Landownership by women: The missing link in India’s transformative journey in agriculture

The economic empowerment of women has emerged as a key focus in recent central government policies, with terms like "Nari-Shakti" and "women-led development" becoming integral to political discourse, underscoring the significance of gender equality and equal opportunity.

Despite this progress, women in the agriculture sector — where they play a vital role — remain marginalised, particularly when it comes to land ownership rights.

Traditionally, land has been a male-dominated domain, viewed primarily as a wealth-generating asset. As men started moving to cities seeking better economic opportunities, the responsibility of cultivating the family’s tract of land shifted increasingly to the household’s women. From being an economic asset, land became a tool for ensuring the families’ food security. 

But even as their responsibilities change, women continue to lag economically. They still do not have decision-making power over crops or livestock or autonomy in agriculture production. An overall shift in perspective is needed, where women envision themselves as commercial farmers rather than substantive farmers, cultivating mainly to meet caregiving responsibilities. Empowering women in agriculture requires them to have access to and control over resources such as land, equipment and income.

Acknowledging the need to engage women in commercial farming, governments, through various policy initiatives, are integrating agriculture and community platforms. Self-help groups (SHG) and farmer-producer organizations (FPO) have emerged as key platforms for encouraging the economic participation of women in agriculture. 

The Jeevika programme in Bihar, the Mahila Lakhpati scheme in Madhya Pradesh and the Mahila Kisan Sushaktikaran Pariyojana under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission are examples of programmes leveraging the SHGs.

Similarly, the promotion of FPOs by development agencies and policymakers has led to the formation of a few women-led FPOs across the country. The government’s Agriculture extension services, skill development, and access to credit are being provided through these community platforms to empower women economically. 

In addition to this, the central government initiative of Jan Dhan has successfully brought women to the fold of financial inclusion by improving access to bank accounts.

However, the journey to empowering women is incomplete if their land rights are not assessed and enforced correctly. Land ownership provides women with financial security, shelter, income and livelihood opportunities.

Land ownership also builds resilience to climate impact, as secure land rights create incentives for long-term investments such as soil conservation. The Sustainable Development Goals, too, emphasised the need to track the status of women’s land rights. However, the real picture remains unclear due to the lack of gender-disaggregated data. 

India’s low rate of women’s land ownership — a mere 14 per cent — is a glaring impediment to progress. This limits women’s economic independence as they are automatically excluded from government support programmes targeting farmers, such as access to credit cards through Kisan Credit Card, compensation cheques, dedicated extension services and subsidy schemes. 

Two laws govern the land rights landscape in India: The Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005, which gives daughters equal rights to their parents’ property, and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 also known as the the Forest Rights Act of 2006, which recognises the rights of forest dwellers to forest land and resources and enables women to be joint owners of land along with men. 

While these are path-breaking laws in a patrilineal society, their on-ground implementation has been weak. For a transformative change in agriculture, governments' policy initiatives must be complemented by strong on-ground efforts to break gender-discriminatory social norms and influential customary laws. 

States like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have shown significant progress with programmes such as the ‘Bhoomi project’ that distributed land in the names of women, subsidised loans to women for the purchase of agricultural land and the issue of pattas or land titles in the name of women.

Similarly, the West Bengal government introduced the Women Land Literacy programme through the West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission. It has played a crucial role in enhancing women’s understanding of their land rights and empowering them to assert their claims. However, these initiatives have been sporadic.  A more concerted effort is needed for lasting change. 

Land is a sensitive issue that must be approached carefully. Before an intervention is designed, it is important to understand the cultural and social context, in which the land is used and valued. For transformative change to happen, an enabling environment must be created through policy measures, stronger governance measures and innovative incentive structures. 

Some key steps may include research-driven social and behaviour insights that promote positive attitudes, norms, beliefs and behavior that must be used to drive change. For this to happen, communication and open dialogue must occur at different levels: From the systems level, involving government policies and interventions, to the community level, including the local administration level like the Panchayati Raj system and the land and revenue departments, down to the household and individual level.

The society must have role models or male champions who can advocate for women’s land rights. Land literacy programmes at the grassroots level and sensitisation programmes at the government level can also contribute to raising awareness and fostering sensitivity.

Second, the implementation of existing laws can be strengthened by introducing innovative incentive structures that nudge society to abide by the laws. This can be brought through lucrative agriculture incentive schemes (larger than the existing agriculture schemes) for joint-owners or women landowners. 

Third, state governments must initiate a large-scale land title and certification drive using digital tools. The digital record will improve storage and land governance matters, while also generating proof and records for women. A national drive will provide access to information regarding women’s legal rights regarding land.

By providing women equitable access to land, India can unlock the immense potential to drive transformative change in agriculture. This will be an important step towards inclusive and sustainable growth.   

Aishwarya Sivaramakrishnan is senior manager, research, Sambodhi Research & Communications, a social impact advisory.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.