Women Workers in Agriculture: Gender discrimination, working conditions, and health status

Abstract

Gender discrimination in the employment sector is enduring, an overwhelming majority of women working within the boundaries of informal sectors. Despite all the developmental efforts, 96 percent of the women workers in the country are reportedly employed in the unorganized sector (Deshpande and Deshpande,1999) characterized by low wages, high levels of insecurity of employment  and appallingly poor conditions of work. Developmental efforts of the post- World War II period have had differential impacts on women and men of the developing economies. Implementation of structural adjustment programmes and restructuring of economies which commenced during the mid-1980s lay emphasis on encouragement of private capital. Retreat of the state especially from the welfare sectors and cutbacks in public sector expenditure accentuated the vulnerability of the poor particularly women, in many of the developing countries.