‘A Distant Dream’: The Slow Road to Equality for India’s Women Farmers

Women farmers make up bulk of the labor force all over the world, especially in the developing
world, yet their recognition is marginal leading to double marginalization. Giving recognition to the huge
role played by women in the farming sector, October 15 has been designated as ‘National women
farmer’s day’, which is a welcome move.

There has been growing debates over the role of women farmers and how farming is seen
largely as a masculine job. To put this into perspective, women accounts for around 83 per cent of the
farm labor and around 48 per cent as agricultural farmers. Despite being the largest contributor in
almost every farming activity, the land ownership is meager 2 per cent, if several reports are to be
believed. With land fragmentation and crop failures leading to males opting out of agriculture towards
urban work, there is increasing feminization of agriculture in the country. However, making agriculture
women friendly is a distant dream. Women are not able to operate large machines, institutional credit is
few due to lack of collateral, and the whole spectrum of policy makers and implementers are largely
male.

Moving forward as a nation, it is high time the women farmers are given their deserved
recognition. Interventions in agriculture should be designed keeping women in mind. Making farm
machinery women friendly, providing institutional credit, farm literacy and gender sensitization should
be the priority to move forward in a sustainable way taking the missing women in agriculture with us.