Land ownership among women farmers in India remains a complex and challenging issue. Although women play a significant role in agriculture, their ownership and control over land and other productive resources are limited. Farmers have been consistently losing cultivable lands to factory set-ups or construction lobbyists and brokers. There have been cases of selling of lands for personal urgent reasons, too. Since landowners were hard-pressed for time and money, there were cases of selling off land for unreasonably low prices. With land goes their livelihood, food, and sometimes even shelter. This downward spiral is pushing small and marginal farmers into more and more poverty. Some of these factors and reasons for land-selling are avoidable.
In India, land titles are traditionally only named after males. To help women get their names in land titles as well as to protect the farmers from losing their land to corporations and big landowners, SEWA has been running a land campaign for over a decade now. This is done through an integrated approach to organizing and capacity building of women. SEWA organizes women to create awareness surrounding land issues as well as on how to enhance their livelihood through sustainable agricultural practices. SEWA provides training on sustainable agriculture practices and provides linkage to the government and the market to increase their income and financial empowerment. SEWA organizes women in self-help savings groups through which they can start savings as well as increase their financial credibility, then helping them access formal financial services and small loans from the other SEWA savings group.
SEWA actively works towards including names of women members of the family in the land ownership document. Under the legal and ethical framework, SEWA supports women with finance through SEWA bank to start their livelihood and prevent the land from being sold. To ensure women’s empowerment, SEWA mandated the inclusion of women’s names in the land title documentation when taking out loans against the land from SEWA. There are cases where loans provided through SEWA could prevent the land from slipping into the hands of scrupulous money lenders. Through these savings, in some instances, women have been able to buy land.
In nine districts of Gujarat, SEWA gave loans to its 4000 members to reclaim their mortgaged land from local brokers while mandating the inclusion of women’s names in the reclaimed land document. This not only helped save the member’s land but also empowered the women by giving them legal rights on the land.
Shardaben Zala from Sujala Muvada village of Gandhinagar district is owner of very fertile land but was under debt of ₹60000. The money lender became adamant on either forfeiting the land or immediate repayment of loan with interest. Shardaben was a member of SEWA but had never mentioned this problem to SEWA leaders. A week before the deadline given by moneylender, Shardaben explained her difficult situation to SEWA. SEWA quickly pitched in and disbursed a loan within 3 days on an urgent basis to get the money lender off her back and ensure that land stayed with Shardaben. She was able to pay off the debts with interest to SEWA in one go during subsequent bumper harvest season.
In the case of the Vanlaxmi co-operative, SEWA has also helped women get access to land on long-term leases. In Mehsana, SEWA organized landless women laborers to form the Vanlaxmi Cooperative. The Vanlaxmi Cooperative demonstrates a model for how the landless poor agriculture women workers can successfully implement collective farming work towards growing and serving traditional food and developing eco-tourism centers on the government wasteland. The cooperative was given the revenue land Ganeshpura in Mehsana District on the lease of 30 years with the objective that the cooperative will use the land to get livelihoods food and fodder.
The Vanlaxmi Cooperative is the first tree grower’s cooperative in Gujarat and has been developed as an eco-tourism center to ensure round the year work and income security for cooperative members. The cooperative conducts eco-tourism activities for visitors and also serves as a demonstrative farm for farmers from surrounding villages.
The women members grow traditional crops such as finger millets, pearl millets, and vegetables using organic methods of cultivation. They have timely access to various agriculture tools through the Tools and Equipment library that has been developed and run by the cooperative. Currently, the cooperative women members’ net profit is in the range of Rs 12000 to Rs15000 per month which helps them to give higher education to their children who are also going for higher studies outside in prestigious institutions and given concrete safe houses.
Meanwhile, in Bihar, SEWA’s partner organisation Nari Gunjan has been working with a community of landless farmers called Musahers. The Nari Gunjan, which is part of the Farmers’ Forum Network of SEWA, works with the Mushar community in Bihar consisting of 2000 women farmers, helping them to take land on lease and work on them instead of working as agricultural laborers on others’ land and thus get a better return on their labor. Aside from this, doing advocacy for land for this landless community.
Nari Gunjan has been conducting meetings with various government agencies and the government committed to providing 4 decibels of land to each landless family. To persuade the government to keep its promise, in 2023, a block-level land campaign was carried out with 2000 women farmers in Bihta block. They succeeded in getting 100 members’ land on paper and submitted 3000 names of families to the land department.
The support from the APFP-FO4A program has significantly contributed to empowering women farmers in various ways including facilitating the organization of women to increase their voice and visibility, particularly through the formation of savings groups. This has strengthened their livelihoods and provided them with access to small loans, enhancing their financial credibility and enabling them to access loans from other financial institutions. The APFP-FO4A program has also focused on providing capacity building on sustainable agricultural practices, enabling women farmers to improve their productivity and income. Additionally, the program has fostered government and market linkages, which has further enhanced women’s economic empowerment. This has also helped create awareness among farmers when it comes to land issues as well as in advocacy efforts for getting land titles for our farmer sisters. Through the APFP-FO4A program, SEWA has also developed knowledge materials on the impact of leasing land and doing self-agriculture on the farmer sisters. Overall, the support from the APFP-FO4A has played a pivotal role in empowering women farmers and promoting their rights and access to resources.
APFP-FO4A is implemented by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development and La Via Campesina. SEWA is one of the national implementing agencies of APFP-FO4A in India.
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