Skip to content Skip to navigation

Women farmers fighting for their rights and identity

"I am the first woman farmer in my block who started cultivation 15 years back," said 45 years old Aisha Begum Khatoon of Hridaypur village in Ambedkarnagar district. When she picked up the hoe for the first time, all the villagers rebuked her for treading on a man's domain. However, she decided to move forward, despite all odds, in order to look after her three daughters and one son.

Her husband lives in the city and takes no interest in agricultural activities. She owns a mere half acre land, but by resorting to organic farming, she is able to provide bread and better to her family of five members. She is now able to produce more than 20 varieties of crops, thanks to organic farming, and has become a role model for other women farmers of her area. Aisha Begum is grateful to the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG), for teaching her multi-layer cropping patterns, as well as time and space management.

Organic farming has provided her with a sustainable and economically viable model of agriculture production. She is also involved with Ekta Self Help Group and is the President of NARI Manch (this forum provides agriculture related information to women farmers). She has also been successful in creating more than 250 self help groups. Now her husband and her other family members take pride in her work. The Uttar Pradesh state agriculture Minister, Mr Chaudhari Laxmi Narayan, awarded her recently, during the Kisaan Sansad (Farmers' Parliament), in recognition of her excellent work in agriculture production.

Women farmers, despite being one of the biggest labor forces in India, are still fighting for their rights and identity. In India more than 84 per cent of women are involved in agricultural and/or allied activities. The agricultural sector provides employment to nearly 4/5 of the total women work force in India. One third of the agricultural laborers are women and 48 per cent of the women farmers are considered self employed in the agriculture sector.

According to a study conducted by GEAG, in Uttar Pradesh, 70 per cent of the state's population is involved in agricultural activities, making it a food surplus state. Women family members of about 80% of small and marginal farmers are involved in agricultural activities.Yet land holding rights of women farmers are a mere 6.5 per cent out of which a majority of them (81 per cent) got their land after the death of their husband, while only 19 per cent got it from their mother's side.

Neelam Prabhat, State Coordinator, Aaroh Abhiyaan, (a campaign for the empowerment of women farmers and their rights) working in GEAG, Uttar Pradesh said, "despite the tremendous contribution of women farmers in agricultural sector ,they have always been marginalized and denied their rights, not only by their family and society ,but by the policy makers as well. In general, they are treated as the assistants of male farmers."

She further said, " According to a recent report published by The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year mostly due to soaring food prices, and the number of undernourished people worldwide is approaching the 1-billion mark. We can reduce this number if we empower women farmers and give them land holdings rights and joint bank accounts with their husbands."

The total number of hungry people has risen to 963 million this year, up from 923 million last year. FAO has cautioned, in the latest edition of its global hunger report, that this number could rise further as a result of the ongoing financial and economic crisis. In view of this we should strengthen production in a comprehensive way and should give the rights, long over due, to women farmers. In this way they will become an asset, not only to their families but also to society and the entire country.

Amit Dwivedi
(The author is a Special Correspondent to Citizen News Service (CNS). Email: amit@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)

Comments

rakib ahmad's picture

Thanks Amit, for the inspiring story of a marginalised woman farmer in UP. I am working at grassroots level in Assam. Separation of land patta in favour of daughters sh be completed by fathers in their lifetime. 2ndly' Issuing landholding certificates by circle officers/ tehsildars in favour of woman sh be legally made mandatory, within say, 100 days of application. Due to lack of land papers, woman farmers find it difficult to form acceptable groups for subsidy.

Pages

Add new comment

Random Stories

3 gets Padma Awards

25 Jan 2014 - 9:56pm | AT News
Three distinguish personalities have been selected for Padma awards while two senior police officers would be honoured with President’s police medals.Padma Bibhushan award goes to veteran singer...

Bonhomie with Myanmar

11 Jul 2015 - 1:17pm | AT News
The Centre has set up a special unit to step up better coordination with Myanmar. Led by Joint intelligence committee chairman RN Ravi, the team would take a slew of issues with the neighbouring...

Hazarika’s effigy burnt

7 Feb 2014 - 10:35pm | AT News
Asom Yuva Parishad activists burnt the effigy of Padma Hazarika alleging his intentional mistake in the voting exercise in the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday.Several AYP activists thronged the AGP...

