Segment 1

TITLE

Kisaan Kaun? Analyzing Women's Roles as Farmers

VOICEOVER

Who is the farmer in your family?

WOMAN 1

My husband.

VOICEOVER

Who is the farmer in your family?

WOMAN 2

Both of us.

MAN 1

The head of the household is the farmer.

WOMAN 3

Well, I do the work but my husband is known as the farmer.

VOICEOVER

What does a man do on the farm?

MAN 1

The farmer ploughs his land.

WOMAN 1

A woman does all the work in agriculture. She goes to the fields and does the digging, irrigating, reaping and weeding. A woman does all of the work in agriculture.

NEELAM PRABHAT [State Coordinator, Aaroh Abhiyaan, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, Uttar Pradesh]

From ancient times, life has been based on agriculture. So this agriculture based lifestyle includes not only men but women too. Looking at the past, we have understood one thing completely. That women are not only doing this much in various parts of the country, but are also ploughing their fields, driving tractors, catching fish, taking the produce to the market, going to the Mandi committee. So when women are doing all the work, why are they not recognized as farmers?

VOICEOVER

Is your land in your name?

WOMAN 1

No.

WOMAN 2

I don't own the land.

WOMAN 3

No, I don't have any land.

MAN 1

My father owned it earlier. He died. Now I own it.

VOICEOVER

Does your wife work on the farm too?

MAN 1

Yes she does.

VOICEOVER

So shouldn't she own the land?

MAN 1

No, my wife doesn't own it, its mine.

NEELAM PRABHAT

The biggest need right now is to define and redefine women's land rights, legally and constitutionally. The land laws should be amended. The Succession Act should be amended. The inheritance law should be amended. Now a new legislation should be passed for a law to ensure that a wife gets joint ownership of her husband's farmland.

NEELAM PRABHAT

The land which is our own, the house in which we spend 40-50 years of our lives, for which we have worked so hard, why don't we own that house, that land, that property? Women are farmers too. They are the pride of the nation.

TITLE

A Special Thanks to Vilma, Simlo, Rekha, Tripta, Gayatri, Jagori Grameen, WAVE