So far in Uttarakhand, land ownership rights are transferred to men in the family which are then passed on to their sons. The Uttarakhand government is planning to give land ownership rights to women who work in their husband’s fields by amending the Uttarakhand Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act.

It has been seen that the move was aimed to facilitate the women who are working in fields owned by their husbands especially in the hilly areas of the state. The government has been planning to introduce it for the daughters and now it is also mulling the same for wives.

“Traditionally in the hilly areas, men and their wives are involved in the farming on their land. However, men are largely involved in just heavy labor-intensive work like ploughing of field and remaining about 90% of farming-related works are done by their wives only. Despite that, they don’t have any ownership of that piece of land but their husbands,” a report said. Due to this, if any woman wants to take a loan for any farming-related work on the field, they are denied because they don’t have ownership of the land. Uttrakhand women are more occupied in fields. They are doing more work if we compare them to men’s. And hence they are facing more and more problem. Sometimes due to unconditional weather, they are not able to work on the ground. Heavy rain causes crops not to grow properly. Some time soil erosion occurs heavily. Due to forest animals crops are getting harmed. They came in and harmed the crops due to which there is lots of wastage. Now people are moving to urban areas and leave farming because of lots of problems.

But women are engaging in fields despite all problems. More and more women are getting self-dependent. In this new age of farming, farmers are getting more involved in growing fruits and high-yield vegetables. More fruits like peaches, plum, melon, etc. And fruits like broccoli and mushroom. Like if we take the example of Divya Rawat, she is 26 years old and helping women of the village to bring livelihood opportunities. I wanted the cultivation to be made simple so it could be adopted by as many people as possible said Divya.

In today’s growing time women members are connecting to training to build their technical and business capacities so that they can sustainably develop their own business and diversify their income. Biodiversity in agriculture reigns where women act as the decision-makers.

Role of women in the system of land use increasing. Women in Uttarakhand have always had longer work durations. And that why: “Till now it is somewhat unfair, that pite doing the maximum work in fields, they don’t have any ownership of the land. Once they are also given the ownership, it will also make them help in more women empowerment in the state.”