2 months ago
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As we celebrated Women’s Day connected March 8 this year, we besides celebrated the International Year of the Woman Farmer (announced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization). It was an accidental to recognise the publication of moving women to India’s cultivation economy. As authoritative statistic bash not springiness a implicit representation of the standard of participation, benignant of work, and economical publication of women, it is tract information that we indispensable crook to. It tells america that portion women’s labour is cardinal to harvest and livestock production, the remuneration to women workers is highly debased and stagnating.
Counting women workers
First and foremost, we deficiency close accusation connected however galore women are really engaged successful agriculture, livestock rearing, fisheries and different allied activities. Large-scale labour unit surveys (such arsenic the Periodic Labour Force Surveys) are incapable to seizure women workers accurately due to the fact that successful a mostly informal agrarian economy, women’s enactment is often home- oregon farm-based, unpaid, seasonal, intermittent (even implicit the people of a azygous day), and intermingled with attraction work. For example, a pistillate responsive whitethorn not study herself arsenic a “worker” if her time involves aggregate tasks of kid attraction interspersed with carnal rearing.
What authoritative labour unit surveys archer america is that women’s enactment information successful agrarian India has risen sharply successful caller years. Among agrarian girls and women aged 15 years and above, 46.5% were successful the workforce successful 2023-24 arsenic compared to 35% successful 2011-12. This inactive remains little than the remainder of the world: according to the International Labour Office, women’s enactment information was successful the scope 57%-63% successful a bulk of countries.
Hidden down this statistic that shows a emergence successful agrarian women workers lies a little blessed reality, namely, that the emergence is mostly successful the number of ‘self-employed’ women, reflecting a deficiency of wage employment opportunities. In 2011-12, 60% of agrarian women workers were classified arsenic self-employed; the proportionality roseate to 73 per cent successful 2023–24. In the aforesaid period, the stock of women employed arsenic regular and casual wage workers fell. Further, the stock of self-employed women moving successful the cultivation assemblage roseate from 48% to 62%, and, of the full fig of self-employed workers successful agriculture, women comprised astir one-half (47.2%in 2023-24).
Put together, successful 2023-24, determination were astatine slightest 117.6 cardinal women moving successful agriculture (of whom 21.7 cardinal were hired workers, 95.1 cardinal were self-employed and 0.8 cardinal were regular workers). The estimated antheral workforce successful agriculture was 127.5 million.
The archetypal assemblage we see is harvest production. Official statistic cannot archer america the stock of women workers successful full labour deployed successful harvest cultivation arsenic gender-disaggregated information connected household labour are not collected. We supply an reply with information from village-level surveys conducted by the PARI task of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (www.fas.org.in/pari). From this unsocial database of 27 villages, we gully connected 2 villages, Palakurichi and Venmani, from Nagapattinam territory of Tamil Nadu (studied successful 2019) and 2 villages (Harveli and Mahatwar) from occidental and eastbound Uttar Pradesh (studied successful 2023).
As a socio-economic classification of households successful these villages is available, we absorption connected the peasantry and manual idiosyncratic households, who represent the majority. We person excluded landlord oregon capitalist husbandman households, and those engaged successful concern oregon salaried employment.
In the 4 selected villages, women accounted for astir one-third of household labour (except the colony successful occidental Uttar Pradesh wherever it was lower). When household and hired labour are combined, women accounted for the large stock successful Palakurichi (61%) and Venmani (57%) successful Tamil Nadu, and astir 41% successful Mahatwar colony of eastbound Uttar Pradesh. These differences arose connected relationship of respective factors including harvest prime and farming systems, and the socio-economic creation of households. Nevertheless, the cardinal connection is that harvest cultivation relies heavy connected women’s labour.
The 2nd assemblage is livestock rearing, 1 of the fastest increasing sectors wrong agriculture, and wherever women represent the superior enactment force. The PARI colony studies amusement that successful family-based livestock rearing (particularly milch cattle and poultry), astir tasks are performed by women. If a household owned cattle, inevitably a pistillate participated successful livestock labour, spending astir 2 hours for each carnal reared. At past count, 40 cardinal agrarian households owned milch animals (All India Debt and Investment Survey, 2018-19), suggesting that astir 40 cardinal women were engaged successful carnal rearing.
The 3rd assemblage is wage labour. As mechanisation has progressed and aggregate request for labour successful agriculture has declined, truthful has the request for women’s labour. Our estimates amusement that the stock of women workers successful full casual labour employment successful harvest accumulation ranged from 16% to 71% crossed the 4 villages, but was much than one-third successful each but the occidental U.P. colony (where labour hiring is much analyzable fixed the standard of sugarcane cultivation). And, these women hired workers belonged not lone to manual labour households but besides to the little rungs of the peasantry.
Earnings and wages
For a workforce of much than 100 million, the question of remuneration is intelligibly important. What is the level of explicit oregon implicit net obtained by a pistillate idiosyncratic successful agriculture today?
For wage workers, the prevailing wage complaint is observable. At today’s prices, a pistillate idiosyncratic successful agriculture earned little than ₹300 a time successful each 4 villages. The sex spread successful wages was higher successful those regions with wide higher wage levels. Women’s wages (₹290) were little than 50% of antheral wages successful the 2 villages of Tamil Nadu; successful the 2 villages of Uttar Pradesh, women’s wages were little (₹242-₹276) but truthful were men’s wages and the sex spread was narrower.
Official statistic uncover a akin story. In November 2025, according to the Labour Bureau, the mean all-India regular wage for cultivation enactment (sowing/transplanting/weeding) for a pistillate was ₹384. There were, of course, variations crossed States, with women workers successful Kerala receiving the highest regular wage (₹646). Furthermore, information amusement that wages corrected for ostentation person hardly risen implicit the past decade.
There are nary authoritative information connected women’s net successful livestock earnings, and we estimated the implicit regular earning, based connected income generated from animals implicit the twelvemonth (based connected accumulation of milk, dung) and full hours of work. In the 2 U.P. villages, wherever milch animals were wide held, the implicit regular earning was astir ₹100. In short, women earned lone two-fifths of the prevailing cultivation wage complaint for their labour successful cattle rearing.
Turning to harvest production, it is hard to estimation net per worker, arsenic galore members of a household whitethorn lend to production. Suffice to enactment that successful each 4 survey villages, the instrumentality from harvest accumulation was low, averaging little than ₹16,000 a twelvemonth successful the eastbound U.P. colony and little than ₹24,000 successful Palakurichi, the Tamil Nadu village. Even if fractional the income was apportioned to women, their incomes would not beryllium high.
The representation truthful far
It is wide that women present represent astir one-half of the cultivation workforce successful India (the existent fig is apt to beryllium higher for the reasons mentioned above). The bulk of agrarian women were self-employed workers, but lone 10% of agrarian women owned land, the superior plus for a cultivator. Turning to cultivation workers, women workers present (21.7 million) transcend the fig of antheral workers (19.7 million), a first-time occurrence successful post-Independence India, but wage rates for women are debased successful implicit terms, with a fewer exceptions, and uncover a ample sex wage gap.
Women workers clasp up fractional the entity successful agrarian India. The Indian authorities has failed to correctly grounds the fig of women workers, and to guarantee that they person decent wages and each rights arsenic workers.
Women prolong India’s farming system but stay underpaid and undercounted
Madhura Swaminathan is erstwhile Professor, Indian Statistical Institute. Arindam Das is Joint Director, Foundation for Agrarian Studies
