A few women have joined the formal sector through government jobs, specially in the field of education. Since 1995, the government has started employing girls who passed middle school as Lady Health Workers (LHW) under the Prime Minister’s Programme for Primary Health Care and Family Planning. Through opportunities such as these women strive towards economic independence. However, most women are either deprived of income generating activities or being exploited by being underpaid or not paid at all. The help they offer through grazing livestock and performing agricultural tasks is unaccounted for and is considered of no economic value.

The economic independence of women in Kohlu does not fully translate into social independence. Sometimes her performance is restricted to the limits which suits her husband, father or other male family members. For example, she is free to move around, but just to graze her livestock or to fetch water and collect fuel wood. She makes many of the routine domestic decisions, but decisions regarding major issues, like the children’s marriages, are made by the men in the family, while the women may only give their advice. Girls have no say in the decisions about their marriages. Although purdah is not very strictly practised in Kohlu, very few women are seen in Kohlu bazaar. It is not decent for women to go outside their homes alone, even for a medical check-up. She needs to be accompanied by a male family member.

Kohlu is a male dominated society where male children are preferred. This preference results in discrimination of female children in education, health, nutrition and love. Expenditure on female education is considered a waste. This way, women lose their chance to be financially independent and they remain dependent on men. Due to male child preference, mothers without a male-child are required to conceive repeatedly without an appropriate break, which endangers their lives. In the whole of Kohlu district, only 2 Mother Child Healthcare Centres for mothers and children are available. There is only one Lady Medical Officer in the whole district. The only political role women in Kohlu can play is casting their vote, but usually they cast their vote to the will of their male family members.

The women in Kohlu are deprived of their property rights. Daughters are not given any share in property of their father. In case of divorce nothing is given to the woman and the widow is allowed to receive just a subsistence allowance. After she gets re-married, the allowance is withdrawn.

On the whole it is a male dominated society; subjugation of women is not an issue, it is rather a norm. Women are marginalised in all domains of life, whether it is access to education or health facilities, economic independence, political participation or inheritance of property. She has no voice and is invisible. This is a matter of serious concern from the perspective of women’s essential role in development.