Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Mainstreaming Gender in Agricultural Research and Extension 235
of Rs 80 million was sanctioned for 2003–04, the first year of state-wide
implementation. Gender sensitisation workshops were organised at the
apex training institute and also at the regional satellite training institutes.
Scheme guidelines were altered, and field functionaries were directed to
encourage women and include at least 30 per cent women ‘beneficiaries’
in all the schemes implemented by the Agriculture Department. The
emphasis was on increasing the number of women in all training programmes,
field trips, study tours and agricultural exhibitions. Agricultural
universities increased the number of technology and skill trainings for
women 1 .
These efforts to ‘mainstream’ gender concerns into the agricultural
network in Maharashtra are a welcome departure from the earlier welfarist
approach. The current approach recognises the productive role of women
and encourages their economic participation in development. It accords
‘visibility’ to women farmers, something that was denied hitherto, and
sees them as actors in agrarian development. As envisaged in the Committee
Report, the agricultural network seems to have initiated efforts
towards the addition of economic value to women’s time and labour, and
to providing the required support services such as credit and technical
skills. The policy of positive discrimination for women in agricultural
education and services is also a step ahead towards equity of opportunities.
This is all the more commendable given the fact that earlier, there had
been only a scant proportion of women opting for agriculture as a stream
of education as well as a career.
As agricultural growth in Maharashtra had reached a plateau, the
state searched for new avenues that could perhaps improve the situation.
The line of argument in the state women’s policy was reiterated in the
Committee Report: that women farmers deserve better attention as they
are active players in the processes of agricultural production and food
security, and that there was a need to further improve their efficiency to
increase the pace of these processes. This was a powerful argument strategically
pitched at an appropriate time, resulting in an immediate policy
change. This shows that mainstreaming efforts, based on an efficiency
approach, have the potential to open varied opportunities for women in
rural Maharashtra. Critical hindsight, however, points to various problems
that I will discuss in the following section.