There is a significant mismatch between high-level statistics and ground-level reality regarding women’s roles in agriculture across the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP). While macro-level data often suggests a "de-feminization" in India, the realities in Nepal and Bangladesh point toward feminization due to male out-migration. This ACIAR-funded study revisits these trends to understand the complex shifts in rural gender relations.

Key Research Insights

• Revisiting the Narrative: Bridging the gap between macro-level literature and micro-level field validation to understand how agrarian processes truly work.
• Labor Shifts: Identifying how casual wage work is becoming a defining feature of women’s agricultural contributions.
• Driven Mobility: Analyzing how dependence on Common Property Resources (CPR) is moving poorer women beyond domestic spaces and into the wider rural economy.

Impact and Outcomes

• Methodological Convergence: Successfully triangulated macro-level analysis with primary field observations to explain emerging trends.
• Future Research Scope: Opened new pathways to study the effects of agrarian distress and male farmer suicides on the women left behind.
• Policy Foundation: Proved that both feminization and de-feminization are complex, non-linear processes that cannot be simplified as purely positive or negative.

Project Team

Dr. Sucharita Sen; Dr. Sreenita Mondal; Ms. Shreya Chakraborty; Ms. Suchita Jain; Mr. Daniel Abraham Raj; Ms. Soumi Chatterjee; Ms. Bibeshna Pradhan.