On the question, what approaches have proved successful to address deeply rooted gender norms, power relations and social institutions?
Quoting from an interesting article, "A field of her own:Advancing rights of women farmers can revolutionise the rural ecosystem, by Tarini Mohan (http://googleweblight.com/i?u=http%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%… ), the chance of propertied women being physically abused is reduced from 49 per cent to 7 per cent due to an increase in the wife’s bargaining power. But, as many as 87 per cent of women do not own their land; only 12.7 per cent of them do. Moreover, despite their hard labour in the field, women are not officially counted as farmers, and are either labelled “agricultural labourers” or “cultivators”. This is because the government does not recognise them as farmers those who do not have a claim to land under their name in official records.
Some key points taken from this article may lead to successful approaches to address deeply rooted gender norms, power relations and social institutions:
1.Providing women with access to secure land is key to incentivising the majority of India’s women farmers.
2.With security of tenure, female farmers should be provided with the three critical driving factors — the incentive, the security, as well as the opportunity — to invest in the land they harvest.
3. The government should not label women merely as “agricultural labourers” or “cultivators” but recognise them as farmers even if they do not have a claim to land under their name in official records. We need to change the stereotypical image of an Indian farmer- a mustachioed man, clad in a white dhoti with farming tools in hand. Women in India constitute close to 65 per cent of all agricultural workers as also, 74 per cent of the rural workforce, is female.
Finally, we need to create a new image of farmer, which is women inclusive!
Dr. Mahesh Chander