MAKAAM - CHARTER OF DEMANDS FOR WOMEN FARMERS

By 2011-12 (68th NSSO Round), 48.9% of the total workers in India were in Agriculture (43.6 male and 62.8 female), 24.3% in Secondary (25.9% male and 20% female) and 26.8% in Tertiary (30.5% male and 17.2% female). As per this 68th Round of NSSO, 64.1% of rural workers in India were engaged in Agriculture, when it comes to distribution by industry of work. It is worth noting that this comprises of 59% of the ‘usual status’ male workers and 75% of female workers in rural India. Most rural women are “self-employed”, that too in agriculture, working on the family’s land and hiding a large proportion of unpaid labour (Significantly more rural females as “self-employed” (593), than casual labour (351) or regular wage/salaried (56) in every 1000 rural female workers (2011-12)).

Data compiled from Census 2011 on Cultivators and Agricultural Labourers reflects a similar picture: 65.1% of female workers depend on agriculture, either as cultivators or agricultural labourers, while only 49.8% of male workers do the same.

In terms of absolute numbers, 14.98 crore female workers are in agriculture (cultivators: 3.60 crores and agricultural labourers: 6.16 crores.



Other empirical evidence shows that women carry out 60-75% of all farming related work across most regions of India and across most crops grown. More women-days go into farming than men-days in a variety of agricultural operations, which are divided and performed based on gender. Gender wage gaps are widely prevalent when it comes to differential wage rates for men and women in rural India, however.

As per Agriculture Census 2010-11, the percentage share of female operational holdings in total operational land holdings is only 12.79% and the share in operated area is only 10.36%. Meanwhile, coming to land ownership, recent reports indicate that only 6% of rural Indian households have at least one woman owning land. Out of all the rural households which own some land, 11% are households where at least one woman owns some land. 89% of rural households having some land keep out women from accessing any rights to such property despite agriculture and land being such an important part of an overwhelming majority of Indian rural women’s existence!

The term “farmer” evokes only the image of a male farmer and women farmers remain largely invisible as far as the State and society are concerned.

While the above is the case of lack of identity and citizenship for women farmers in general, the situation of more marginalized women like dalit and adivasi women requires much more attention and action. According to an ILO study, dalit and adivasi women farmers comprise 81% of farming women in India[i].

In 2007, based on the Kisan Ayog recommendations, the National Policy for Farmers was adopted and it defined a Farmer as ‘a person actively engaged in the economic and/or livelihood activity of growing crops and producing other primary agricultural commodities and will include all agricultural operational holders, cultivators, agricultural labourers, sharecroppers, tenants, poultry and livestock rearers, fishers, beekeepers, gardeners, pastoralists, non-corporate planters and planting labourers as well as persons engaged in various farming related occupations such as sericulture, vermiculture and agro-forestry. The term will also include tribals engaged in shifting cultivation and in the collection, use and sale of minor and non-timber forest produce’. Such a definition adopted in the official agricultural policy of India should have conferred the rightful recognition to, and supported women cultivators and agricultural workers, the ones who are visibly working in agricultural production but also those who declare themselves to be ‘principally engaged in housework’. It is worth noting that 61.6% of rural women aged 15 to 59 years report household work as their principal usual activity status, with 45% engaged in various activities for obtaining food for the household: working on kitchen gardens, maintaining household animal resources, collection of food and food processing activities. Even this so-called household work is therefore farming, technically speaking, as per the National Policy for Farmers, apart from the involvement of women reported as self-employed workers or casual labour in agriculture in a more overt and direct sense!

However, this policy definition of farmers, and therefore women farmers, has not been actualized in practice and women farmers continue to be invisible, neglected and discriminated against. Meanwhile, there is also evidence that shows that women, if provided the same support systems that are extended to male farmers and same access to resources, will produce 20-30% more in terms of productivity. There is also enormous evidence to show that recognizing women farmers is critical to addressing food security issues at all levels, in addition to meeting various development goals. Most importantly, women’s empowerment and equality with men as guaranteed in the Indian Constitution, requires that all their rights are upheld and protected.

While women work the hardest in this arena, lack of recognition as farmers – primarily because of land ownership resting in the hands of men in our patriarchal society – means that they are being denied the very basic livelihood rights. The agricultural research system, training and extension systems, marketing systems, risk insurance systems, credit and other support systems systematically ignore women. On the other side increasingly land, water and other natural resources are becoming alienable commodities vested into the hands of profit mongering corporations. Land rights for women needs to be located within this broader context of loot of natural resources.  

