04 Sep Visible Work, Invisible Women: Farming in the Shadows
Written by Aditi Apparaju
Edited by Sofia Juliet Rajan
Picture a farmer in your mind. Did you think of a man in a field wielding a sickle? No surprise there. Remember the charts our teachers used to teach us about professions? Millions of us grew up viewing occupations through a gendered lens, often unknowingly.
These perceptions have been internalised so deeply that we still don’t think of women in work, and sometimes women themselves struggle to imagine women in certain roles. But they do take up these roles. Just without the recognition.
This not only limits women’s access to opportunities but also affects how their work is valued, seen, and supported, especially in agriculture.
As a part of our work on migration and staying[1] in Kalaburagi last year, my colleagues and I had the chance to interact with members of an all-women Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO). FPOs are legal entities formed by farmers to improve their incomes and access to markets, reduce costs, and strengthen negotiation power by harnessing the collective strength that the platform provides.
In one group discussion in a village in Kalaburagi, we met residents of the village, members of an all-women FPO, and some panchayat members. As the conversations on resources, agriculture and farming progressed, I noticed men snickering or mocking the responses from women residents and FPO members, implying they lacked knowledge or that their opinions were wrong. Eventually, the women pushed back, and it turned into a shouting match. This got me thinking. Most conversations about agriculture are dominated by men. We see women working in the fields, but rarely at the table when decisions are made.
There is a massive push from the government for FPOs, but studies show that less than 3% of FPOs in India are all-women. FPOs can provide both personal and financial benefits. But in the face of male out-migration and increasing climate risks like increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall and changing patterns of seasons, can they also help women navigate these risks? To better understand this, I spoke to practitioners and researchers working with women farmers and FPOs from various organisations[2].
Insights from experts
There was consensus that women’s central role in agriculture is not recognised, leaving them largely invisible in formal agricultural institutions. Women are excluded from decisions because they do not own land. The belief that women cannot—or should not—make decisions at the household or farm level is so deeply entrenched, passed down over generations, and reinforced by societal norms around women’s work and care duties.
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This makes ensuring women’s meaningful participation in collectives or community spaces especially challenging. The double burden of domestic and productive labour, male dominance in both household and institutional settings, and internalised feelings of inadequacy all act as barriers. Despite shouldering greater responsibilities, women rarely gain recognition, access to land, or real decision-making power.
Collectivising women often means building platforms from scratch, overcoming structural barriers and social norms, while also addressing gaps in skills, training, and the need for leadership development and confidence building. Younger women tend to show more aspiration and openness to innovation, due to increased financial literacy and exposure. But women still require greater investment of time and money, hard to achieve in short-term projects.
Despite NGOs and CSO efforts to include women, inclusion often does not equal real participation. The need to meet project targets can reduce women’s roles to tokenism.
A Convening on Women Farmers
As part of this study, I attended the Second Mahila Kisan Sammelan in May in Pune, organised by Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM[3]). Over 500 participants, including women farmers from 16 states, NGOs, and scholars came together to discuss themes of recognition, redistribution, and resilience. Stepping into this activist space for the first time was deeply moving. The atmosphere was fierce, confident, and sometimes angry. Sessions covered topics from structural violence and land rights to agroecology, forest governance, and migration.
The opening slogan, “Awaz do! Hum ek hain” (Raise your voice, we are one), captured the spirit of collective identity with the earth and nature—a perspective central to many women’s activism. Aruna Roy, social activist and former IAS officer emphasised, “Collectivisation is the key, and activism the door,” urging us to see women as both farmers and labourers—Mahila Mazdoor Kisan. The invisibility of women in both these roles is a major injustice that exacerbates their precarity.
Exclusion and Violence, but also, Exclusion as Violence
Though women contribute to more than half of agricultural labour, they lack formal recognition as farmers. Many activists argued that this denial—across laws, records, and subsidies—is structural violence. Violence against women farmers was discussed in both explicit and systemic forms, beginning at birth with preference for sons and continuing through verbal abuse, harassment, and exclusion from resources within families and communities.
Joint land ownership exists legally, but enforcement is rare. Women rarely inherit or control land, and no accountability mechanisms exist to ensure they do.
Women groups affected by farmer suicides spoke about their erasure from the agrarian narrative. The women, who are also farmers—now left to manage farms, households, and grief—are seen only as widows. Their role as a farmer remains invisible and many also face ostracisation and blame.
Deep-rooted social perceptions also restrict the mobility of women agricultural labourers. For instance, many are only allowed to work on their family’s farm, making it hard for landless women to find paid work in their villages. Such conditioning runs so deep that it can take years for women to believe they have rights, let alone exercise them.
Migration, Resilience, and Coping
Migration, often a response to agrarian distress, disproportionately affects women—exposing them to unsafe workspaces and domestic violence. Many women spoke of how the New Economic Policy of 1991 deepened rural distress by weakening agricultural support, raising input costs, and pushing people into debt and migration. Cities, though increasingly dependent on rural labour, remain unprepared to support rural migrants.
Women spoke about the challenges of menstruation and pregnancy during migration, and the lack of sanitation in urban worksites. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) emerged as an alternative for women who preferred to stay home. Despite delays and low wages, women valued it for enabling them to “choose” not to migrate.
For many landless women, migration remains a coping mechanism, better than working under exploitative local landlords who pay low, delayed wages or demand extra labour.
My Takeaways
The convening was rich with folk songs and slogans that spoke to women’s deep ties to nature and land. Performances reflected both suffering and strength. The gathering was a reminder that the fight for land, recognition, and dignity is political and ongoing. Listening to stories of grief and courage left me with a deep sense of solidarity and a renewed commitment to listen, learn, and resist.
For me, the key question now is whether community-based organisations like FPOs can genuinely build women’s adaptive capacity, especially in climate-vulnerable agrarian regions. Over the course of this project, I hope to explore this in depth through indicators such as access to resources, decision-making power, knowledge-sharing, and collective action.
- We use stayers for non-migrating households to encompass the agency people hold in migration decision making.
- Vrutti, IRRI, Pradan, MYRADA, Azim Premji University, MAKAAM, APMAS
- MAKAAM is a nationwide forum of women farmers, practitioners, and academics working to secure rights and recognition for women farmers.