Analysis of Women Participation in Indian Agriculture

Agriculture sector as a whole has developed and emerged immensely with the infusion of science and technology. But this latest emergence is not capable of plummeting the ignorance of women labour as an integral part of this industry. In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ female work force but fails to give them recognition of employed/hired labour. Women constituted 38% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. It is also estimated that 45.3% of the agricultural labour force consists of women. But a large number of women have remained as "invisible workers”. Since there has been concern expressed regarding the gap between women’s actual economic participation and public perception of it several researchers have attempted to overcome this invisibility through gendered empirical research studies for using on gender analysis and gender roles. This piece of research is highlighting the trend of female participation in agriculture across various Indian states. The secondary data collated for the research is used to study the growth trend of the agricultural worker from 1961-2001. Analysis is done to categorize the states on their identical behaviour of participation in agriculture by hierarchical clustering of economically active female in agriculture based on measurements like coefficient of variation, compound growth rate and work participation rate.