The Gendered Transformation of Land Rights and Feminisation of Hill Agriculture in Arunachal Pradesh: Insights from Field Survey

Abstract

This chapter investigates the transformation of land rights and changing gender distribution of work and employment in rural Arunachal Pradesh. Using a two-period time-use survey data, it is argued that in the backdrop of commercialisation of agriculture and development of informal private property rights over agricultural land, women farmers are increasingly being marginalised. On average women are spending more labour days in farm operations than men and the weekly average time spent by them in primary agricultural activities are found to be more than men in recent years. Thus, male-centric private property rights over land have emerged and explicitly expanded during a period of increasing feminisation of agriculture and higher work burden of women in crop farming as men move out from the farm to other non-farm activities.