Kerala - Thrissur   

Role of women veterinarians stressed

Staff Reporter

Collectives have enhanced their importance

THRISSUR: Lady veterinarians can make a significant contribution to the animal husbandry sector in a developing country like India where women's role is crucial in the sector as a whole, experts have said.

Participating in a national seminar on `women in veterinary science and animal husbandry', which concluded at Veterinary College, Mannuthy, near here on Thursday, they pointed out that the proliferation of animal husbandry units under the collectives like Kudumbasree has enhanced the importance of lady veterinarians.

It is women who play the pivotal role in such animal husbandry units and lady veterinarians can support them effectively in this crucial grassroots level agri-economic activity, they argued.

The experts also discussed the various gender issues that women face as veterinarians and entrepreneurs. Recalling that `feminisation of the veterinary profession was happening all over the world', the former director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Breeding and Genetics of Veterinary College Sosamma Iype said the recognition of the profession as a coveted one by society had contributed to it significantly.

"The use of tranquillising drugs and other improved facilities for animal restraint has helped a lot in overcoming the perceived and real physical limitations of women in the veterinary field. The increased mobility of women as a whole has also drawn them closer to the profession," Dr. Sosamma Iype said.

The former Dean of Veterinary College S Sulochana said women form 25 per cent of the veterinary professionals in the State though they were poorly represented in the senior positions. She suggested that the administration should take urgent steps to promote relevant programmes and opportunities for the advancement of women in the profession.

Project coordinator of the Centre for Studies In Gender Concerns in

Agriculture of Kerala Agriculture University P.S. Geethakutty said lack of capital, market access, training and time as well as increased workload were the constraints faced by most of the women entrepreneurs.

Eminent scientists and veterinarians Sakubai P Ramachandran from

Bangalore, Alka Tomar from Uttar Pradesh, Vineeta Sharma from Jammu and Kashmir, K.G. Suma from Kerala, Rajeswari Shoma from Bangalore, Vimala Raja from Kerala were among those who spoke at the two-day seminar.

About 250 women veterinarians and scientists from different parts of the country participated in the seminar.

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