Impact of Globalization on Rural and Tribal Women workers in Agricultural Sector in India1

By - Ruby Ojha2 & Rekha Talmaki31. Introduction

Agriculture is currently undergoing a transformation as a result of globalization. Referring to developments in the rural economy leading to impoverishment, the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) observed that Agriculture and the rural economy bore the brunt of neo-liberal policies of removal of all quantitative restrictions on imports, steep lowering of import duties on agricultural produce, slashing of import subsidies, collapse of institutional credit, near absence of public investment, reduction in rural development expenditures, weakening of the public distribution system and decline in allocations for agricultural research and extension (National Commission on Farmers, 2006). The worst hit amongst the impoverished are the agricultural workers and the rural poor. There has been a consistent decline in the growth of agricultural sector since 1990. It was 4 % per annum in 1980s and now it has declined to less than 2%. Elasticity of employment also has declined in this sector and during 1993-94 to 1999-2000 jobs in the farm sector have grew only at 0.03%. Because of these low returns in agriculture,

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Paper to be presented in National Seminar on Gender & Development in World of Work and Health - with Focus on Women in the Agrarian Sector, to be held on 19-20 November, 2010 at Bhimtal (Uttrakhand), Organised by: Women Work & Health Initiative (WWHI), New Delhi In collaboration with Kumaon University (Dept. of Bio-Technology) & SNDT Womens University, Church gate, Mumbai.2

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, PGSR, SNDT Womens University, Mumbai

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Senior faculty in SNDT College of Arts & SCB College of Commerce & Economics for Women, Mumbai affiliated to SNDT Womens University, Mumbai

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more men are moving out of agriculture putting the future of this sector more than ever in the hands of women.2. Impact on women workers in agriculture

Agriculture is the main employer of women informal workers. 75% of the total female workforce and 85% of rural women are employed in agriculture as wage workers or workers on own/contracted household farms. But, even with increasing feminization of agriculture, few women have direct access to agricultural land affecting their ability to optimize agricultural productivity. With increasing feminization of agriculture,

casualization of workforce also has increased which has deteriorated the quality of employment. After globalization modern day agriculture has become technology sensitive but the poor illiterate farm women have very little or no access to scientific advancement and technology to achieve higher productivity, higher profits and more income for their family. Women are the backbone of agricultural workforce all over the world. They do the most tedious and back-breaking tasks in agriculture. Despite the fact that women contribute more labour to agriculture than men, they get fewer wages than men and land remains almost solely in male hands. Although women constitute two-thirds of the agriculture work force, they own less than one-tenth of the agricultural lands. Therefore, very few government schemes include landless women as beneficiaries. A study (Alka Parikh, Sarthi Acharya, Maitreyi, Krishnaraj, 2004) in Maharashtras agriculture, has the proposition of women working as agricultural labourers. The data suggest that more than half of women factors were engaged in other capacity of2

labourers in agriculture in both 1991 and 2001. In contrast, this proportion is less by more than 10 percent in the case of male workers; they are principally cultivators (i.e. own account workers). In the context of livelihood, to work as an agricultural labourer fetches the least income, as is repeatedly seen from NSS data. Thus women do seem to be engaged in less remunerative activities compared to men. An attempt was made in the above mentioned study to predict possible impacts of current and proposed government policies. It was found that most policies described in the plans and budgets of agriculture and allied sectors do not give positive boosts to women workers (creating special opportunities for women, designing gender sensitive policies that ensure equitable infra-household distribution of benefits etc). Thus, surely, women are being left behind in these policies. The authors found that women are completely absent from the framework of policy makers. Even in Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) wage rates are discriminating, very meager and are calculated on piece rate basis. For example, the wage for digging a one cubic meter hole is only around Rs.19/-. A couple generally does this work. The man digs and woman takes the mud and throws it elsewhere. But only one person is paid for this job. The man gets paid; the womens labour is free. This practice needs to be immediately rectified (Dhawale, Mariam, 2006). Even otherwise, unequal wages for men and women in agriculture is a regular feature everywhere. As the farmers cannot reduce the cost of other inputs, they are resorting to reducing the cost of labour component in cultivation. They are pressurizing the

