GENDER ROLES AND WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURAL LIVELIHOODS IN KURUKSHETRA, HARYANA

Abstract

Agriculture is still the cornerstone of rural Haryana, but women's contribution to this sector is systematically under-valued despite their significant engagement. This research looks at gender roles and women's contribution to agricultural livelihoods in Kurukshetra district, Haryana, a place with entrenched patriarchal cultural norms and a very mechanized agrarian economy. In spite of being almost 60-70% of India's agricultural labor (FAO, 2021), women in Haryana suffer from considerable disparities in land ownership (only 12.7% of the women own land, according to NSSO 2019) and wage remunerations (30-40% lower than men for comparable work). Using a mixed-method strategy that involved surveys of 200 rural women farmers and in-depth interviews with 30 key informants, this paper examines the allocation of labor, resource access, and socio-economic constraints on the recognition of women. The study finds that women do 75-90% of the backbreaking work (sowing, weeding, harvesting, and post-harvesting activities) but hold less than 10% of farm revenues as a result of male-dominated decision-making. Moreover, only 18% of women enjoy access to institutional credit, and fewer than 25% are involved in government agricultural programs. The research points out the contradiction between high labor input and low economic independence, which is compounded by cultural constraints on women's mobility and inheritance of land. Trends in mechanization have also excluded female workers, with a 15-20% reduction in women's employment in wheat-rice production over the last ten years. Policy suggestions include gender-responsive agrarian reforms, improved access to credit and training, and compulsory women's representation in farmer producer organizations (FPOs). Through the intersection of empirical evidence with feminist political economy theory, this study emphasizes the need for immediate structural interventions to attain gender equality in the agrarian economy of Haryana.