In India, around 43% of cultivators and 63.9% of agricultural labourers are women (Periodic labour force survey 2022-23), but the land holdings by women are only 10.37% (Agriculture Census 2010-11). Despite their substantial contribution to agriculture, a significant number of women farmers face challenges in accessing and owning agricultural land. Women from marginalised backgrounds are even more vulnerable. The percentage of operational land holdings of women from the Scheduled caste is 0.65%, from the Scheduled Tribes, it is 1.35%  (Agriculture census, 2010-11)

Data source: Agriculture census 2010-11, Table 14

Why should women farmers have land rights?
Pushpa (54) is a farmer in Karnataka, India. She has been practising agriculture for the last 20 years, all alone after her husband passed away. Agriculture was the only source of income for her family. Being the sole breadwinner, she worked hard to cultivate vegetables on the one and a half acres of land her family owned and raised both her kids. Her son works in a nearby school now, and her daughter is married off. She said she has never received any financial support from the government through any schemes because the land was registered in her husband’s name, and since she was illiterate, she was unaware of the process of registering the land in her name. “It was very difficult in many seasons to cultivate with the little capital I had; if I had more capital, I would have cultivated more and earned better,” Pushpa said.

Land rights are very important for women farmers, as they serve as a gateway to economic agency, social autonomy, and gender equity within the household. Secure access to land enhances women’s bargaining power within households, enabling them to assert their preferences in decision-making processes related to farming and household expenditures. Moreover, land ownership provides women with a safety net, shielding them from economic vulnerability in times of crisis such as crop failure or marital dissolution. Additionally, control over land resources allows women to invest in agricultural inputs, adopt innovative farming techniques, and diversify their income streams, thus contributing to enhanced productivity and sustainable rural development.

“Land to the tiller,” but what about the women who do all the other work besides tilling?

When it comes to women’s empowerment, issues on domestic violence, sexual abuse, education, employment, etc., which are undoubtedly important, are mostly battled for; however, issues on land rights are often overlooked. And, when it comes to land reforms, issues on land distribution based on class and caste are battled for, but not for women farmers’ land rights. Even the Bhoodan movement of Vinobha bhave in India, which advocated for land redistribution to the landless labourers and tillers with the powerful slogan “land to the tiller,” had shed no much light on the gender angle of the issue.

The discourse surrounding land rights for women in India has been propelled by a few historical movements and legal milestones, underscoring the imperative of gender equality within the agricultural landscape. The Bodhgaya movement of 1978, the Chatara Yuva Sangharshana, and the Shetkari Sanghatana movement have all prominently highlighted the plight of women farmers in India, shedding light on their marginalised status and advocating for their rights to land ownership and control.

Internationally, frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARD) have underscored the importance of ensuring women’s equal access to and control over land resources as a fundamental human right.

The Hindu Code Bill of 1942 sought to reform and codify Hindu personal laws relating to marriage, succession, adoption, and maintenance. This was a significant step towards gender parity in land ownership, ensuring that daughters could inherit ancestral property as equal coparceners, irrespective of whether the father was alive at the time of the amendment.

Long way to go…
All these significant occurrences had undoubtedly made an impact, but there are still millions of women in rural India like Shoba, her daughter-in-law, and neighbours who buried their identity in patriarchy. Many more reforms are needed to make women in the agriculture sector believe that they too are farmers and to support women farmers. The patriarchal system is very complicated to break, even in matriarchal communities like Meghalaya; women, despite having land rights, have no autonomy when it comes to decision-making. So, the question of “Are land rights enough?” is very valid, but plays a vital role in uplifting the lives of farmers like Pushpa. Ironically, Pushpa said she didn’t give land to her daughter because she is married off into a well-settled family, and her husband takes good care of her, the same as the answer of Shoba. This mindset and system are what have to be broken for women to realise the importance of their voice.

Way forward
Land rights for women Farmers are not only important for an equitable society but are also central to achieving sustainable development:

• Equal access to farmland;
• Decision-making power for women;
• The right to live and thrive independently.

It is also evident that equal access to land also builds economic resilience, food security, better nutrition for children, and environmental stewardship. It is not only an important strategy to build equitable, sustainable, inclusive societies but also leads to sustainable development.