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agricultural workers to work more. They are employing women and children for lesser wages, and going in for more and more mechanization. 3. Case of the Tribal Women The study by Nilabja Ghosh (2006) based on nation-wide macro data on Scheduled Tribe people of India, finds tribal women in India lagging in most indicators of development. Unfortunately, like the average rural women in India and more so, they are engaged intensely in primary activities and almost entirely informality and often as unpaid family workers and worse still, as casual wage laborers who lack any security of earning. Tribal women known for their deep association with the forests are an economically active lot but they suffer disproportionately more from illiteracy, poverty and social abuse. Most of the adivasis have been tenant farmers. With passing of tenancy laws, lands were handed over to tillers. These tribals thus owned massive lands and lived peacefully in harmony with nature. Now, land ceiling laws are being relaxed in tribal areas and hundreds of acres of land are either being leased out or sold to indigenous and foreign companies. The classic example of this is the Coca Cola factory in Wada Tehsil of Maharashtra. Land at through away prices, almost free supply of unlimited water, control over natural resources and huge tax concessions have been gifted to this factory. Since this land, as in respect of many cases, was in the name of men it was sold without consulting the women. Thus, thousands of tribal families are being displaced and the small amounts received by them for their land have been used up, leaving them with nothing in hand. In these circumstances, women are forced to take4

loan to even buy food grains, pulses oil etc. which pushes them into the dragnet of the money lenders and further destitution. Similarly, the overflowing water of Vaitarna River near Wada Tehsil, which was earlier used by people from nearby villages, has now been given to the Coca Cola company at a rate of three paisa per liter. It then sells one liter of bottled Kinsley water at 12 to 15 rupees. Men usually migrate to find work in brick kilns and women are left behind to protect themselves and look after the aged and the children. The sad unspoken misery of womens exploitation in these insecure conditions is generally invisible (Dhawale, Mariam, 2006). As per 2001 census, Adivasis in Maharashtra comprise 8.86 per cent of the states population. The population of Adivasi has increased in Maharashtra by 17.20 per cent from 1991-2001 with the state ranking third in the country so far as Adivasi population. According to the 44th round of the National Sample Survey, 14.8 per cent of the Adivasi in Maharashtra are landless. 43 per cent Adivasi families have land ranging from 0/1 to 4.04 hectares. The average land holding in Adivasi family is 0.98 hectare and most of this land is dry land of extremely poor quality. The survey also shows that 46 per cent of rural Adivasi families are self employed of whom 44 percent are engaged as wage labour. According to the Schedule Areas and scheduled Tribes Commission, the

number of Adivasis below the poverty line in Maharashtra is a massive 90.89 per cent, the highest proportion of 97.25 per cent being a Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha (Dhawale,2006). In Thane district most of the adivasis are either marginal or small peasants or

agricultural labourers. Women form a majority of work force. 90 per cent of women are engaged in agriculture. Additionally, women fetch water and wood for fuel, cook meals, look after children and manage the household.5

The case of total Scheduled Tribe population in Andhra Pradesh also needs special mention. The size of this population is 4.2 million. Officially, 33 Scheduled Tribe communities mainly spread over nine districts. The present economy of tribals in Andhra Pradesh is a consumption economy with the main occupations being settled agriculture, Podu (shifting) cultivation and collection of non timber forest produce which totally comprise 88% of their occupation status. As against the general literacy rate of 44.09, literacy among the tribals it is 17.16 and among tribal women is 8.68 percent (Bhanumathi, K., 2001-02). Tribal women who are actively involved in collection and sale of forest produce face severe exploitation from traders and do not get a fair price for their labour. In Gonduru village of Vishakhapathanam district, the women were trained for processing and packaging of tamarind. However, they are prohibited from selling this value-added

product in the open market where they receive a better price, because of the monopoly restriction. Fanciful government schemes in the name of womens development do not give powers and rights over resources to poor tribal women even where it concerns their basic sustenance. The joint Forest Management Programme in Andhra Pradesh, launched in 1993, has been implemented in most of the tribal villages, particularly in Vishakhapatnam, Srikakutam, Vizianagaram and Adilabad districts. With the aid of development

incentives like construction of roads, check-dams, etc. the tribals are being drawn into forming Vana Samrakshana Samithis, which is a prerequisite for giving up their Podu cultivation and taking up plantations suggested by the forest department. As a result of this, the tribals are not able to cultivate various food crops, particularly the diverse6

