Work, Family and Agricultural Economy: Changing Gender Relations in Northwest India

In rural India, the percentage of women who depend on agriculture for their livelihood is as high as 84 percent. Women make up about 33 percent of cultivators and about 47 percent of agricultural labourers. Their work in agricultural economy in Northwest region of India has been indispensible. However, since a long period of time it was treated as insignificant, invisible and unrecognized as it was regarded as a mere extension of women’s domestic work comprising of subsistence economy. It was the effort of women’s organizations and other agencies in the 1980s and 1990s that women’s subsistence work in agricultural economy began to be ‘quantified’ and ‘counted’. This also led to the increase in women’s ‘work participation rate’ substantially. Beyond this, it was realized that though women contributed significantly to agricultural economy, their control over resources remained marginal. Critical resources such as land were also unevenly distributed by gender. Women seldom enjoyed property ownership rights directly in their names. Given this scenario, their participation in agricultural work of various kinds affected gender relations within the family and kin groups. In the present times significant changes are witnessed due to globalization as this part of Northwest India is rich in world famous basmati rice. Many migrants, including women also come to this area during peak season. This paper examines the impact of agricultural work on gender relations within the family and the changes in them due to the process of globalization in Jammu region of Northwest India. The intersectionality of caste and class is also taken into account as most of these women belong to lower castes and poorer families.