In rural India, a silent transformation is taking root. As men migrate to cities in search of better livelihoods, women are increasingly becoming the backbone of agriculture. India’s female agricultural labour force is now managing farms, livestock, and food systems. This feminisation of agriculture, though real and rising, is barely visible in our data, laws, or policies.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2024, women now make up over 42% of the agricultural workforce. Yet, most do not own the land they till. Their labour is often unpaid, their voices unheard, and their contribution uncounted. Defining a farmer solely through land ownership has left millions of women invisible in the eyes of the state. The system sees them as helpers. Not decision-makers.
Land ownership defines power. And that power is missing.
The primary reason India’s female agricultural workforce remains unrecognised is simple: land titles. Despite doing a majority of the agricultural labour, most women do not legally own the land they farm. In India, land continues to be inherited and registered in the names of men. That is true even in households where women run farm operations independently.
A study from rural Karnataka, part of a global research initiative, revealed stark disparities in decision-making between men and women within farming households. Despite women managing daily tasks, men often retained control over key decisions, especially in male-headed households. In many cases, even when men migrate for work, they continue to control farm-related decisions remotely. It is especially in instances where land remains in their name.
Ownership is not just about land. Instead, it is about access to credit, government schemes, subsidies, and dignity. A woman without a land title is not considered a farmer. She is merely a “worker”, even if she is the one running the show.
More work, less credit: The cost of being unseen
The rise in women’s agricultural work is not matched by better pay, visibility, or status. With the increase in self-employment among rural women, often interpreted as a sign of empowerment, comes a worrying truth. The truth is that most of this work is unpaid labour on family farms or small plots that do not generate direct income.
Women perform the most physically demanding and time-intensive agricultural tasks. These tasks involve harvesting, sowing, and livestock care. However, they rarely have access to training, credit, or modern technologies. Tools, inputs, and advisories are still designed for and distributed to male farmers.
A 2023 study revealed that women in rural Maharashtra, despite operating farms, were still not part of formal agricultural cooperatives or market negotiations. They lacked mobile access, were excluded from weather advisories, and relied on male intermediaries for basic agrarian information.
Patriarchy in data: What surveys do not show about India’s female agricultural labour force
Even India’s most extensive surveys, such as the National Sample Survey (NSS) or PLFS, measure household-level ownership and poverty. However, all of them fail to measure the intra-household inequality. Who owns the land in the family? Who makes the decisions, and who has access to the credit? These are gendered questions with significant policy implications, yet they remain unanswered.
As researcher Hema Swaminathan noted, there is a gap in gender-disaggregated data. The absence of this data makes women’s contribution invisible and policies ineffective. Without knowing who owns and who works, we cannot build equitable agricultural reforms.
Case for reform: Beyond symbolic inclusion
It is no longer enough to say women work in agriculture. They drive agriculture. What India needs now are structural reforms:
- Joint Land Titles must be mandated, especially in schemes where government land distribution or homestead allocation is involved.
- Gender-responsive extension services must be made inclusive. They must ensure that women get access to training, credit, and agritech.
- Women’s cooperatives and market linkages need urgent scaling to break the cycle of dependency on mediators.
- Gender-disaggregated data collection should be made a core policy mandate.
- States like West Bengal, which have initiated land registrations in women’s names, must extend this to cultivable land, not just homesteads.
We must not only count women; we must count on them.
The female agricultural labour force deserves rights, not recognition alone
The issue is not just invisibility, but also systemic exclusion. A 42% share in the workforce should come with 42% of the power, 42% of the decision-making, and 42% of the policy focus. Anything less is performative.
As women step up to shoulder the burdens of the rural economy (amidst climate change, male outmigration, and economic distress), they must not be seen as stopgaps. They are not temporary workers. We must consider them as farmers in their own right.
We must urgently reimagine our laws, surveys, and systems through a gender-inclusive lens. Because India’s agricultural future depends not just on growing crops, but on growing equity.
Read More: Women in Agriculture: From 64% of the workforce to just 10% in leadership — Where are we failing?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the writer’s insights, supported by data and resources available both online and offline, as applicable. Changeincontent.com is committed to promoting inclusivity across all forms of content. We broadly define inclusivity as encompassing media, policies, law, and history, which collectively influence the lives of women and marginalised individuals. Our goal is to promote understanding and advocate for comprehensive inclusivity.