traditional varieties of crops, as most of the land has been converted into plantations field. Now for their food consumption they are depending on markets. As they do not have enough purchasing power they are forced to consume less. Tribal women now get even less food to consume because they have to purchase it from the market for which they have no money. This is adversely affecting their working capacity and health (Bhanumathi, K., 2001-02). An adivasi womans relationship with her land is integral to her very role within the family and ultimately her very being and existence. An adivasi woman is an exceptionally skilled farmer and nurtures the land, as the source for the crops to feed the family and or medicinal plants to heal her family as a vital part of nurturing her family. Adivasi women are traditionally revered for the knowledge and skills, with which they tend to the land and resources around them in the breeding seeds, harvesting crops and indigenous development of agricultural techniques. This knowledge is now being appropriated and exploited by outsiders as part of the globalization and consumerism of the market forces. The World Bank funded projects in the tribal areas are putting pressure for new forms of economy in these areas and are pushing for constitutional amendments to bring in corporatized agriculture, large holdings, hybridization and extension of agricultural loans so that farmers can grow cash crops and high capital intensive crops. In Visakhapatnam district, the tribals have rich traditional systems of agriculture, horticulture and vegetable cultivation which reflect the diversity of crops, the consumption pattern of the economy and the optimal usage of land and resources with minimum capital and external support. Now womens knowledge of traditional systems of agriculture and forestry is being7

downsized by the new brigade of external technical consultants forcing their expertise of forestry on to them. In this district, the government has over a period, been trying to shift the economy of the tribals into new forms of monocultures without forethought to the hazards that they would be exposing the tribals, especially the women, who have an important role in the traditional form of agriculture. One of the most fearsome aspects of this new shift is that due to lack of any information or awareness regarding the skills required, the seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, the cropping patterns and yields etc. the tribals in this area will be devastated totally under the influence of macro market forces on these crops. Globalisation and liberalization have fostered in India growing inequity and marginalization of the weak. The dalits, the backward classes and women entrenched by poverty are up against the wall of new economic policies that have resulted in growing underemployment and rising prices of basic goods(Kumar, Navleen, 2004). Under the new economic policies of the state, revenues are to be earned from lucrative sectors like sale of liquor. The ban that was imposed on sale and consumption of liquor after strong protests from women across the state was lifted by the present government as it could not overcome the state deficits without income from these important sources. The heavy burden of debt accumulated by political decision-makers is inflicted on poor women who have to work harder, not for a better nutrition and quality of life, but in order to keep their men swaying in the liquor dens and the state out of troubled waters. The state is directly responsible for such indirectly negative policies affecting womens health. Not only that, when tribal women in Palem village of Visakhapatnam district refused to allow the liquor mafia to set up its outlets in the tribal villages, they were8

brutally punished for daring to defy the local powers and excise authorities. Their houses were demolished, they were dragged into illegal custody, tortured physically and mentally, forced to drink the urine of the men. The police refused to even register the case filed by these women. Legal suits filed against the excise authorities have led to constant harassment on the women. This nature of brutality is encouraged by the state so that women would rather face the hazards of alcoholism than the wrath of the authorities (Bhanumathi, K., 2001-02). All the natural resources in the forest (where unfortunately tribals also live) are under serious threat of privatization in the state under the rationale that industry has the capacity to invest whereas people and government do not have the resources to do so. Hence, handing over of forests to mineral, paper, wood based industries would lead to economic progress of the country as well as improve the incomes of forest dwellers. In the year 2000 the state government passed a G.O. (No.112) to transfer forest lands to industries like Reliance and ITC Bhadrachalam through the village institution of Vana Samrakshana Samithis. Strong protests from the NGOs and the opposition parties, who highlighted the governments back door approaches to privatization of forest resources, led to hasty withdrawal of the proposals. (Bhanumathi, K., 2001-02) Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh the mineral wealth found in the tribal areas was attempted to be sold away to private mining industries either by illegally transferring tribal lands or even worse, by removing the constitutional safeguards (Fifth Schedule of the Constitution) to the tribal people. Mining is one of the important growth engines in the new reforms package of the government and most of the minerals in Andhra Pradesh are found in the tribal areas. With all the pretensions of bringing in prosperity to the9

