of 120 bamboo artisans’ family (Forty respondents from each district). The respondents were interviewed personally to elicit the primary information by using self structured interview schedule and Aggarwal et al. [1] was used to study the socio economic status of the bamboo artisans.

Results: The study resulted that bamboo artisan’s belonged lower middle socio economic status. Higher per cent of the respondents belonged to middle age group followed by young age group. Women participation was more compare to men counterpart in the bamboo artisans occupation.

Conclusion: Majority of the respondents belonged to middle age group, and majority of them were female followed by male. More than fifty per cent of the respondents had primary school level of education. Majority of the respondents were married followed by widow. Nearly fifty per cent of the respondents belonged to small family. Higher per cent of the respondents had less than 13 years of experience in the bamboo enterprise products making. More than half of the respondents spent 5-6 hours a day in bamboo enterprise. Majority of the respondents involved daily in bamboo enterprise work. Nearly fifty per cent of the respondents had habit of storing the bamboo raw materials inside the home. Majority of the selected bamboo artisans belonged to the lower middle socio economic status and were having less than 13 years of experience.