The Women Farmers' Entitlements Bill, 2011

Leading agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha (2007-13) member Prof. M.S. Swaminathan introduced The Women Farmers' Entitlements Bill, 2011 in the house on May 11, 2012. However, this Bill, introduced as a Private Member’s bill, ‘lapsed’ on April 10, 2013. Prof. Swaminathan, in the Bill’s ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’, said that with the gradual decline in the size of farm holdings, many rural men from poor families were migrating to cities and towns looking for work. This had led to “an increasing feminization of agriculture,” and women farmers experienced several handicaps related to land titles, access to credit, inputs, insurance, technology and the market. Women also constituted more than fifty per cent of Indian farmers and about sixty per cent of the farming sector’s workforce...