tribals, the state government passed a resolution to amend the state laws under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution where industries would not be hindered by legal obstacles. Moreover, the state government is going ahead with its liberalisation policies in these remote tribal areas by inviting multinationals and Non Resident Indians for taking up tourism, mining, film, agro-based and other industries in the name of tribal development. What happens to the tribal women and their health is of no consequence to the government. This is the gender justice and gender equality situation of Andhra Pradesh under the Structural Adjustment Program in the post liberalized state. 4. Farmers Suicide Agricultural growth has decelerated during the last decade, resulting in the decline in real per capita incomes in rural India. As a result the nation was in 'an advanced stage of crisis', the most extreme manifestation of which was the rise in suicide among farmers. The crisis has been epitomized by farmers suicide, particularly in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and also in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and other states. In these states, a large number of farmers are driven to commit suicide where cash crops face the vagaries of the market. The National Commission on Farmers, calling for a Suicides Census, has estimated that the number of farmer suicides is 30,000 across six states (National Commission on Farmers, 2006).The Wayanad district of Kerala has attracted the nations attention due to the farmers suicide on a large scale. According to media and the peasant organizations, 130 farmers and agricultural workers had committed suicide in the year 2004 in this small district with a population of about 8 lakh according to 2001 Census (George, Joes and Krishnaprasad, P., 10

2006). These suicides, after globalization, were the result of mainly three reasons i) crash of the prices of agricultural produce, ii) indebtedness, and iii) drought, disease, and depletion of water resources.

A.V. Yadappanavar (2008) conducted a study in Punjab for calculating the suicide rate among farmers. Wheat, paddy and cotton are the main crops of the district. Canals are the main source of irrigation in the district, supplemented by the tube wells. There is a widespread belief that there has been a spate of cultivator farmers suicide in Punjab. The macro data show that the percentage share of cultivator farmers suicides to the total suicide in the state between 1991- 97 is to the extent of 23 percent. In the same study, socio-economic data of suicide victims show that majority of them were illiterate and around 55 percent were in the age group of 31-40. Family in these cases seemed to have ceased to serve as a forum for sharing of stress and anxieties. Agriculture was their major source of income. 65 percent of the respondents in the study depended on agriculture and 30 percent of them served as agricultural labour for their livelihood. After the demise of their husbands, workload and responsibilities of women increased tremendously. Daily expenditure was a major problem, and problems were aggravated after the male members death. Arranging marriage of grown up daughters was an additional problem. Usually the assets were in the names of male household members and after their suicide non-transfer of assets was another area where women had to suffer. A debt, which was the major reason for suicides, added to the financial crises of the household. It was observed that none of the respondents had received any financial assistance from government to clear all the debts. 5. Trafficking of women

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Globalization is usually biased against unskilled workers. Rural women mostly engaged in unskilled labour have to suffer because their unskilled work is invisible and unprotected in the work economy. Their impoverished situation is making them more vulnerable to a social evil like prostitution. In remote areas the literacy rate of women belonging to Backward Classes and tribals is not even 4%. Thus it becomes easier for the procurers and the middlemen to influence or coerce these women and girls into prostitution. Globalization has also made inter-state and international trafficking of women easier due to increased mobility on the one hand and increased vulnerability on the other. Girls and young women living below the poverty line or belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Schedules Tribes or Backward Class or illiterate unskilled workers in rural areas are comparatively more vulnerable to this evil. Education and economic independence of women can counter this vulnerability (Based on Surana, Pawan,2009). 6. Remedial Measures Having identified the major issues like insecure profits, increasing cost of inputs, outdated practices, increased competition, environmental degradation, decreasing demand for labour, increasing labour supply etc., SEWA helped agriculture workers to form their own local organizations as cooperatives in a regional federation. These agriculture workers organizations aim to increase productivity, yield, bargaining power and income through educating small and marginal farmers on technical skills, methods of costing and pricing, and the implications and requirements of increasingly liberalized trade, building linkages with technical research and marketing organizations, collectively purchasing agriculture inputs at lower rates, initiating alternative income generation12

