Agriculture (Photo credit: thegreenpages)
AS INTRODUCED IN THERAJYASABHA
ON THE11THMAY, 2012
Bill No. LVof 2011
THE WOMEN FARMERS’ ENTITLEMENTS BILL, 2011
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ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES
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CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
CLAUSES
1. Short title, extent and commencement.
2. Definitions.
CHAPTER II
CERTIFICATION OFWOMANFARMER
3. Certification of Woman Farmer.
4. Acceptance of certificate as evidence.
CHAPTER III
LANDRIGHTS
5. Equal land rights to women farmers.
CHAPTER IV
WATERRIGHTS
6. Equal right to water resources.
7. No discrimination for irrigation purposes.
CHAPTER V
LEGAL ACCESS TO CREDIT AND OTHERAGRICULTURAL INPUTS
8. Entitlement of women farmers to get credits, loans and other financial supports.
CHAPTER VI
FUND FORSUPPORTSERVICES TOWOMENFARMERS
9. Establishment of Fund.
10. Women farmer friendly technology.
11. Market facilities.
12. Training and capacity building.
CHPATER VII
IMPLEMENTATION ANDMONITORINGAUTHORITIES, THEIRRESPONSIBILITIES
13. Responsibilities of Central Government.
14. Responsibilities of State Governments.
15. Responsibilities of local authorities.
16. Women Farmers’ Entitlement Board.
17. District Vigilance Committees.
18. Redressal of grievances.
(i)
CHAPTER VIII
PENALTIES ANDPROCEDURES
CLAUSES
19. Penalty for non-compliance of provisions of this Act.
20. Cognizance of offences.
21. Actions in good faith.
CHAPTER IX
MISCELLANEOUS
22. Overriding effect.
23. Power to give directions.
24. Power of State Government to restrict the application of the Act to certain Areas.
25. Power to remove difficulties.
26. Power of Central Government to make Rules.
27. Rules, regulations and schemes to be laid before Parliament.
(ii)
THE WOMEN FARMERS’ ENTITLEMENTS BILL, 2011
A BILL to provide for the gender specific needs of women farmers, to protect their legitimate needs
and entitlements and to empower them with rights over agricultural land, water
resources and other related right and for other functions relating thereto and for
matters connected therewith.
WHEREASwomen constitute more than fifty per cent of Indian farmers and about sixty
per cent of the workforce in the farming sector; and in view of the increasing feminisation of
agriculture as a result of out-migration of men, entitlements for women farmers are essential
for the future growth and health of agriculture, as well as protection of food security in an era
of climate change;
ANDWHEREASit is necessary to recognize and protect the gender specific needs and
rights of the women by empowering and entitling them with enforceable rights over agricultural
land, water resources, credit and other related rights;
ANDWHEREASthe Married Women’s Property Act, 1874 recognised the wages, earnings
and other property acquired by an married woman in any employment, occupation or trade
carried on by her in her individual capacity as her separate property; the Hindu Succession
(Amendment) Act, 2005 entitled the daughter of a Joint Hindu family governed by the
Mitakshara law, to become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son and
clothes her with the same rights and liabilities in the coparcenary property as she would have
had if she had been a son; the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers
(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 recognised the rights of forest-dwelling communities
to the forest land and other forest resources;
ANDWHEREASthe Government of India has recognized the special needs of women
farmers by initiating a “Mahila Kisan Shashaktikaran Pariyojana” programme under the
National Rural Livelihood Mission;
ANDWHEREASIndia is a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979 which calls for elimination of all forms of
discrimination of women by ensuring equal access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing
facilities, appropriate technology and equal treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as
in land resettlement schemes;
ANDWHEREAS the Fourth World Conference on Women in September, 1995, in which
India participated, called for legislative and administrative reforms to give women equal
rights with men to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land
and other properties, credit, inheritance, natural resources, and appropriate new technology,
etc. as embodied in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;
ANDWHEREASit is considered necessary to implement the decisions in so far as they
relate to the women farmers’ entitlements under Article 253 of the Constitution of India.
BEit enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-Second Year of the Republic of India as
follows:—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1. (1) This Act may be called the Women Farmers’ Entitlements Act, 2011.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification
in the Official Gazette, appoint.
2.In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
(a) “agriculture” means and includes, all activities related to cultivation of
crops, animal husbandary, poultry, livestock rearing, apiculture, gardening, fishing,
aquaculture, sericulture, vermiculture, horticulture, floriculture, agro-forestry, or any
other farming activity carried out through self-employment, tenurial cultivation, share
cropping, or other types of cultivation including shifting cultivation, collection, use
and sale of minor or non-timber forest produce by virtue of ownership rights or
usufructory rights;
(b) “agricultural activity” means any activity related to agriculture;
(c) “farmer” means any person who is, individually or jointly with any other
person,—
(i) engaged in agriculture directly or through the supervision of others; or
(ii) contributes to conservation or preservation of agriculture related
varieties or seeds or breeds of farm animals; or
(iii) contributes through traditional knowledge to any type of innovation,
conservation or to propagation of new agricultural varieties or to agricultural
cultivation methods or practices or to the practice of crop-livestock integrated
farming system; or
(iv) promotes agro-processing, and value-addition to primary products.
Download the full bill below
women farmers bill 2012_English
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