NEW DELHI: A nationwide informal forum on Thursday demanded that recognising women engaged in cultivation as farmers should be included in the election manifesto of all political parties.
The Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM) said irrespective of land rights and whether women are cultivating or working as labourers, they must be recognised as farmers.
According to the 10th agricultural Census, 13 per cent of women have landholding rights in the country.
The charter of demands also states women in rural India should be registered at the gram panchayat level, said MAKAAM’s Soma K P. Tradition often is an obstacle in women obtaining rights to private property despite the legal entitlements being provided, the forum pointed out. In case of single women or female-headed households, land must be in the sole name of these women, it added.
MAKAAM, the Community Forest Rights-Learning and Advocacy (CFR-LA) and the All India Forum of Forest Movements have also come up with a joint charter for manifestos to include the rights of forest dwellers.
The coalition has demanded that the government must ensure the recognition of all community and individual forest rights of Scheduled Tribes, the rights of single and married women, particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), nomadic and pastoral tribes and displaced communities.