The Socioeconomic Conditions of Agricultural Women Labourers in Uttar Pradesh: A Case-Study of Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat District

A woman is the modern builder of any nation's destiny. Women are regarded as the backbone of the rural scene. Women workforce outside the four walls is larger in rural areas than in urban India. Most of the women perform various types of work for their livelihood, and agriculture is considered as the biggest unorganised sector in which a large number of rural women actively take part. Although women have always played a key role in agricultural production, their importance both as workers and as managers of farms has been growing, as an increasing number of men are moving onto non-farm jobs. Agricultural labourers, mostly landless, constitute the poorest segment of the Indian agricultural population. They belong to the economically backward and oppressed section of the society. They mainly belong to the scheduled castes and other backward communities. They are basically unskilled and unorganised and work in farms of prosperous big farmers as casual workers on wages for a larger part of the year (Padhi, 2007). One of the most disquieting features of the rural economy of India during the past several decades has been its constantly increasing trend in the number of landless labourers. Factors like rapid growth of population, law of inheritance, rise in the cost of agricultural inputs and decline in small-scale industries have all been responsible for this increase The phenomena of under-employment, under-development and surplus population are simultaneously manifested in the daily lives and living of agricultural labourers.