India, July 5 -- When Usha Kute's husband, a debt-ridden farmer, died by suicide in 2016, she inherited not just his half-acre farm in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district but a battle. She had to fight her father-in-law for the land, which had no electricity or water. Years later, after getting a well dug, she finally had a bumper cotton harvest but had to sell at low rates to pay for her son's tuition. Today, finally, the once debt-ridden land is a source of livelihood, dignity and independence. The happy ending to Usha's story is unusual. The rest of it would be painfully familiar to millions of women farmers for whom "survival is a daily act of navigating risk, debt, and indignity," finds a 2025 study by Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM) on structural violence against rural women workers where Usha's story finds place. For generations, women like Usha have done the labour of sowing seeds, transplanting saplings, and harvesting crops, minus the autonomy of decision-making, paid remuneration or rights on the land. Over the years, as men have migrated to cities for employment, it's women who are left to manage farms, livestock, and household food systems. Nearly 77% of working women in rural India engaged in agriculture in the 2024 Period Labour Force Survey. Of these, 73.5%, are "self-employed", a category that includes women who work unpaid on family farms. Just 13% own agricultural land. In some states the gap is particularly acute. In Maharashtra, for instance, 88.46% of rural women engage in agriculture; 90% of these do not own the land. Women grow the food. Men own the fields. The problem isn't just the invisibilisation of women's labour or the injustice of women working on land over which they have no rights. In India, recognition determines who counts in the eyes of the State. Without official recognition as farmers, women are excluded from formal credit. They cannot get crop insurance or formal credit without collateral. If a crop fails, compensation goes to the land owner, not the woman who laboured over the crop. "Those who are engaged in farming are shut out from schemes that are designed for men," says Seema Kulkarni of MAKAAM. The idea that women should be formally recognised for their labour as farmers was mooted in 2012 by MS Swaminathan, the architect of India's Green Revolution, who introduced a private members bill that lapsed without being put to vote. Now, 14 years later, Maharashtra is set to right a historical wrong. Earlier this week, the state became the first in independent India to pass a bill that grants recognition to women farmers. Included in its sweep are those involved in allied activities like beekeeping, fisheries, livestock rearing, and the gathering of minor forest produce. When enacted, it could become the gateway to creating a legal framework to expand women farmers' access to government schemes, institutional credit, insurance and social security benefits. Coincidentally, the bill was passed after consultation with professor Swaminathan's daughter, Soumya Swaminathan, who heads the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, and other stakeholders including MAKAAM. "Besides enhancing their dignity and self-esteem, it will enable them to participate more effectively in government development programmes and schemes," says Soumya. "Maharashtra has truly made history." The bill does not erase the patriarchy that keeps women out of land ownership. It does not seek to make farm labour gender equal. But, much like the mainstreaming of the discussion over unpaid housework, it recognises women's labour in the fields - a step that with a bit of luck will be the first toward equality....