Programmes for rural women in India

1. Policy and Programmes for
empowerment of women farmers:
Challenges for convergence
Dr. Pawan Kumar Sharma
Subject Matter Specialist (Agril. Economics)
Krishi Vigyan Kendra Poonch
SKUAST-Jammu

2. • From equal status with men in ancient times through the low
points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal
rights by many reformers.
• The history of women in India has been eventful. In modern
India, women have adorned high offices in India including
that of the President, Prime minister, Speaker of the Lok
Sabha and Leader of the Opposition.
• As of 2012, the President of India, the Speaker of the Lok
Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (Lower
House of the parliament) were all women.
• Active participation of any community in the development
process is recognized as a tool for its empowerment.
The changing status of women in India

3. Indian population is 48.1% women and 51.9%
men.
Female illiteracy is 62% whereas the male
illiteracy rate is 34%
The labour force participation rate of women
is 22.7%, less than half of the men's rate of
51.6%
In rural India, agriculture and allied industrial
sectors employ as much as 89.5% of the total
female labour.
Key Facts

4. Women have extensive work loads with dual
responsibility for farm and household
production.
Women's work is getting harder and more
time-consuming due to ecological
degradation and changing agricultural
technologies and practices.
Women have an active role and extensive
involvement in livestock production, forest
resource use and fishery processing

5. Women contribute considerably to
household income through farm and
nonfarm activities as well as through work
as landless agricultural labourers.
Women's work as family labour is
underestimated .
There are high degrees of inter-state and
intra-state variations in gender roles in
agriculture, environment and rural
production.

6. Statistics of women workers in India
Particulars Million %
Total women population in India 494.83 100
Total Women workers 127.05 25.67548
Total women main workers 72.65 14.68181
Total women marginal workers 54.4 10.99367
Total women owner cultivators 41.3 8.346301
Total women Agriculture wage workers 50.09 10.12267
Total women Household industry workers 8.08 1.632884
Total women other workers 27.57 5.57161
Total women in organosed sectors 4.8 0.97003
Total women in Livestock, Forestry, Fishing,
Hunting, Plantation, Orchards and activities 1.32 0.266758

8.  Cattle management, Fodder collection, Milking
Responsible for household food and nutrition
security.
90% of the hoeing and weeding in food
production.
80% of the work on food storage and transport.
More than 90% of post harvest management
including food processing, providing water and
energy.
More than 60% of harvesting and marketing
Allied Activities carried out by women

9. Why women in agriculture?
• Eradicating poverty
• Ensuring food security
• Promoting their own well being
• Their increasing stake in agriculture
• Decreasing economic contribution
• Ownership in livestock, land , etc. is limited
Statistics:
• While only 53% of the male population is involved in
agriculture, the corresponding numbers for the female
population was a 85% of all rural female workers.
Source: Report submitted to the Working Group Gender Issue, PRIs, PPPs, Innovative Finance and
Microfinance in Agriculture in the 11th Five Year Approach Plan

10. Percentage distribution of workers (main + marginal) according
Categories of worker by sex and by sector during 2001 for India.

11. Women’s constraints to economic
empowerment
• Time poverty; women have competing demands on their
time due to their productive and reproductive
responsibilities
• Limited access to productive resources; less than 10% of
registered land titles were under women.
• Lack of access to financial services; women access less than
10% of credit to smallholder agricultural and less than 1%
of credit to agriculture. In 2014 on average a woman
received Rs. 12 of bank credit per scheduled bank
• Lack of access to markets

12. Invisibility of Women’s Work
 Conceptual Biases in Measurement
 Non recognition of Women’s role in decision making
 Historical and Complex Causes reinforced by social, cultural, political
and religious practices and beliefs
 Serious inaccuracies and measurement failure in the recording of the
work that women do due to conceptual and operational
(enumerators' and respondents') biases at the time of data collection.
 Engendering Agriculture reduced to women’s participation in training
programs for technology dissemination or micro credit.
 Non involvement of women in institutional work

13. Mainly rural women are engaged in agricultural
activities in three different ways depending on the
socio-economic status of their family and regional
factors. They are work as:
 Paid Labourers
 Cultivator doing labour on their own land and
 Managers of certain aspects of agricultural
production by way of labour supervision &
 the participation in post harvest operations.

