Year: 2018 | Month: December | Volume 5 | Issue 2
Farm Women in Indian Agriculture: Facts and Interpretations
P.K. Das
DOI:10.30954/2347-9655.02.2018.7
Abstract:
Women are the backbone of the development of rural and national economics. They compromise 43% of world’s agricultural labour force, which rises to 70% in some countries. In the Indian subcontinent the agriculture sector workforce was reported to be 75% in 2011. In rural India the percentage of women who depend in agriculture for their livelihood is as high as 84%; women make up about 33% of cultivators and 47% of agricultural labourers. In as many as 23 of 29 Indian states, women’s share in total workforce in agriculture, forestry and fisheries is over 50%. They spend about 30 hours in a week doing agricultural works. The traditional agricultural methods heavily utilized by women subsistence farmers boast environment friendly features such as seed preservation, natural fertilizers and crop rotation techniques that do not exhaust delicate soil. Sadly women are grossly discriminated in several respects. In all activities there is gender wage disparity, with women earning only 60 to 70% of men’s wage. Many women in India participate in agricultural work as unpaid subsistence labour. Gender disparity in farm work varies from state to state and is relatively less in the hilly areas where agriculture depends heavily on females. Gender work participation disparity with index values ranges from 0.34 to .059. General trend records the lack of property ownership and farm land the resources for keeping up their labour stability and stability of their households. The existing grave situation is farther assuming complex dimension with the growing feminization of Indian farming due to increasing migration of rural men for better employability and remuneration. Empowerment of women without gender disparity to safe guard food security is great concern for national economy.
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