The Landless women: Only 12.9% Indian women hold agricultural land

The index ranks states in terms of women holding land rights in percentage points

Look hard. Do you see any woman among the protesting farmers? The reason is simple — Women hardly own agricultural land.

Lakshadweep and Meghalaya are the best among all the 35 states and Union Territories at providing land rights to women; Punjab and West Bengal are the worst, according to an index created by the Bhubaneswar-based Centre for Land Governance, an arm of consultancy firm NR Management Consultants.

The index was prepared using the data on women’s operational holdings from the agriculture census of 2011, the share of adult women owning farm land from the Indian Human Development Survey of 2011-12, the