14. Evolution of Policy
• Gender mainstreaming started from the VI Five Year Plan
when `opportunities for independent employment and
income’ for women was recognized as a necessary condition
for raising social status of women.
Plan Focus
6th Five Year Plan Shift from Welfare to Developmental Issues
7th Five Year Plan Raising Economic and Social Status of Women
8th Five Year Plan Increased Emphasis on Economic Activities
9th Five Year Plan From Development to Empowerment
10th Five Year Plan From Women Alone to Gender Mainstreaming
11th Five Year plan Propose to Move Towards a Holistic Approach

15. Persistence of Partial/ Compartmental
Approach
• Three components of Gender Mainstreaming Approach.
– Women’s Empowerment
– Capacity Building
– Access to Inputs as well as technology and resources
• Need for a coordinated approach across Ministries
• Schemes undertaken by the various Ministries will ultimately
converge towards the goal of women’s empowerment.
• Introduction of Component Plan for Women in all development
plans during the Ninth Five Year Plan was a step in this
direction.

16. Tasks for Gender
Mainstreaming in
Agriculture
Main
Ministries
Role of Ministry of
Agriculture
Women’s Empowerment
(human capital formation,
exposure, leadership,
autonomy, Self esteem, and
food security)
MoA, MoRD,
Social
welfare,
HRD, Health
Gender Focused Strategy for Agri.
Growth (main contributor along
with other Ministries)
Capacity Building in
Agriculture (dissemination of
information and technology)
MoA Various Extension and Training
Programmes (Almost the sole
contributor)
Access to Agricultural Inputs
(including land, water and
credit besides agri-inputs).
MoRD, MoA,
MoEF
Access to Agricultural Inputs,
Formation of SHGs, Marketing
Facilities (partial contributor with
MoRD and MoEF having a major
control over property rights
regimes).

17. Why we need policies for Women farmers
• Changing demographics of agriculture - growing
feminisation as men move to non-farm.
• 53% of all men workers, 75 % of all women workers,
85% of rural women workers are in agriculture.
• More than 20% of rural households de facto female-
headed. Many women managing farms without
male support.
• Women are 40% of agricultural workforce & %
rising. The face of agriculture is increasingly female
Hence achieving agricultural growth targets will
depend increasingly on policies that increase the
efficiency of women farmers

18. Policies and Programmes for
women farmers

19. National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture
(NRCWA).
19
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research established the
NRCWA in the month of April 1996 at Bhubaneswar and has
since been upgraded as the Directorate of Research on Women
in Agriculture (DRWA) from the year 2008.
DRWA is carrying out basic, strategic and applied research on
various gender related issues in agriculture; a repository of
gender disaggregated data and documentation; technology
testing and refinement; drudgery assessment and reduction;
gender sensitive extension approach; capacity building of
scientists and functionaries; efficient resource management; and
gender mainstreaming.

20. Programmes with special components for women
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA),
 Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) now
restructured as National Rural Livelihood Mission (Aajeevika)
and
 Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY).
The implementation of these programmes is monitored
specifically with reference to coverage of women.
Having Quantitative measurement
Having limited Quantitative measurement
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

21.  During the year 2012-13 (up to 27th Dec.
2012) total employment of 134.76 crore
person days were reported to have been
generated.
 The employment generated for women were
reported as 71.88 crore persondays which is
53.34% of total employment generated
under this Programme.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MGNREGA),

22. To increase participation rates of women workers in
MGNREGA, the Ministry has suggested
MGNREGA Operational Guidelines 2013
 Individual bank/post office accounts min the name of all
women MGNREGA workers and their wages directly
credited to their own account for the number of days
worked by them.
 Identify widowed women, deserted women and destitute
women who qualify as a household under the Act, to
ensure that they are provided 100 days of work.
 To ensure that pregnant women and lactating mothers (at
least up to 8 months before delivery and 10 months after
delivery) are given works which require less effort and are
close to their houses.

23.  To conduct time and motion studies to formulate gender,
age, level of disability, terrain and climate sensitive
Schedule of Rates (SoRs) and to ensure accurate capturing
of work done by women at worksites.
 To ensure that at least 50% of the worksite supervisors
(mates) at all worksites are women.
 To ensure that worksite facilities such as crèches, drinking
water, shade etc. are provided through convergence with
Women and Child Development Schemes like ICDS.
 To encourage participation of women groups, including Self
Help Groups in awareness generation, capturing demand,
planning, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of
works.

