Demand to include landless women tillers in farmers' registry

Time of India

09-05-2025

Pune: Over 500
and representatives from 17 states have criticised govt for excluding landless cultivators from the
. A resolution passed on the final day of the three-day National Convention of Women Farmers in Pune, organised by Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (
) and Savitribai Phule Pune University's Women and Gender Studies Department challenges the landowner-only definition of 'farmer'.Dwaraka Waghmare, Sadhana Waghmare and Surekha Ovhal from Beed said that they migrate for six months each year to work as sugar cane cutters in Kolhapur in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
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They joined Makaam four years ago when activists visited their village. "We had no idea about our rights, nor did talk about them.
We worked 18 hours a day for little pay and didn't realise it."Since joining Makaam, they have learned about sustainable farming, better seeds, and improved food practices. "It took us two years just to convince other women to speak up and organise. In the first year, only three of us were involved. Today, 45 women in our village practice sustainable farming."Their collective bargaining has already had an impact. "Earlier, the contractor paid us Rs 229. After we organised and demanded better wages, we now get Rs 366."Seema Kulkarni, National Facilitation Team member of Makaam said that the organisation was formed in 2014, but the first national summit was held in 2016. "This is the second summit to celebrate 10 years of Makaam's formation. The theme of the conference was identity, resilience, and transformation because ten years later, we're still fighting for identity — and organising around it remains just as vital," Kulkarni added.Sarita Raut from Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh said, "I now train other women. We discuss gender-based violence, sexuality, and everyday biases that women face. We are also promoting organic farming and encouraging women to start small group enterprises to build economic independence." Shubhada Deshmukh, a member of the national facilitation team, highlighted how
and the forest-based economy are overlooked.
"For Adivasi women and other forest dwellers, the jungle is not just a livelihood — it is life itself," she said. It's not only about legal rights over forest land; the forest is deeply interwoven with culture, identity, and survival. She emphasised that any conversation on forest rights must be rooted in the lived realities of those who depend on it. "We need to focus both on improving their access to rights and on raising awareness — not just among forest communities, but also in the mainstream — about how intimately their lives are connected to the jungle.
"Right time to fix systemic wrongs The 2007 National Policy for Farmers recognises women cultivators, agricultural workers, fishers, forest produce gatherers, and livestock rearers as farmers regardless of land ownershipTwo decades later, the new registry ignores these categoriesIt will deny thousands of women vital entitlements such as disaster compensation, scheme benefits, and minimum wage protectionsSejal Dand from MAKAAM said with AI entering the space, faulty, exclusionary datasets will become the new baseline and will be used to automate entitlement denial