Making farm sector equitable for women

To protect India's farmers, the government has stood firm - at considerable cost - against the US push to open up the country's agriculture sector.

- Lalita Panicker

However, much more is needed to remedy the Indian farm sector's plight, especially that of its women. The word kisan often invokes the image of a doughty male farmer ploughing the field, the epitome of hard work and productivity. But, in reality, around 80% of women in the economy are engaged in agricultural work and a significant 40% of the agricultural workforce is women. They are largely invisibilised, which is why agricultural policies are mostly male-centric. Women are rarely identified as farmers as they do not have access to landholdings. Less than 10% of women actually own the land they cultivate. So, a woman works on her father's farm, or her husband's land or even her son's land, but she is almost never the owner. Since women are not categorised as farmers in most cases, they also do not have access to the extension services that the government provides for agriculture.