Soupçon III, In Memoriam Series, IV.iv

                            Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.iv                                    International Year of the Woman Farmer  

As the issue of women farmers is related to the concept of inclusive growth, how about looking at some facts? In IV. iii, we mentioned the percentage of land holding when it comes to women farmers. 

It is indeed a sad ratio because in India, women form forty percent of the agricultural workforce, while they undertake minimum eighty per cent of the farm related labour!

The situation is now much worse because of the huge explosion of men's migration, given the rapid rise in urbanisation. As a result, there is a feminisation of the agricultural sector. That is to say, women, often elderly, even senior citizens, look after agriculture which gets reduced to non-paid family work! 

Even as farm hands, there is, despite the scarcity, huge disparity in wages when it comes to women and agriculture. Women as farm hands get at least thirty per cent less than their make counterparts! 

In IV.v of our series, we shall look at a few more problems women face in the agricultural sector. We shall also look at some schemes floated by the State Government.

Pratima Agnihotri