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Women grow as much as 80% of India s food - but its new farm laws overlook their struggles
Bansari Kamdar, University of Massachusetts Boston
March 11, 2021
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Bansari Kamdar, University of Massachusetts Boston and Shreyasee Das, Temple University
(THE CONVERSATION) Indian women are left behind on farms to make ends meet as more men in India migrate from rural areas to cities, seeking higher incomes and better jobs.
Nearly 75% of the full-time workers on Indian farms are women, according to the international humanitarian group OXFAM. Female farmers produce 60% to 80% of the South Asian country’s food.
Women grow as much as 80% of India s food – but its new farm laws overlook their struggles theconversation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theconversation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Violence during the tractor rallies came as a setback for farm unions agitating for repeal of central farm laws. However, they expressed their determination to continue with their protests while seeking to dissociate themselves from Tuesdays violence.
Union leaders do not appear ready to give up on their core demands repeal of laws and legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) and some of them feel that their protests are acquiring a larger dimension. The unions will in any case want to wait to see how opposition parties take up the stir in the Budget session, which begins on Friday.
The likely stand of the Central government, which has so far been at pains to signal its flexibility to amend the laws short of repeal was not clear though BJP leaders were taken aback by the violence. The government and BJP offered no word on the violence, with sources saying the priority was to restore law and order. The government seemed to expect the televised events to hurt the protest, while the proceedings in the Supreme Court, which had asked if the rally would be peaceful, could also see the Centre spelling out its stand.
India’s Invisible Women Farmers
The farmers’ protests outside New Delhi have cast a spotlight on a traditionally overlooked group: the women who keep India’s farms running.
By
January 14, 2021
Woman farmer Sohajdeep Kaur, 40, center, with others shout slogans as they block a highway in protest against new farm laws at the Delhi-Haryana state border, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020.
Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup
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At Tikri village, bordering the western fringes of India’s national capital New Delhi, thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating since November 26. Their target: the government’s new farm laws, which they view as “pro-corporate” and “exploitative” toward Indian farmers.