Sowing Seeds Of Equality: Women Farmers And Land Ownership Rights In India - Legal And Social Dynamics In 2024
- IJLLR Journal
- Apr 10, 2025
- 2 min read
KM Manisha Gour, School of Legal Studies BBAU Lucknow
Prof Sudarshan Verma, School of Legal Studies BBAU Lucknow
1. Introduction
1.1 Contextual Overview: Historical and Cultural Context of Women Farmers in India
Being an agrarian country, Indian agriculture has never failed to involve women in it. Nevertheless, their role has always been neglected and their contribution in farming has always been overridden by male dominated culture and norms. Indian agricultural history and women’s role have been pinned down to Patriarchal framework of male-identified cultivation with decision-making powers and women’s supportive roles only. Nevertheless, women have always been productive participants in all the sections of agricultural production right from planting to reaping but their efforts are not documented in the records1.
Culture and social structure especially in rural areas have however maintained this invisibility. Fundamental gender biases have been quite prominent in Indian society, and one of them has been the denial of resources, and this in respect of land as well. Prevailing practices in property rights have assigned ownership of land mainly to men, with women, for instance, being barred from owning or even inheriting land under most of the customary laws. This exclusion has far- reaching effects on women’s economic status and decision-making powers because, besides being a productive resource, land as security2 and source of income and power in those societies.
The Europeans later on came to rule India and this move cemented gender biases on land ownership even more. Zamindari and Ryotwari systems implemented colonial laws on land ownership and these again played a negative role towards women by denying them assumed customary rights of land ownership. Landed interests succeeded after Independence in effectively excluding gendered facets of land reform from any attempt at reformist policies that reshaped the social distribution of land. Women were not involved in the process as was evident from most of the titles being registered in the names of the male members of the family3 .
