Agri Workforce

Subject – Agriculture

Context – Women dominate agri workforce, but take home 22% less as wages.

Concept –

In rural areas, in 1987-88, about 74.5 per cent of the men workforce were doing agri-related work, while 84.7 per cent of women were working on farms.
There was a drastic decline in the male workforce in rural agriculture in 2004-05 with only 66.5 per cent men working in agriculture.
But at the same time, 83.3 per cent of women continued in agriculture.
As per the data presented by the Ministry of Agriculture to the Lok Sabha last month, there were 55.4 per cent men and 75.7 per cent women working in agriculture in rural areas in 2019-20.
In urban areas, the male workforce in agriculture was never above 9.1 per cent (from 1987-88 to 2019-20). Here, the women workforce declined from 29.4 per cent in 1987-88 to 8.2 per cent in 2019-20.

NSSO data

Despite playing a significant role in agriculture, wages for women continue to remain low. The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 2017 data show that the average daily wage rates for general agricultural men and women labourers are ₹264.05 and ₹205.32, respectively. This means women workers get 22.24 per cent lower wages.
For non-agricultural labourers, the average daily wage rate was ₹271.17 for men and ₹205.90 for women (24 per cent lower). A non-agricultural women labourer gets slightly better wages compared to an agricultural women labourer.
As per the Census 2011 conducted by the Registrar General of India, the extent of women participation in agriculture as cultivators (main and marginal) is to the tune of 3.60 crore (30.33 per cent) and as agricultural labour (main and marginal) is to the tune of 6.15 crore (42.67 per cent).
According to the Agriculture Census (2015-16), the total number of operational holdings of women is estimated at 20.44 million in the country. But the specific data on the number of women engaged in sowing, hoeing, weeding, and harvesting in agriculture is not maintained in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.