Women in Agriculture: Breaking the Grass Ceiling

This research monograph is about women farmers in India who are engaged primarily in the cultivation of vegetables and fruits and predominantly belong to small and marginal land holdings households.

Ashok Khandelwal is rights-based social worker and is currently associated with the Right to Food Campaign. He is also working as Rajasthan State Adviser to Supreme Court Commissioners. He studied economics at the University of Rajasthan and was a Fellow at the VV Giri National Labour Institute. In his work span of over 30 years, he has implemented several action research projects with different sets of unorganised workers all over the country to promote collective self-action for development. In the recent past, he has worked on issues related to seasonal migrant labour, child labour and the right to food. His action-research work on Child Labour in Cotton Seed Production has drawn wide attention.

Shipra Deo is development practitioner for the last 13 years. She has worked in the fields of community organisation, livelihoods promotion, women empowerment, literacy and leadership. She has provided technical assistance to state governments, and national and international organisations in mainstreaming gender equity concerns in their work. She has conducted several studies on issues related to gender and development; and has led programmes aimed at enabling women to seize the available opportunities. Her thematic expertise lies in agriculture development, with a special interest in its gender aspects. She holds a certificate in Community Driven Development, a Master’s in Environmental Sciences and an honours degree in Agriculture.