As a collective, MAKAAM believes that the State should restructure its policies around basic livelihood resources and their use and also reframe agricultural programs to enable the poor including women across different social groups to get ownership to livelihood resources and rightful access to government support and services. Our demands below should be read in the light of this broader framework and a proposal for change the MAKAAM wishes to bring about. The demands are broadly classified as Rights over Resources and Entitlements to support systems (schemes, subsidies, institutional participation etc.). Further, demands for various categories of women farmers have been listed in distinct sections of this Charter of Demands.

1. CHARTER OF DEMANDS FOR ENTITLEMENTS & SUPPORT TO WOMEN IN FARMING

Operationalize the definition of Farmer: Recognize women farmers including land owners and women working on others’ lands with a special focus on most marginalized, according to National Policy for Farmers 2007. Such an operationalization requires the inclusion of Women Tenant farmers, livestock-rearing women farmers, fisherwomen and women dependent on forests to be included in the definition.

Mainstream women farmers in all government programmes: The government should make policies which recognize women’s work in agriculture by providing support in all spheres of intervention related to rural farm livelihoods. This includes technical support in the form of agriculture implements to reduce drudgery. Support should be provided to develop innovative tools and technologies to reduce drudgery and propagate use of the tools. IEC material and support services to promote ecological agriculture need to be made available at the Panchayat level.

High priority should be given to rain-fed agriculture where small and marginal women farmers are involved, to promote food crops (with a focus on biodiverse crops like millets and vegetables) to ensure food security and climate change mitigation and adaptation (instead of cash crops such as cotton, maize etc).

Promote collective farming by women, allot land to landless women and invest to develop such land.

Convergence efforts to be strengthened to bring all agriculture-related services to women farmers’ doorsteps.

All women farmers to be provided identity cards and Kisan Credit Cards.

SPECIFIC DEMANDS RELATED TO ACCESS TO INPUTS

  • Existing financial institutions should have customized terms and conditions for loans to women farmers including SC, ST, Single women and differently abled women.
  • All women farmers including share croppers to have access to bank accounts (Jan Dhan Yojana), credit, irrespective of land title deeds – implementation of Kisan Credit Cards. Target to be set with a fixed allocation to incrementally reach at least 50%, for Kisan Credit Cards to be issued to women farmers. Implement the provision to provide credit at 4% for consumption as well as production without demanding collateral.
  • Government should make policies for women farmers to disburse capital for inputs to promote ecological agriculture
  • Financial support to be provided to women’s farmer collectives to lease or develop infrastructure for maintaining grain banks, seed banks, godowns for storage of crops and primary agriculture processing. Priority to be given to dalit, SC/ST hamlets.
  • Public investment to be increased to support women farmers in rain-fed farming to promote sustainable practices enhancing soil fertility (application of silt from lakes to the land).
  • Adequate and appropriate disaster compensation fund to be set aside, specifically to support women farmers.
  • Separate banks should be set up for marginalized farmers including smallholders and women farmers. Here, there should be space reserved for women farmers including in governance structures. Further, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies should be strengthened, with reservation of at least 50% for women at all levels.
  • In commercial banks also, there should be policy directives that lay down fixed allocations and priority/primacy given to marginalized farmers including women farmers in a proportionate fashion.
  • Rainfed women farmers should have similar levels of financial support and investment as irrigated farmers.
  • Public investments should be made in communitarian agro-enterprise development, with adequate handholding until the enterprise manages to take off, including on capacity building on various fronts.
  • To reduce the burden of gendered roles and responsibility related to food security and other household needs, and to also build on women’s existing skills and knowledge, women should be supported for running seed banks that revive seed diversity and promote seed self reliance; similarly, tool banks for drudgery reduction need to be set up in all villages.

2. DEMANDS RELATED TO WOMEN'S LAND RIGHTS

Gender-Disaggregated Data Base: All State Governments must initiate efforts to develop and maintain a gender disaggregated data base consisting of extent of land holdings (both public/assigned lands and private lands) by women across various castes, communities etc. This initiative must include recording women’s names in all relevant land records from the village level upwards such as in the cultivation records or Pahani along with their spouse’s name (where relevant), in the combined land revenue records (jamabandi records) as well as verifying Women’s rights in all cases of inheritance, whenever land titles are issued under the RoR Act etc. This exercise must be taken up and completed within a time-bound manner of 2 years and continuously updated. There is a need for advocacy with the Central Government (DoLR) to issue specific directions and clear guidelines to all State Governments to take up this exercise. Also, advocacy with State Governments to issue relevant Government orders to give effect to this exercise.

