Women Farmers of India

Context

To empower the women farmers in India, there should be some shift in the recognition of the women farmers to rights, justice and policy reforms which can be put in practice. Although they engage a lot of agricultural practice, they experience systemic land, institutional credit, and, extension services exclusion. They need to have their, rights to land, gender-disaggregated data, and, customized technological assistance to have, sustainable rural development and food security.

The Invisible Backbone: Current Scenario

• Feminisation of Agriculture: With more men migrating, the rest of the women are left with the chores of cultivating the land but their efforts are not appreciated or compensated.
• Structural Exclusion: Men have a large share of the land ownership, which implies that women do not get access to bank loans, insurance, and government, as well as agricultural schemes.
• Legal and Social Restrictions: Although women have the right to inherit property through the law, there are social and administrative obstacles that women need to overcome before registering land in their names.

Rights and Justice: A Strategic Approach

• Redefining Farmer: Move away with land-ownership based definitions to activity-based definitions, as proposed by the, National Policy for Farmers.
• Land Rights Acceleration: Proactively encourage joint, spouse land titles and should also prioritize land/housing registration in the name of women to give them legal empowerment.
• Data Justice: Require that gender-disaggregated data be collected and used in order to facilitate proper planning and targeting of policies.

Actionable Measures for Empowerment

1. Institutional Support and Credit: Facilitate access to, micro-credit, insurance as well as input services to women, regardless of whether they are landholders or not.
2. Technological Empowerment: Supply, labour-saving, small scale machinery that is women friendly, which minimises the burden and maximises output.
3. Extension Services & Training: Customize training and spreading knowledge to handle, climate-resilient agriculture and market, information with specific emphasis to women collectives.
4. Empowering Collectives: Use, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), and, farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to facilitate collective, bargaining power to the input purchasing and product marketing activities.

Conclusion

Achieving justice for women farmers requires moving beyond, symbolism to concrete, actions that, legitimize their role. Only when women, gain control over resources can India achieve true, food security, sustainable agriculture, and, economic equality.

Source: The Hindu

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