Mahanta to take over as AGP president

17 May 2012 - 7:51pm | editor
Former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is all set to take over as new AGP president on Thursday.The decks for the two time former chief minister was cleared at crucial meeting of the...

Other Contents by Author

Atleast 20 people have been injured when ULFA exploded a powerful grenade in Tinsukia. The incident took place at 7 in the evening in Doomdoma where ULFA militants lobbed the powerful grenade at a police outpost which exploded with a huge sound. Twenty people injured on the spot who were rushed to the hospital.
Dr JK Bajaj, director of Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai will attend the Guest of the Month programme of Guwahati Press Club on September 11. The programme will begin at 12 noon. A research scholar in Theoretical Physics, Dr Bajaj also studied Humanities and for some time and he used to work for Janasatta as its resident editor in New Delhi.Dr Bajaj authored several books and papers including Indian Economy and Polity, Indian tradition in science and technology, Ancient Indian medicine, Green revolution: A historical perspective etc.Member-journalists are requested to participate in the interactive session.
Morigaon police have arrested a police officer in connection with a number of sensational cases. Identified as Bhaktiran Kakoti, the suspended police officer was arrested from room no 306 of the games village complex in Guwahati in the wee hour by a team of Morigaon. Kakoti has a number of criminal cases pending against him in several police stations. He was suspended a couple of months and yet he openly criticized the DGP.
A three member panel of the national commission for protection of rights visited the relief camps in Kokrajhar on Tuesday and took stock of the plight of the affected children. Led by its chairperson Shanta Sinha, the team visited the camps at Gambaribil and Tulsibil where thousands of children have been languishing in the refugee camps. Talking to reporters at the Kokrajhar Circuit House, Sinha deplored that the plight of the affected children has not been taken into consideration during the stock—taking visits of the various delegations. She said that a sub committee should be set up to deal with the pathetic condition of the children refugees. The commission would send a team of...
A BPF MLA was among the 14 people who procured anticipatory bail from the Gauhati High Court on Tuesday in connection with an ethnic clash that killed 5 refugees in Chirang district recently. The BPF MLA is Kamal Singh Narzary who was allegedly involved in the incident where five refugees were killed by miscreants when they were shifted to another camp in Amguri area. Others include Bodo Women Justice Forum chairperson Anjali Daimary. Cases have been registered against them with Bijni police station. Bijni police have also registered a case against BPF MLA Pramila Rani Brahma who is yet to move the court.
An earthquake of mild intensity struck the state on Tuesday triggering panic among the people of Guwahati and parts of the north-eastern region. The quake with a magnitude of 3.1 on the Richter scale, rocked the region at 1:13 noon. The epicentre of was in Morigaon district. There was, however, no report of damage to life or property. There are also reports of tremors being felt in some parts of the north-east region.
Dispur is preparing a white paper on steps to check infiltration in the state. According to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the white paper would be published by October 1 to throw some lights of the steps on the issue. Taking a jibe at AGP and BJP, Gogoi dared them to come out with a white paper. He said that AGP, BJP AASU talked of yet another agitation to expel illegal immigrants. But I do dare them to reveal what they did to solve the problem.
The state government has not imposed ban on processions, demonstration and dharnas in the state. Talking to reporters in Guwahati on Tuesday, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that he only requested political parties and organizations to refrain from holding demonstrations and dharnas fearing fresh any violence.Gogoi’s comment assumes significance after his appeal drew flak from the various outfits who called the situation an undeclared emergency.
Opposition AIUDF on Tuesday threatens to sue BJP MLA Prashanta Phukan for calling the party president Badruddin Ajmal as a Bangladeshi. In a statement party general secretary and MLA Hafiz Bashir Ahmed Kasimi said that he found it hard to believe how Phukan can call Ajmal a Bangladeshi. He said that his party would demand an explanation from him. Notably, the BJP MLA from Dibrugarh, called Ajmal an immigrant at an interview with a local TV channel.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi claimed to have improved the over all situation BTAD areas and Dhubri. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Tuesday, Gogoi said that around 2.42 lakh displaced people have returned to their homes. He said that there has been no new fresh incident of violence during the last few days.He said that the next meeting of the coordination committee would be held at Kokrajhar on September 6.