Almost 75% of Indian farmers are women and they produce up to 80% of India’s food, according to British non profit group Oxfam. But one-third of this vast number are unpaid laborers working on family farms. Women own just 12.8% of the country’s land. Without land, women are not officially recognised as farmers. This proved to be an immense problem in the pandemic where they missed out on government relief schemes.

Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch or MAKAAM released a study of the challenges faced by women farmers in the context of COVID-19, ‘Long road to recovery.’ On this episode of The Suno India Show, reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to MAKAAM’s researchers Gargie Mangulkar, Manavi Das and Roshan Rathod about the needs of women farmers today. They explore how the already vulnerable state of women farmers in India has been worsened by the pandemic.

Show notes:

Pioneering women farmers in India | BBC Hindi
A Female Farmer Describing Women’s Plight in Agriculture | Centre for Civil Society
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on PM Garib Kalyan Yojana
MAKAAM Case story: Tiya Zhabarkha Bhosle

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No land, loan or relief Fate of women farmers in the pandemic