By Meghna Sarma, Rachita Badajena, Prajekta Thakuria & Sonam Kumari
Despite the 40% contribution of women to the agri-food systems worldwide, they are not counted at par with their male counterparts in the agriculture sector and here India being on the same page, has miles to go to recognize her daughters in the system.
According to the ‘Her Harvest’ Report released by Arya.ag Industry Insights, more than 64% women are in the agricultural force and nearly 77% of women from the rural population, which highlights the growing female workforce participation in primary sector, but it was also observed that only 11.72% of farmed area is operated by them, the widened ratio of workforce and percentage farm operated by women narrates the abyss and exposes the deep seated systemic biases that neglects their contribution in the sector. It also reports the gender biased unequal payments, as women earn ₹82 for every work that men do at ₹100. This disparity in wages leads to lesser financial freedom, and more financial pressure on the already impoverished family especially when the woman is a single mother. The complexity enhances, when the landholdings of women is only 13% according to the MoAFW, as a result women are barred from the benefits of microfinancing, unauthorized to have financial credits and loans. In the Indian patriarchal setup, the male heir is regarded as the primary successor of intergenerational wealth and property, on the other hand the female child is merely left with any property of her own, a situation since this when amalgamates with the fact that the rural male workforce dropped from 55% to 49% in the wake of migration,it leads the women of the family to toil in the field without any credits, assets / resources peak drudgery, less wages, poor yields, and a lesser marketed surplus undermines the nutritional security of the family, lack of nourishment and neglected upbring of their children.
Since Ages, women have been the flag bearers of resource conservation. And when we get ourselves in the acute predicament of climate change, women are coming forward to save seeds, local cultivars, optimizing natural resources, conserving the forests even at the cost of their lives. For instance, the Chizami village seedbank of Nagaland conserves 150 landrace varieties of rice, millets and pulses in collaboration with Northeast Network. The Jal Sahelis (Friends of water) of Bundelkhand, build the check dams and water saving structures to improve water supplies of the farming families. For the conventional Indian society, it is high time to acknowledge that women who can make judicious use of resources and don’t let any family member go to the bed empty stomach are perfectly able to deal with the intricacies of farming. An analysis of this data highlights the need for targeted government intervention to identify and empower landless women farmers. Existing initiatives, such as the Namo Drone Didi scheme and the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), must be expanded to provide targeted subsidies and land access. NGOs should enhance their extension. system and conduct women focussed demos, training on POPs, value addition, financing, market of Ag. commodities. etc.
To prevent land grabbing and unlawful dispossession following a landowner’s death, transparent legal mechanisms such as real-time land mutation updates must be enforced. Ensuring landless women farmers have direct, seamless communication with local administrative bodies is vital for enabling them to assert their legal ownership. It is tragic that millions of women toil as hard as men in the fields only to remain invisible and stripped of their legal entitlements due to systemic loopholes. Before this crisis deepens beyond repair, urgent policy reforms are needed to secure their rights. Where women farmers will have to live a dreadful life void of asset ownership, financial security, and basic health guarantees, ultimately stripped of their fundamental right to a dignified life.
(The authors are from the KVK, Ri-Bhoi & Indian Agricultural Research Institute, ICAR-RCNEH, Umiam)
