MAINS Current Affairs includes From Women’s Development to Women-Led Development & Rights, Justice and Action for India’s Women Farmers

Governance

1. From Women’s Development to Women-Led Development

Context

India is increasingly shifting its policy focus from “women’s development” (beneficiary approach) to “women-led development” (leadership and participation approach).

This means women are not only recipients of welfare programmes but active drivers of economic growth, governance, and social transformation.

Status of Women in India

1. Progress in Education

School Education: India has achieved Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 1.0 at foundational, preparatory, and middle stages.

• At the secondary level, GPI is 1.1, indicating slightly higher enrolment of girls than boys.
• Schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Samagra Shiksha, and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya have improved girls’ school participation.

Higher Education: Female enrolment increased from 1.57 crore to 2.18 crore students.

• Female Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) rose from 9 to 30.2.
• Women now represent nearly half of the students in higher education institutions.

2. Women in STEM and Research

• STEM Participation: Around 43% of total enrolment in STEM courses in India consists of women.

• This proportion is among the highest globally for women in STEM fields.
  • Women in Research: Female PhD enrolment increased by about 135.6% between 2014–15 and 2022–23.
• Women accounted for over 53% of fellows under UGC NET–Junior Research Fellowship (2024–25).
  • Government Initiatives: WISE-KIRAN Programme (DST) supports women scientists returning to research after career breaks.
  • GATI (Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions) promotes gender equality in scientific institutions.

3. Improving Demographic Indicators

• Sex Ratio: The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) recorded a national sex ratio of 1020 females per 1000 males, reflecting gradual improvement.
• Maternal Health: Decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) due to initiatives such as Janani Suraksha Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Mission Indradhanush.

4. Women in Defence and Security: Permanent Commission granted to women officers in 12 arms and services of the armed forces. Women now participate as Agniveers in all three services. Women are also serving as fighter pilots, naval officers, and combat support roles.

Major Barriers to Women-Led Development

1. Gender Discrimination: Patriarchal norms and stereotypes limit women’s access to leadership roles. Women are often excluded from property ownership and inheritance rights.
2. Limited Access to Quality Education: Girls in rural areas face lack of school infrastructure, early household responsibilities, poor digital access. This reduces higher education participation and career opportunities.
3. Economic Inequality

• • Wage Gap: Women often receive lower wages for similar work.
  • Labour Force Participation: Female labour force participation remains relatively low due to unpaid care work and social norms restricting employment.
  • Limited Financial Inclusion: Women entrepreneurs face difficulty accessing credit, markets, and assets.

1. Safety and Security Issues: Women face high levels of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, trafficking. These concerns limit women’s mobility and economic participation.
2. Health and Reproductive Rights: Unequal access to maternal healthcare, reproductive services, nutrition. Poor health outcomes can reduce women’s productivity and life opportunities.
3. Child Marriage: Child marriage persists in several regions despite legal restrictions. It leads to early pregnancies, school dropout, reduced economic independence.
4. Political Underrepresentation: Women remain underrepresented in Parliament, State legislatures, executive decision-making bodies. Although local bodies have reservations, representation at higher levels is limited.
5. Social Norms and Cultural Expectations: Traditional roles often confine women to household responsibilities. These norms limit women’s freedom in education, employment, and leadership.
6. Workplace Discrimination and Harassment: Many workplaces lack adequate grievance mechanisms. Fear of harassment discourages women from participating in the labour market.

International Commitments Supporting Gender Equality

India is a signatory to several global frameworks promoting women’s rights:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
• United Nations Convention Against Corruption
• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

These frameworks guide policy reforms aimed at improving gender equality.

Way Forward for Women-Led Development

1. Strengthening Education and Skills: Improve girls’ access to digital education, STEM training, and vocational skills.
2. Increasing Economic Participation: Promote women entrepreneurship, self-help groups, and financial inclusion.
3. Enhancing Safety and Legal Protection: Strengthen enforcement of laws against domestic violence, harassment, and trafficking.
4. Political Empowerment: Expand representation of women in legislatures and governance institutions.
5. Changing Social Norms: Promote gender-sensitive education and public awareness campaigns.

Conclusion

India’s development model is evolving toward women-led growth, where women actively shape economic progress, governance, and social transformation.

Achieving this vision requires removing structural barriers, strengthening legal protections, and ensuring equal opportunities, enabling women to become key drivers of India’s journey toward inclusive and sustainable development.

Issues Related to Women

2. Rights, Justice and Action for India’s Women Farmers

Context: Women play a crucial role in India’s agricultural sector, yet their contributions often remain unrecognised and undervalued.

Despite legal reforms granting equal inheritance rights, most agricultural land is still registered in men’s names, which limits women’s access to institutional support, resources and decision-making authority.

International Year of the Woman Farmer

The celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2026 carries added significance because 2026 has been declared the International Year of the Woman Farmer.

The theme emphasises the need to ensure:

• equal rights for women farmers,
• justice and legal protection, and
• recognition of women’s contributions to agriculture.

Status of Women Farmers in India

Women form the backbone of agricultural activities across India and contribute significantly to farming and rural livelihoods.

