The Uttarakhand State spreading over 53,485 km2 accommodates 8.48 million people, accounting for about 0.83 percent of the population of India and 21.4 percent of the Indian Himalayas region respectively. The region is primarily an agrarian economy, operating at a very low level of production, unable to provide income and employment round the year to the dependent population and consequently pushes large numbers of young males to go outside the region in search of a livelihood. This trend is reflected in the sex ratio of the region. As per the census of 2001 among the thirteen districts of the state, in the eight exclusively mountainous districts, there are more than one thousand women per thousand men. This was first visible in the last decade of nineteenth century and continues. Agriculture coupled with animal husbandry is the mainstay of the people here but because of the heavy migration of males, these districts have very high participation rate of women in the work force. Except to plough, which is symbolic of male domination, all other activities in agriculture are the exclusive domain of women. Thus their contribution to total work in agriculture is more than 85 percent.