Prioritizing Landless Women in Public Land Distribution: All categories of landless single women, especially from SC, ST sections (including those from farm suicide affected households, liberated manual scavengers etc) must be enumerated and prioritised in various kinds of public land distribution initiatives of the State Governments. Enumeration of landless women must also be taken up in a time bound manner not exceeding 2 years and regularly updated.

Clear, Inalienable rights, including Succession Rights: Women beneficiaries or assignees in public land distribution programmes must be given clear, secure rights to lands assigned. In addition, there must be specific clauses in the title deed preventing alienation of the same lands assigned to these women for any other public purpose in future as well as succession rights which state that in the event of the women beneficiary’s death, the rights to the assigned land would be passed on to other eligible women in the household. Advocacy to get all State Governments to amend their relevant legislations related to public land in view of the above demands.

Land Purchase and Land Lease: All State Tenancy laws must be reviewed and suitably amended to allow leasing of all unused, potentially cultivable lands (endowment lands, ponds, water bodies, canal embankments, inland fisheries rights etc) to landless women’s groups while recognizing such groups (SHGs, JLG, cooperative, other collectives) as a valid category of landowners. The period of lease must be at least for a period of 10 years to begin with and to be revised for the same or longer period thereafter. All such landless women’s groups must be enumerated and given Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) for accessing credit as well as other support systems to sustainably carry out farming activities. A similar group approach must be adopted in land purchase initiatives of the Governments in various States.

Support Systems for Cultivation: Following land distribution, women beneficiaries who are often first generation farmers from marginalized SC and ST sections must be supported (whether individually or in groups) to carry out farming in a sustainable manner through provision of subsidized inputs, credit facilities, technology, protective irrigation, post harvesting processes and support for marketing their produce. MGNREGS and other government programmes must to be aligned for development of public lands assigned or leased out to women. State Governments must issue clear and specific guidelines in the form of relevant GO/GR in this regard.

Recruitment and Training of Personnel: At least 50% women personnel should be inducted at all levels into the State revenue departments, including the cadre of existing or potential legal extension/outreach workers, while Gender sensitization programmes must be made mandatory for all these revenue officials.. Appropriate gender sensitization programmes must be designed and provided to revenue officials at all levels through collaboration with the National Rural Livelihood Mission, institutions like NALSAR, Judicial academy, as well as by drawing upon the expertise of relevant civil society organisations and NGOs etc.

Women Resource Cells: A single window system in the form of ‘Women Resource Cell’ should be created from the mandal/block level upwards in the revenue departments in all States that aims to  address and resolve all land issues related to women in a time bound manner. The mandate of these resource cells must also include research, monitoring and evaluation in order to assess the progress of various interventions as well as to provide continuous feedback to address systemic and programmatic issues on a regular basis.

Legal Literacy and Awareness: All State Governments’ should take steps to spread legal literacy related to land issues amongst women, especially from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other marginalised (as per recommendations of the Draft National Land Reforms Policy and Advisory issued by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India) while ensuring that women benefit from targeted and accessible legal literacy campaigns and programmes to help them understand their rights to land and entitlements, and where to claim them (National Commission for Women’s Expert Committee on Gender and Land rights). Governments must also aim at Legal simplification and standardization of legal literacy campaigns targeting the poor, especially women (as per suggestions of the Report of the Commission of Legal Empowerment of the Poor).

Unused land available with government, Railways, irrigation department, canals highway department to be allotted to women farmer collectives for agriculture development and livelihood promotion.

Convert cultivable fallows into food production farms including millet, under women farmer leadership to produce millet, pulses, other food crops and fodder.

