The Paradox of Women in Agriculture: Why Unpaid Care Work Undermines Rural Economic Progress
Enter any farming household in rural India, and it is hard to locate a woman not working. From sowing seeds, transplanting paddy, weeding, harvesting, feeding livestock, sorting, processing food, collecting fuel and water, managing finances, and looking after children and aged relatives – women do all this and much more. Yet, all this work tends to go unaccounted in the manner of productivity measurement of rural economies.
The dilemma lies here – women are absolutely essential to the functioning of rural economies, yet a considerable portion of the effort that women put in goes without pay, acknowledgement or recognition.
The issue here is not just that women are not compensated for their efforts. Rather, the fact is that unpaid care work takes away from the time and mobility required by women to engage in paid work, entrepreneurship, skill-building and other productive activities.
In the absence of recognition, infrastructure, and institutions, it is not possible to achieve rural economic development.
Women Are Already Central to Agriculture
The traditional image of a farmer is decidedly male. The legal ownership of land, agricultural credit and mechanization are some examples of how this image may be perpetuated. However, the actual practice of farming gives a different picture.
Women take part in the whole value chain of agriculture. This starts before the crop is even planted to the soil and goes on even after the harvest.
The problem lies in the fact that agricultural involvement does not necessarily mean economic agency.
A woman can be actively working in the fields in a daily basis without much decision-making power over the revenues the farm earns. She may be called a “farmer’s wife” instead of simply a farmer. And she may engage in economically viable activity without earning her own income.
Work and economic empowerment are not the same.
The Second Shift Begins After the Farm Work Ends
For women in rural areas, agriculture is just one of the many tasks they perform.
After their stint at the farms, they are responsible for cooking, cleaning, fetching water, taking care of the children, attending to the needs of the elderly at home, preparing meals for the next day, and handling any number of household chores.
This is what we refer to as “unpaid care work,” and the economic importance of this activity is largely unrecognised precisely because there is no monetary wage that accompanies it.
The Time Use Survey conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of India did a great deal to shed light on this “hidden economy” through its assessment of how people spend their time in relation to paid employment, unpaid domestic work, unpaid care activities, etc.
What is abundantly clear is that time is a productive resource.
If women devote several extra hours each day to unpaid domestic and care activities, then it is not possible for them to earn money, undergo training, go to the market, join a producer organization, or develop a business at the same time.
The Time Poverty Trap
Thus, what ensues is what can be called a time poverty trap.
A woman could opt to engage in agricultural employment, but the timings clash with the care of her children. A woman could choose to go for a skills development program, but this becomes problematic since she will not be able to spend a whole day on travel due to the need to oversee the management of the house. A woman could choose to market her products herself, but the process requires her time which she cannot afford.
The issue of time poverty can result from even use of agricultural technology.
While mechanization might lead to less physical work and productivity gains, it is possible that the use of machinery might be out of reach of women through lack of knowledge or ownership. While technologies which minimize domestic work such as water, energy, childcare and transportation can equally have huge impacts economically by freeing time of women.
Productivity Is Not Just About Seeds and Machines
The conventional approach to agriculture policy is in regard to inputs such as irrigation, fertilizer, seed, farm equipment, credit and market access. Such inputs will always be crucial.
However, there is an additional input which does not receive the attention as infrastructure: Time of women.
If a woman has to take hours to collect water, prepare meals or provide unpaid care, these hours do not only consume time but also present a certain economic cost.
Investments in rural infrastructure go beyond simply being welfare programs.
Water supply will cut down the time used in water collection. Affordable childcare will give mothers time for paid work. Good roads and transport networks will enable farmers to access markets. Improved energy for cooking reduces the time needed for fuel and household tasks.
These investments can thus increase the productivity of rural farmers through the use of time currently used up in unpaid activities.
The Ownership Gap Makes the Problem Worse
Indeed, issues of land and assets make the economic contradiction even more complicated.
Ownership in agriculture is intimately tied to access to credit, government programs, insurance, extension work, and decision-making. If women play a significant role in farming but do not possess an equivalent level of ownership or proof of ownership, their access to such resources can be limited.
What ensues is a vicious circle.
Women provide labor for agriculture. Low ownership levels limit their bargaining power. Low bargaining power limits their access to resources. Limited access hampers them from expanding their independent economic activities. In addition, their care work does not allow them much time to look for other avenues.
Busting this cycle involves more than urging women to “participate” in agriculture.
It entails providing them with ownership, income, time, and a voice.
Why Women’s Cooperatives and Collectives Matter
Collective organization might be the most promising route.
Self-help groups for women, producers’ cooperatives and agricultural cooperatives can help overcome many obstacles that individual women face as farmers. Collective purchases increase access to inputs. Collective sales increase bargaining power. Shared knowledge increases access to agricultural technology and information.
Most significantly, collective organizations provide women with an arena outside the household.
Empowerment is more potent when women are not passive recipients of agricultural programs but rather have an active voice in deciding what is produced, sold and where the revenue goes.
Care infrastructure is economic infrastructure.
India’s rural development debate must undergo a conceptual revolution: care infrastructure must be seen as economic infrastructure.
A childcare center is not only a social service provider but the deciding factor whether a mother works.
A steady source of water supply is not just a household amenity but the factor that saves labor hours.
Good healthcare is not only welfare but reduces the amount of care work within families.
Public transport is not just mobility but determines whether women can get to market, banks, training facilities and workplace.
Once the nature of unpaid care work is seen from the economic perspective, priorities of investment change.
The Cost of Ignoring the Care Economy
The failure to acknowledge unpaid care work does not affect only women; it has implications for the entire rural economy.
Where women cannot engage actively in economic activities, families miss out on opportunities for earning an income. Where women lack access to productive resources, agriculture cannot be as efficient as possible. Where young women cannot gain skills because of their care burden, human capital suffers.
Most significantly, the next generation inherits the division of labor.
Women who have been raised observing women taking care of most tasks at home may absorb the notion that care work is naturally gendered. Boys might grow up believing that care is not a social obligation.
And thus the cycle repeats.
From “Women’s Welfare” to Rural Economic Strategy
This is precisely the reason why unpaid care work done by women should not be seen as simply a gendered problem anymore.
It is a farming problem.
It is a labor market problem.
It is a productivity problem.
And, at its very core, it is a rural development problem.
Any serious strategy for rural economic development should ask not just how many women work, but also how much they do for pay, how much free time they have, what resources they have access to and whether they can take independent economic decisions.
All of this needs good measurement of unpaid work, better access to land and credit, gender-responsive agricultural extension services, infrastructure that saves time and childcare facilities.
The Rural Economy Cannot Afford Invisible Labour
The paradox is simple enough.
Women are already adding to the rural economy. The issue is that the economy is not always able to fully reflect this addition.
If women are spending their days tilling the fields and evenings carrying out unpaid care work, then exhortations for them to “get into the workforce” will simply amount to missing the point. They are already in the workforce. What they require is the chance to turn more of this work into income, assets, skills, bargaining power and economic independence.
The future of rural development is thus no longer merely about crop yields, farmer incomes and levels of mechanisation.
It is also about whether women are able to engage with the economy on an equal footing in terms of both time and economic ability.
Because rural prosperity can no longer be based on invisible labour alone.
If agriculture is the backbone of rural India, then women’s time is among the most valuable of its resources.
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