Mumbai (AsiaNews) – On 2 July, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed the Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill, which aims to grant women farmers independent legal recognition and a digital platform for easy access to loans and grants.
Maharashtra is the first Indian state to pass legislation of this kind, which grants women working in the agricultural sector the right to access state livelihood programmes, even if they do not own land. The measure covers not only agriculture in the strict sense, but also activities such as fishing, livestock rearing, poultry farming and the harvesting of forest products.
“This will bring about a transformative change in the lives of hundreds of thousands of women farmers in Maharashtra. Agriculture is not merely a source of livelihood, but a symbol of hard work, culture and tradition. Although they work side by side with male farmers at every stage of cultivation, women have never been officially recognised as farmers. The bill aims to remedy this historic injustice,” said Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.
Passed unanimously, the bill received the support of all political parties, which emphasised that this reform, as well as recognising women’s rights, will also strengthen the agricultural sector, a fundamental pillar of the state’s economy.
The law provides for the issue of a certificate which, acting as a form of identity document, will enable women to access rights, benefits, subsidies and public services, as well as funding and support schemes for agricultural activities.
The significance of the Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill lies not only in the legal recognition of women’s individual rights, but also in the establishment of a dedicated support and coordination structure, which will manage applications for subsidies and provide assistance.
The measure also provides for the creation of a dedicated fund, the Maharashtra State Women Farmers Fund, comprising three institutional bodies: a Council, which will include various government members, including the Chief Minister and the Minister of Agriculture; state monitoring committees; and a unit dedicated to the empowerment of women farmers.
The government has stated that the aim of this bill is to eliminate the injustice to which women have historically been subjected. Although agricultural policies and livelihood programmes in India are gender-neutral, ownership of agricultural land has always been one of the essential prerequisites for accessing these services.
In Maharashtra, around 80 per cent of agricultural work is carried out by women, but only a small percentage own land. Women who cultivated family or community land without formally owning it were often regarded as agricultural labourers rather than farmers.
In effect, this prerequisite has resulted in a form of exclusion, the failure to recognise women farmers and their work in the sector and, above all, systematic discrimination in access to aid programmes, subsidies and state benefits.
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