24. National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)
A Self Help Group (SHG), of 10-20 women in general (5-
20 in difficult areas) is the primary building block of the
NRLM institutional design. NRLM would promote SHGs
with exclusive women membership.
NRLM is working with groups of exclusive women
membership because it recognizes that women are
marginalized in the economy, in polity and in society.
NRLM will especially focus on women headed
households, single women, women victim of trafficking,
women with disability and other such vulnerable
categories.

25. An important component of NRLM is the
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)
which aims at supporting women farmers.
MKSP seeks to reduce drudgery for women
farmers.
During the year 2012-13 (upto 22-01-2013) out
of 5,69,912 swarojgaris assisted, 4,77,944
swarojgaris (83.86%) were women.
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)

26. Aims at providing assistance for the construction of houses
to the people Below the Poverty Line in rural areas.
Priority is extended to widows and unmarried women. IAY
houses are to be allotted in the name of women members
of the household or, alternatively, in the joint names of
husband and wife.
The total number of Dwelling Units sanctioned during the
period 2012-13 (upto 22nd November, 2012) was 2215637
out of which 1329550 (60%) houses were sanctioned in
the name of women and 561962 (25.36%) houses were
sanctioned jointly in the name of husband and wife.
Indira Awaas Yojana

27. Enhancing role of women in Indian agriculture
1. Skill empowerment.
• By training in the area of various operations:
 Field operations
 Conservation of biodiversity
 Nutritional bio-security
 Vocational training
 Organic farming

28. 2. Technology development for women
Designing of tools for various field operations
b. Animal husbandry
i. Artificial insemination.
ii. Veterinary knowledge
c. For side income
i. Mushroom cultivation
ii. Floriculture

29. 3. Creation of self help groups
a. For financial support
b. For generation of employment
4. Projection of contribution of women by collecting
and analysing data
a. Collection and display of data
b. Projection of successful women in agriculture
c. Representation of their contribution in economic
terms
5. Providing Financial Powers
a. Giving representation in land holdings

30. Recommendations to enhance women’s land access
 Improving claims in family land
 Enhance legal awarness on inheritance laws
(e.g. Hindu succession (amendment) act, 2005)
 Provide legal support services (also financial help)
 Ensure recording ,women’s inheritnance shares
 Improving access to public land
 Issue comprehensive directive: all land transfers (for
poverty alleviation, resettlement, etc) recognize
women’s claims
 Give women individual or group titles not joint titles
with husbands.

31.  Use group approach: distribute land to poor rural
women as a group in a group patta. Each woman in
group have use rights but not right to dispose off
land.
 Improving access to land via market
 Subsidized credit to poor for land purchase or lease
 Encourage group formation for land purchase or
lease by poor women, & group cultivation.
 MONITER ACCESS: Gender disaggregated data for
land ownership and use

32. Recommendations to improve efficiency of women farmers
Agricultural infrastructure. Gender-sensitive technical support,
extension, information on new agricultural practices to
women farmers
Encourage land pooling for cultivation (since 72% of farms are
marginal, < 1 hectare)
Encourage group investment in equipment etc via subsidized
credit to women farmers working in groups
Advance production credit specifically for women farmers
Ensure women’s access to input and marketing cooperatives
Women’s effective presence in village decision-making bodies
Gender sensitizing through the media, educational insitutions,
etc.

33. • Agricultural infrastructure. Gender-sensitive technical
support, extension, information on new agricultural practices
to women farmers
• Encourage land pooling for cultivation (since 72% of farms
are marginal, < 1 hectare)
• Encourage group investment in equipment etc via subsidized
credit to women farmers working in groups
• Advance production credit specifically for women farmers
• Ensure women’s access to input and marketing cooperatives
• Women’s effective presence in village decision-making
bodies
• Gender sensitizing through the media, educational
insitutions, etc.

34. Strengthening factual basis of gendering
knowledge
• Women’s predominant engagement within the
household/family and in non-monetised contributions
requires visibility through new methods and measures .
• Data collecting agencies, especially the Statistical
Commission need to revise the definitions and methods
of bringing visibility to women’s contributions and
constraints .
• Conceptualising of plan and policies is limited by lack of
gendered data on
– Difference in regional characteristics see table
– Cultural specificities
– Contributions to Savings , Revenues