MEANS OF GENERATING INCOME BY WOMEN OUTSIDE PARTICIPATION IN THE QUARRY MINES

(ANALYSIS BASED ON MULTIPLE RESPONSE ).

Case Summary

Dichotomy group tabulated at value  1

Table   A.

Other jobs women do

            Dichotomy group tabulation at value 1     Field survey  2011

Table 5 above which has a and b showing the case summary of respondents in table ‘A’ and the frequencies in table ‘B’ shows the multiple responses from the respondents who are the quarry miners (males and females) from the three senatorial zones on some other works women do in communities studied outside their participation in stone pit mining.

In table a, which is the case summary, it is evident that out of the total number of respondents of one thousand two hundred and fifty- five (1,255), one thousand two hundred and fifty-three were correctly entered, while   two (2) respondents columns were not entered.

On the follow up table it shows the frequencies on other jobs women get involved in the communities outside quarry mining. The responses here were based on multiple choice where the respondents had a choice of ticking more than one option. The variable options in the question number seven (7) were,  farming, trading, animal domestication, tailoring and other activities that were not mentioned.

So from table 5b , the total responses gotten from the multiple choice question is four thousand three hundred and forty –one (4,341), out of this total multiple responses, one thousand, one hundred and ninety-seven (1197) reported that women equally get involved in farming, showing a response percentage of 27.6%. The respondents on the response on the second variable which is trading indicated one thousand, two hundred (1200)  with a response percentage of 27.6% of the total responses. On animal domestication which is the third option, one thousand, one hundred and thirty one or 26.1% of the total response range indicated that women in the communities could also domesticate animals.

Eight hundred and thirteen responses indicated that women get involved in  tailoring outside quarry mining. So the question was to actually find out whether there are other job options for women in the rural communities. And the indication from the responses gotten show that there are other jobs the women get involved in doing, which under anticipation allowed the space for the 8 item on the questionnaire on why women in the areas studied  should be involved in quarry mining if there are other job options.  

 Then  question 8 was a follow up, which qualitatively sought to determine whether there are other alternative jobs in the communities for the rural women and if there are, why do they still work in the quarry mines. Question number  seven (7) indicated that there are other job alternatives like; farming, trading, animal domestication and tailoring. But these women still get involved in quarry mining to make up enough money to support those other job alternatives in the communities.

As the item 8 on the questionnaire is an open-ended question, majority of the respondents reported that the other job options in the area still will be financed with money, and most of these women are poor that they need money to get involved in them.

This question also came up in the in-depth interview for women and men quarry  miners. Question 3 in the in-depth interview probed for  why  women work in the quarry mines. This question probed for whether women have interest ordinarily to work in the quarry mine  or they work there due to lack of other work options. The interview identified that these women who are  mostly indigenes of the studied local government areas in the three senatorial zones are involved in small –scale quarry mining due to the following reasons:

(1) There are few other job options: The respondents reported that in the rural areas there are few other job options these women could get involved in doing. In the questionnaire item no seven (7), the question sought to know other means women in that area generate income. The listed options were; farming, trading, animal domestication and tailoring. In that multiple responses 4341 responses were recorded of which 1253 out of 1255 respondents indicated various optional job alternatives. Here 1197 went for farming, 1200 for trading, 1131 for animal domestication and tailoring was 813. This shows that women have other things they could engage in doing. But the case here was that you need money to start almost the whole job options of which most of these women are economically at the bottom that  they cannot afford the things to function in these areas. So left with this tight situation, they work for means to raise money which now bring in quarry work as the only option in the community.

(2) The second case mentioned was poverty: Although this has been severally identified as the major case of these rural women. This case was identified by the world bank (2004); Hogger (2004); and Heemskerk (2005) in that these rural women are already marginalized, as they face poverty and hardship, as wall as extreme poor environmental condition that offers little alternative resources for subsistence. In trying to survive in marginalized environment, they engage in quarry mining to raise money for themselves and family members. In some of these families, women are the bread winners even when the men are still alive.

(3) Lack of education (formal): the other issue raised by these miners interviewed is on lack of the miners formal education. These women were identified as not acquiring the necessary skills to engage in other activities.

They reported that these women need money to farm (buy equipment and seedlings), to trade, animal domestication and tailoring.  In effect most of these rural women are poor that they work in these quarry mine pits to see if they can raise the money needed to start other jobs that could sustain them. In this case they end up participating in quarry mining activities as if is almost the wage earning job activity in the rural areas.