  • Relevant government departments should issue suitable directions to facilitate implementation of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in states.
  • Tribal development department should be strengthened to support the local communities in claiming their rights over community forests, and provide help to single women and women headed families in getting titles over their individual land.
  • Ownership of forest, land and other resources for single women and for women headed families should be recognized as a priority under FRA and cleared in a time bound manner. Such land must be developed with support of MGNREGA and ecological farming must be promoted in convergence with horticulture and agriculture department. In Orissa, the land recognition under FRA and MO JAMI Mo GHARA DIHA must be in the name of women instead of her husband/spouse.
  • Women’s participation should be ensured in the Forest Rights Committee and Forest Management Committees. Women elected representatives should be involved in enhancing women’s participation in villages where Community Forest Rights (CFR) titles have been awarded.
  • Government should develop aManagement Information Systems (MIS) like the one for MGNREGS to track the status of implementation of FRA. The MIS should contain gender disaggregated data.
  • Funds should be allocated under MGNREGA to Gram Sabhas to allow them to formulate and implement forest management plans under women’s leadership.
  • The criteria of 75 years residence for other forest dwellers to claim individual rights under FRA should be reviewed.
  • Denial of rights of other forest dwellers under recently issued guidelines by MoEF must be stopped. They have to be given ownership rights over the forest land.
  • Gram Sabha Consent must be mandatory to take up any projects which effect village forests’.
  • Women in the forest areas are most affected due to forcible displacement in the name of development. Consequent to such displacement, women face loss of livelihood and become increasingly vulnerable to ill health, trafficking and loose educational opportunities. Forcible displacement should be stopped in order to protect the dignity of women.
  • An urgent survey is required to assess the ground situation related to displacement due to conflict situation across the country. There is a real danger of Fifth Schedule areas becoming general areas due to large scale displacement of adivasis for various reasons. Active resettlement efforts should be taken up to ensure that entire communities and women feel safe in coming back to their habitations. Efforts must be made to restore livelihoods. Further those areas which should have been rightly declared as Fifth Schedule areas with long pending struggles being waged for the same, should be declared so.
  • Specific guidelines should be formulated to ensure that women farmers consent is taken separately as in cases of land acquisition. Further women’s concerns and needs must be separately recognized in compensation as well as R and R processes.
  • In cases where communities agree to displacement, the resettlement and rehabilitation process should ensure that the entire community is rehabilitated in one location and that the social fabric and livelihoods of the community are not destroyed.
  • Special efforts must be made towards restoring lands belonging to women as part of the larger struggle to restore lands illegally alienated from tribals to non tribals. A Special Commission must be set up for speedy clearance of the above cases in time bound manner.
  • Resettlement of all the tribal and forest dependent communities displaced by development projects in the last 50 years should be completed.
  • Equal and living wages (incl. basic lifestyle expenses) have to be laid down and ensured for women agriculture laborers by recognizing them as skilled workers.
  • Protective labor laws should be implemented, including for immigrant laborers and inter-state migrant laborers. There should be universalization of maternity benefits and other social security support.
  • All labor-displacing technologies (heavy machines, herbicides etc.) should be minimized and stopped from being promoted in any way, while drudgery reducing technologies and mechanisms like tool banks and custom hiring centers should be set up.
  • Women play a critical role in livestock rearing. Landless and small and marginal land holder women are dependent on livestock as a major source of livelihood. 70-80% of day to day work in dairying, sheep and goat rearing and back yard poultry is carried out by women, in backyard poultry it is almost 100% carried out women only.
  • Women who are targeted as beneficiaries of loans for dairy animals, sheep and goat and poultry through government schemes should be given the choice of buying breeds suitable to their resources and climatic conditions. Women should not be pressurized to buy unsuitable cattle.  The pricing of milk should be remunerative covering the cost of milk production and a percentage of profit.
  • Backyard poultry rearing by women must be encouraged and supported instead of granting all the subsidies to commercial poultry farms. Necessary budgets to be allotted for this.
  • Women livestock rearers’ cooperatives to be promoted and all necessary  support systems to be extended to them.
  • Grazing lands under occupation must be surveyed and handed over to the panchayats so that women dependent on livestock rearing can benefit.
  • Livestock development policy and schemes should be gender sensitive, information to be provide to women livestock rearers.
  • Fisherwomen should be given lease rights on at least 50% ponds, water bodies and inland fisheries with collective control on resources.
  • Fisher-women to have equal membership at all levels including governance bodies in fisher cooperatives.
  • Customary rights to grounds for drying fish that fisher-women have, have to be respected and upheld/protected.
  • Fisher women should have their right to access fish in the harbors for sale.
  • Fisher-women should have a right to use public transport to reach the markets.
  • Fisher-women should have facilities for storage of goods at harbors and markets.
  • Cultural taboos on women’s use of fishing boats and other equipment should be addressed – systematic skill building of fisher-women to engage in activities like fishing (fish harvesting) should be invested upon.
  • Any skill testing criteria for allocating of lease rights on water bodies which inadvertently keep out women should be removed.