The Hindu : National : "Agricultural Workers' Bill should be gender specific"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005

National

National

"Agricultural Workers' Bill should be gender specific"

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. Technological advances in agriculture should benefit all, regardless of sex and social status, and modifying available equipment to suit the needs of women is urgently required, the National Commission for Women (NCW) task force on "Technological Empowerment of Women in Agriculture" has suggested.

It recommends that the proposed Agricultural Workers' Bill 1997 needs to be more gender-sensitive and must include the provisions for maternity entitlement and child care services.

Releasing the report of the task force here today, the NCW chairperson, Poornima Advani, said providing women with skill and training them in the use of equipment was necessary.

The involvement of women at every level of decision-making, programme formulation and implementation was also needed, she said.

Urgent need

Ms. Advani said studies on the impact of new technologies should be undertaken in select farm areas and that families with and without assets should be considered separately while measuring the impact of new technologies.

There was an urgent need to review the methods of promoting agricultural involvement of women, she said.

Women faced several barriers in attaining economic autonomy and sustainable livelihood due to several legal and customary obstacles to their ownership as well as access to land, natural resources, capital, credit and technology.

Their contribution is undervalued and under-recorded. They are often not measured in quantitative terms and are not reflected in national accounts, the task force pointed out.

`Holistic manner'

"Technological empowerment of women in agriculture is not simply a research or extension issue. One must look at the issues in a holistic manner and development research should ensure the participation of actual users," Ms. Advani said.

Besides suggesting integrated women's development programme for eradicating drudgery in farm operations through technological empowerment, the report recommended that women be recognised as cultivators in their own right.

This would enable them to get loans and become active partners in the acquisition of farm equipment and management of their farm.

The report said the condition of mortgaging land for agricultural loans should be waived.

Quoting a Labour Ministry report, the task force said a sector-wise profile of female work force indicates that more than 80 per cent of female workers are engaged in the agricultural sector in rural India.

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