activities such as agro-forestry, horticulture, vermi-culture and compost manufacturing. Following success stories indicate that collectively even asset less women can do wonders if they get some institutional support (This section is based on the reference Reema Nanavati, 2003) a. Vanlaxmi Women Tree Growers Cooperative Due to rapid industrialization and the absence of necessary backward-forward linkages for inputs and marketing, the small and marginal farmers and agriculture workers in Mehsana district of Gujrat were slowly losing most of their land and assets. In particular, excessive irrigation from bore wells dramatically reduced the water table and rendered the remaining water high in fluoride content. With irrigation becoming expensive and without dependable rains, many small and marginal farmers were forced to either migrate or take to casual labour. Women agriculture workers were even harder hit. They could find no alternative work and often had to walk miles to collect the necessary fodder and fuel. SEWA organized the women agriculture workers into a cooperative. They demanded and eventually received government revenue land. The struggle dragged on for two and a half years, until finally, with SEWAs continuous intervention, the revenue and cooperative departments came to a mutually agreeable alternative: the landless agriculture workers had to be registered as a tree growers cooperative rather than as an agriculture workers cooperative. They formed a cooperative for growing trees on government revenue wasteland and then only could the revenue wasteland be allotted.

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Through the cooperative, women systematically planned to make optimum use of the available land employing a multi-faceted approach. With partnering the local research station of the Gujarat Agriculture University for technical assistance, they were able to maximize production and income by using scientific agriculture practices, including horticulture, agro-forestry, drip irrigation, compost pits and rainwater harvesting techniques. They utilized low-cost methods of boosting productivity such as designing cropping patterns to enrich the soil. In all activities the cooperative encouraged participation of all village communities and women in their efforts. Today, the Vanlaxmi cooperative stands as a model for the entire district demonstrating how the landless poor can successfully implement collective agriculture. Women who earned just Rs 15 as agricultural day labourers and were never engaged in matters of yield, sale, expenditure or market, are now recognized as farmers. They meticulously manage their land, tracking each and every cost. The cooperative has acquired improved equipment such as a power tiller, thresher and a drip irrigation system. The plan also ensures full employment for members and the land meets fodder and fuel needs of the village. As a licensed and authorized seed distributor by the Gujarat State Seed Corporation, the cooperative also provides timely and reasonably priced quality seeds not only to its own village but the entire area. Since the land was allotted on a 15 year lease, the women will have to continue their battle to secure long term utilization that allows for long term planning and maximum benefit through entering the renewal process. b. Sabarkantha Women Farmers Association14

Sabarkantha district of Gujrat is a semi-arid area heavily affected by soil erosion due to extremely sandy soil. This has resulted in ravine formation and overall land degradation, negatively affecting agriculture productivity and agriculture related employment. SEWA organized the women agriculture workers/farmers into the Sabarkantha Women Farmers Association. The association, with SEWAs support, has initiated watershed development techniques to check soil erosion. To supplement its activities, the cooperative also provides full employment for displaced agriculture workers by encouraging them to form tree-grower societies and start sapling nurseries. In support of its economic interventions, the cooperative also organizes the women into self help and savings and credit groups and provides the necessary training for skill and leadership development, awareness generation and capacity building. Such local organization capacity building efforts ensure the members self-reliance. Finally, the cooperative has linked up with various government development and welfare schemes to accelerate asset building for its members. c. Sukhi Mahila SEWA Mandal In 1991, the Sukhi dam submerged the land and villages of agriculture workers in the tribal areas of Pavi Jetpur in Vadodara district of Gujarat. As compensation, they were given land near the village resettlement sites. Whenever dams are constructed, working families in different trades and occupations are displaced and need rehabilitation. The challenges faced by women-headed agricultural households are particularly complex. Therefore, they require more support and time to once again secure their15

livelihoods. Traditionally, these women survive through a mix of collecting forest produce, agriculture, dairying and/or poultry activities. When displaced, at best they receive only land; resettlement schemes fail to take into account their multifaceted survival strategy. Even the land itself is often less fertile, rocky, unleveled and far from the forests on which they depend. The land is not ready for immediate cultivation, yet women and their families have no other supplementary source of income. SEWA organized the relocated workers into the Sukhi Mahila SEWA Mandal to initiate economic rehabilitation. Under the leadership of the women agriculture workers, they initiated land development and installed irrigation facilities. They also started alternative income generation programmes for the suddenly unemployed, including sapling nurseries, poultry units, animal husbandry, mushroom cultivation and social forestry initiatives. d. SEWA Gram Mahila Haat In 1999, SEWA Gram Mahila Haat, a state-level apex marketing organization was established with the help of Government of Gujrats Commissioner of Rural Development to provide market, financial and technical assistance to small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. It attempts to eliminate dependence on middlemen and help members reach markets all over the country to sell their produce. SEWAs experience in organizing agriculture workers to build their own associations underscores that different approaches and interventions must be adopted according to context specific needs and issues. Also, a holistic and integrated approach to16

