Disinherited Peasants, Disadvantaged Workers-A Gender Perspective on Land and Livelihood

A Gender Perspective on Land and Livelihood Bina Agarwal Not only has the pace of agrarian transformation in India been such as to leave the vast majority of the population still dependent on land-based livelihoods, but the form it has taken has created significant gender disparities in non-farm livelihood options. As a result, although access to land remains important for the bulk of rural households, it is critically so for women And it affects not just a few women, but a substantial majority of them. This is a feature of agrarian change which the absence of a gender perspective in most analysis and policy formulation has tended to obscure.