{"id":125780,"date":"2026-09-23T11:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=125780"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:02:44","slug":"women-farmers-in-india-maharashtras-law-and-the-recognition-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/women-farmers-in-india-maharashtras-law-and-the-recognition-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Farmers in India: Maharashtra&#8217;s Law and the Recognition Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Women Farmers Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Picture a farmer. The image that comes to mind is usually of a man. But the reality on India&#8217;s farms is increasingly female.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This mismatch between perception and reality stems from decades-old practices of collecting data, designing policy, and defining who counts as a &#8220;farmer.&#8221; It renders millions of working women nearly invisible.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>July 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Maharashtra passed the <\/span><b>Women Farmers&#8217; Empowerment Bill<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, seeking to change this. Maharashtra&#8217;s move is well-timed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The United Nations has designated<\/span><b> 2026 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as the<\/span><b> International Year of the Woman Farmer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The state has positioned itself as a potential first mover, paving the way for others.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Maharashtra Act Does<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Act grants women <\/span><b>independent recognition as farmers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, irrespective of land ownership, through a &#8220;Woman Farmer Certificate.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It recognises women engaged in agriculture for at least one agricultural season a year, regardless of the nature of the land.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It explicitly covers categories such as landless cultivators, landless livestock rearers, agricultural labourers, plantation labourers, and pastoralists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This creates a route for women without land titles to gain an independent agricultural identity and access welfare schemes and credit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Historical Significance<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the first Indian State legislation to give enforceable legal form to the activity-based, land-delinked definition of &#8220;farmer&#8221; that the National Policy for Farmers, 2007 had proposed but never operationalised.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is described as the culmination of three decades of women farmers&#8217; movements backed by civil society.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier state efforts had made partial progress: <\/span><b><i>Kerala&#8217;s Kudumbashree<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> collectives enabled group farming for women, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-the-krushak-assistance-for-livelihood-and-income-augmentation-kalia-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b><i>Odisha&#8217;s KALIA scheme<\/i><\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reached landless and sharecropper women.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But a women farmers&#8217; registry delinked from land records was missing until now.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Scale of the Recognition Gap<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women&#8217;s role in Indian agriculture has grown sharply, but recognition has not kept pace.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>2025<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, agriculture employed roughly <\/span><b>110 million women and 127 million men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (rural, PLFS\/Census-adjusted) \u2014 bringing the sector close to gender parity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women&#8217;s agricultural workforce has <\/span><b>more than doubled<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> since 2017\u201318.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly <\/span><b>three-quarters of rural women workers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are now in agriculture, compared with <\/span><b>less than half of men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet most of this work goes unrecognised and unpaid:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2025, over <\/span><b>41% of female agricultural workers were unpaid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, against <\/span><b>20% of men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly <\/span><b>63% of men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were own-account workers, compared with <\/span><b>39% of women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Worker-Owner Dichotomy<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The core structural problem is this: women largely work on <\/span><b>family land<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> without owning it or having their name on records, due to patriarchal land-titling norms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only <\/span><b>14% of operational agricultural landholdings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are held by women (Agricultural Census, 2015\u201316).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the person named in land records is the one counted in databases and given benefits, women&#8217;s contribution remains <\/span><b>statistically invisible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because most states use land revenue records as their &#8220;source of truth&#8221; for administrative purposes, this bias is <\/span><b>carried forward into scheme access<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The consequence is concrete exclusion from credit, subsidies, technology and extension services.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, only <\/span><b>23% of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pm-kisan-samman-nidhi-yojana\/\" target=\"_blank\">PM-KISAN<\/a> beneficiaries are women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, despite the scheme providing \u20b96,000\/year to landholding farmer families.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Data Reveals Across States<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A comparison of women&#8217;s workforce share versus their scheme-beneficiary share exposes sharp gaps.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even in states where women form <\/span><b>over 50%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the agriculture workforce, their share of beneficiaries is often <\/span><b>below one-third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Exceptions:<\/b> <b>Meghalaya<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (women are 70% of PM-KISAN beneficiaries) and <\/span><b>Kerala<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (44%) stand out \u2014 explained by <\/span><b>matrilineal\/customary tenure systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Northeast and <\/span><b>Kudumbashree-style collective farming<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Kerala.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Widest gaps:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In <\/span><b>Jammu &amp; Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, women form nearly two-thirds of the workforce but represent only a small fraction of beneficiaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pattern is telling: the binding constraint is not land itself, but the identification system built on land records. Where land records act as gatekeeper, women get filtered out. Where an alternative mechanism exists, their access rises sharply.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>From Recognition to Real Access<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Passing a law is only the first step. Several implementation challenges remain:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Identification mechanism:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Women must be registered either through <\/span><b>self-registration<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or identification by the <\/span><b>Gram Sabha<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including those with no land titles in their name. This will require a strong <\/span><b>information campaign<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Database integration:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Act creates a new database of women farmers. Linking it with existing agricultural databases \u2014 while avoiding duplication or exclusion \u2014 is a significant administrative task.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Standardisation across states:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A common system for definitions, certificate issuance, and database maintenance would allow women farmers&#8217; identities to be linked seamlessly across schemes, avoiding multiple registrations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Agri Stack integration:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Certificates must be linked to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/agristack\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Agri Stack<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 the Union Agriculture Ministry&#8217;s digital platform \u2014 and <\/span><b>Farmer IDs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> issued to women, integrating them into the broader digital agricultural ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Sustained local outreach:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Recognition translates into empowerment only if continuous local efforts make women aware of schemes and actively help them access benefits.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women already do the work; the law has simply been slow to see them. Maharashtra&#8217;s Act finally separates the identity of a farmer from the ownership of land. But a certificate on paper means little without databases, digital integration and sustained outreach behind it.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real empowerment will be measured not in legislation, but in how many women actually reach the schemes meant for them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/Economy\/towards-recognising-women-farmers\/article71497026.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women farmers remain under-recognised despite their growing role in agriculture. Maharashtra&#8217;s new law seeks to provide independent recognition beyond land ownership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":125805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,22,59,10431],"class_list":["post-125780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-women-farmers","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125780"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125808,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125780\/revisions\/125808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}