agriculture development must incorporate technical training, introduction of appropriate technology, and natural resource development through watershed planning. In all of its activities, SEWA has found that sustainable development depends on understanding the elements that fuel poverty and strategically working with women to address these aspects of their vulnerability through asset building, capacity building, organizing for collective strength and social protection. Action to strengthen the economic security of agriculture workers and their families can be best charted through this framework. The SEWA experience demonstrates that if technical training is provided to poor farmers, in particular women, they implement this knowledge in their own fields, harvest bigger yields, and reap higher incomes.

e. Strategies Used for Empowerment by NRCWA

The National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture (NRCWA) has been functioning at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, for developing women specific technologies under different production systems. At the initial stage of the project a package of instruction was provided regarding what rural women should do to endure health security, food security, economic security and livelihood security. The ergonomic management of drudgery undertaken by Family Resource Management component aims at introducing women- friendly drudgery reducing technologies related to farm, home and allied activities. The pathways have highlighted on empowerment of knowledge, skill, decision making; economic and social empowerment. The data base

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on indigenous knowledge has strongly suggested for empowering women with knowledge on locally available plant sources for ensuring health security.

The components of AICRP on Home Science have moved towards empowerment of rural women through their respective thrust of research. Mobilization of self help groups (SHG) and creation of learning environment, the empowerment process through educational interventions, transfer of technologies, the feasibility trials and the out -reach programmes have contributed to significant gain in knowledge, adoption of women-friendly technologies for improving work efficiency, acceptance of technology for economic gain and improving various parameters of quality of life are the reflections of womens environment. Empirical evidences have revealed that women have moved from beneficiaries to active partners in shaping empowerment. The information strategies used by different components under AICRP on Home Science have encouraged women to play key role in micro - level planning, designing community infrastructure for information dissemination and mobilization of community resources both human and material to gain benefits from the project. Land rights not only empower women economically but strengthen their ability to challenge social and political inequalities. The Eleventh Plan promises to carry out a range of initiatives to enhance womens land access. It will ensure direct transfers to them through land reforms, anti poverty programes, and resettlement schemes. It will include individual or group titles to women in all government land transfers, credit support to poor women to purchase or lease land, records and legal support for womens inheritance rights, incentives and subsidies on women owned land. The group18

approach to womens ownership of land and productive assets will be explored and appropriate linkages will be made with the SHG movement. In case of displacement, a gender sensitive rehabilitation policy that includes equitable allocation of land to women will be devised. The Eleventh Plan will also ensure the right of poor, landless, and tribal women over forest land, commons, and other resources (Approach Paper to 11th Plan). 7. Conclusions and Suggestions Gender equality and empowerment is recognized globally as the key element for progress. It is one of the eight millennium development goals agreed at the millennium development goals agreed at the millennium summit in New York in 2001. Women are important participants in most agricultural systems therefore, it would be imperative to draw this neglected half into the mainstream and overcome gender discrimination in this regard. Some suggestions identified for improving the plight of agricultural women workers are as follows: 1. Adult education programme should be organized to promote functional literacy of farm women. 2. Empowerment process of farm women can be accelerated by establishing self help groups. Group action at farm women level by forming Self Held Groups will enable them to overcome the common problems experienced by them. 3. Micro credit can accelerate the process of empowerment of women. Strengthening of existing micro-credit mechanism and micro-finance institutions is the emergent need to enhance the credit outreach to women farmers.