Key trends include:

• Women constitute around 33% of cultivators in India.
• They represent about 42% of the agricultural labour force.
• In some rural regions, 60–80% of agricultural and allied labour is performed by women.

Women participate in almost every stage of agricultural production, including:

• sowing and transplantation,
• weeding and harvesting,
• livestock care, and
• post-harvest processing.

However, much of this work remains undervalued or invisible in official statistics, especially when women work on family farms.

Major Challenges Faced by Women Farmers

Feminisation of Agriculture

India has experienced the “feminisation of agriculture”, where women increasingly manage farming activities.

This trend is largely driven by:

• male migration to urban areas for non-farm employment,
• agrarian distress and rural poverty, and
• growing dependence on women’s unpaid labour.

However, this often represents a feminisation of agrarian distress rather than empowerment, because women assume greater responsibilities without access to resources or decision-making power.

Land Ownership Inequality

Lack of land ownership remains one of the most significant barriers for women farmers.

Key concerns include:

• Women hold only 12–14% of operational landholdings in India.
• Agricultural land is usually registered in men’s names due to patrilineal inheritance traditions.
• Cultural norms often discourage women from claiming inheritance rights.

Without land titles, women farmers face difficulties accessing:

• institutional credit,
• government subsidies, and
• agricultural extension services.

Nutrition Challenges Among Women Farmers

• Women and girls in rural India often face severe nutrition challenges.
• These include high levels of anaemia among women of reproductive age, widespread micronutrient deficiencies, and diets largely dominated by cereals with limited intake of pulses, fruits and animal-source foods.
• Poor nutrition affects women’s health, productivity and overall well-being, especially given their heavy physical workload in agriculture.

• Limited Access to Credit: Women farmers often struggle to obtain loans because banks require land titles as collateral. Since most women do not own land, they are frequently excluded from formal credit systems.
• Limited Access to Agricultural Training: Agricultural extension programmes and training sessions often target male farmers, leaving women with limited access to information about improved farming techniques, climate-resilient agriculture, and government schemes.
• Technological Barriers: Women farmers generally have limited access to mechanisation and modern farming tools, which increases labour intensity and physical strain.
• Social and Cultural Constraints: Patriarchal norms in rural societies restrict women’s mobility, participation in markets, and role in agricultural decision-making.

Impact of Women’s Empowerment on Food Security

• Empowering women in agriculture significantly improves household food security and nutrition outcomes.
• Research shows that when women control agricultural resources household diets become more diverse, spending on health and education increases, and child nutrition improves.
• Land ownership and decision-making power among women farmers are strongly linked to better nutritional outcomes for families.

Work Burden and Health Impacts

• Women farmers face a double burden of productive and reproductive labour.
• They are responsible for agricultural work, household duties, and childcare.
• This heavy workload, combined with limited access to healthcare and labour-saving technologies, often results in poor health outcomes, particularly during peak agricultural seasons.

Government Initiatives Supporting Women Farmers

National Policy for Farmers (2007)

This policy recognises farmers based on their activities rather than land ownership, enabling inclusion of women cultivators and agricultural workers.

Self-Help Groups (SHGs)

Women’s SHGs have improved:

• access to credit,
• collective farming practices, and
• livelihood opportunities.

Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)

This programme focuses on:

• empowering women farmers,
• promoting sustainable agricultural practices, and
• enhancing women’s participation in rural development.

National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)

NRLM supports women’s economic empowerment through:

• rural entrepreneurship,
• collective institutions, and
• financial inclusion.

National Food Security Act (2013)

This law provides:

• subsidised food grains through the Public Distribution System,
• supplementary nutrition via Anganwadi services, and
• maternity benefits for pregnant and lactating women.

Several states have also introduced millets, fortified foods and local crops into nutrition programmes.

Way Forward: Key Policy Priorities

Recognition of Women as Farmers

Policy frameworks must formally acknowledge women’s roles by:

• collecting gender-disaggregated agricultural data,
• recognising women as cultivators, labourers and tenants, and
• adopting activity-based definitions of farmers.

Strengthening Land Rights

Improving women’s control over land and resources requires:

• effective implementation of inheritance laws,
• promotion of joint land titles, and
• gender-sensitive land registration systems.

Linking Agriculture with Nutrition

Agricultural policy should promote nutrition-sensitive food systems, including:

• cultivation of nutri-cereals, pulses and vegetables,
• procurement from women farmers, and
• kitchen gardens and community seed banks.

Expanding Technology and Extension Services

Women farmers need better access to:

• labour-saving technologies,
• climate-resilient farming methods,
• market information, and
• training programmes.

Such support can reduce drudgery, improve productivity and strengthen resilience.

Conclusion

• Women are central to India’s agricultural system and rural economy, yet their contributions remain insufficiently recognised.
• Ensuring rights, justice and action for women farmers requires strengthening land ownership, improving access to resources and technology, and integrating gender equality into agricultural policy.
• Empowering women farmers is essential not only for gender justice but also for food security, rural development and sustainable agriculture in India.

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