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4. Introduction of women friendly and cost effective appropriate drudgery reducing technologies for farm work are the need of hour so that they could contribute more effectively to the production. 5. A number of legislative acts have been passed by the Government to promote women in agriculture. (For example, Equal Remuneration Act has been passed to provide for payment of equal wages to men and women for the same or similar nature of work and also for the prevention of discrimination on the ground of sex against women in the matter of employment. Maternity Benefit Act provides for payment of maternity benefits to women employee. Kerala Agricultural Workers Act confers the benefits of security of employment for agricultural workers for both male and female. National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making.) There is a need to make women aware of these acts so that they can feel empowered. 6. The Government must implement programs for sustainable livelihood and poverty elimination in rural areas, so that the rural youth is not forced to migrate to the seemingly greener pastures of urban, live there without their women folk and thus further promote prostitution. 7. Multi-disciplinary reintegration programs like health care, counseling, education, training & social integration must be seriously strengthened.20

8. Education and economic independence of women will counter their vulnerability and lead to the recognition and respect of women dignity as that of human being. 9. Lastly, that prostitution is an undesirable evil, not an inevitable one, its elimination would require restructuring social setup, which would give greater sexual freedom to men and women in which womens identity is respected as a human being. In the Eleventh Plan, for the first time, women are recognized not just as equal citizens but as agents of economic and social growth. The approach to gender equity is based on the recognition that interventions in favour of women must be multi-pronged and they must: (i) provide women with basic entitlements, (ii) address the reality of globalization and its impact on women by prioritizing economic empowerment, (iii) ensure an environment free from all forms of violence against women (VAW) physical, economic, social, psychological etc., (iv) ensure the participation and adequate representation of women at the highest and adequate representation of women at the highest policy levels, particularly in Parliament and State assemblies, and (v) strengthen existing institutional mechanisms and create new ones for gender main-streaming and effective policy implementation. The challenge in the Eleventh Plan is also to improve the availability of agricultural inputs, credit, marketing facilities, technology, and skill training for the increasing number of women farmers. Resource pooling and group investment, financial and

infrastructural support will be provided. Women in agriculture will be on the top of the Eleventh Plan agenda and a two pronged strategy will be adopted (i) ensuring effective21

and independent land right for women, and (ii) strengthening womens agricultural capacities (Approach Paper to 11th Plan). 8. References 1. Alka Parikh, Sarthi Acharya, Maitreyi, Krishnaraj, (2004), Gender Budgeting Analysis A Study in Maharashtra Agriculture, Economic & Political weekly Oct. 30, 2004 2. Anderson, Evangeline and Rajkumar, (2004) Women Missing the World: Globalisation through a gender lens, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Accra, 2004 3. Approach Paper to 11th Plan.4. Bhanumathi, K., (2001-02) Impact of Globalization on Adivasi Women and

Children in Andhra Pradesh, Samata NGO. 5. Dhawale, Mariam, (2006) Globalisation Attacks Tribal Women of Thane, Social Scientist, Vol. 34, No. 7-8, July-August 2006, pp. 62-69 6. George, Joes and Krishnaprasad, P. (2006), Agrarian Distress and Farmers Suicides in the Tribal District of Wayanad, Social Scientist, Vol. 34, No. 7-8, JulyAugust 2006 7. Ghosh, Nilabja, (2006), In the Search of a Canopy; Tribal Womens Livelihood in Forest Based Industries in Rural India, Economic Times, April 14, 2006 8. Kumar, Navleen, (2004), An Unfinished Task: Globalisation and the Tribal People, Women Networking, 2004, Mumbai

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9. Mollah, Hannan, (2002), Impact of Globalisation on Agricultural Workers, Peoples Democracy, Vol. XXVI, No. 44, Nov. 10, 2002 10. Reema Nanavati, (2003), Women Agriculture Workers, Seminar, Nov, 2003. 11. Serving Farmers and saving farming: A Draft National Policy for Farmers, National Commission on Farmers, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, New Delhi, April 2006. 12. Singh, Jaiver and J.V. Meenakshi, (2004) Understanding the Feminisation Agricultural Labour, Proceedings of the Workshop on Women in Agriculture and Rural Development, held on Nov. 9-10, 2000. 13. Surana, Pawan, (2009) Effect of Globalisation on Human Trafficking and Forced Prostitution in India, http://www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/surana 14. Tiwari, Poonam (2008), Agricultural sustainability through women empowerment, published in - Women in media: Issues, Perspectives and solution, (Ed.) Dr. Rameshwary Pandya, New century Publication, (2008) New Delhi, India, pp 7385. pp 225 234 15. Yadappanavar, A.V., (2008) Suicides by farmers in Punjab and strategies adopted by the women, published in - Women in media: Issues, Perspectives and solution, (Ed.) Dr. Rameshwary Pandya, New century Publication, (2008) New Delhi, India, pp 73-85. ______

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