AGRICULTURE

The women who stayed

Since 2000-01, more and more rural men in India have moved from farming into construction, factories and shops. Most rural women who work are still in farming.

BeforeA man and a woman work in the same wheat field.
Scroll to follow them
19 surveys, 2000-01 to 2025Everyone starts in the field
2000-01

2023-24 and 2024 share January–June 2024: the PLFS moved from July-to-June years to calendar years.

The long view

Men moved out of farming twice as fast as women

Rural workers in farmingPer cent of rural men and women who work, by survey. The grey band marks years with no survey.
WomenMen
Table view

DBIE, Handbook of Statistics, report 134, rural. Usual status, principal and subsidiary together.

Where people found work

Men moved mostly into industry; women who changed work moved into services

Where rural men and women work, then and nowPer cent of rural men and women who work, in each kind of work
AgricultureIndustry, including constructionServices

DBIE, Handbook of Statistics, report 134, rural. Industry is mining, manufacturing, electricity and water, and construction.

A change after 2018-19

After 2018-19, more women worked in farming again

Towns as well as villages

Where urban men and women work, then and nowPer cent of urban men and women who work, in each kind of work
FarmingIndustry, including constructionServices

DBIE, Handbook of Statistics, Table 154 (annexure A1), urban.

What the work pays

A day on a building site pays more than a day in the field

What a day’s work pays a rural manAverage daily wage in ₹, all-India, by financial year. DBIE publishes these wages for men only.
How much more than farm work each job paysHow much more each job pays than a farm labourer’s daily wage, in per cent

DBIE wage rates (annexure A2), financial-year averages; 2019-20 and 2020-21 have ten monthly readings each.

What a day’s farm wage buys

A day’s farm wage against everyday costs
A day’s farm wageEveryday costs: food, fuel, clothes

DBIE wage rates (annexure A2) and the consumer price index for agricultural labourers (annexure A3), financial-year averages.

Which rural jobs pay the most?

Farm workOther work

DBIE wage rates (annexure A2), all-India, men only.

Same work, different pay

Site or farm?

A building site pays the most extra where farm work pays the least

Does a building site pay more than a farm?

In short

Annexure

The DBIE tables behind this story

Every number on this page comes from these tables on the Reserve Bank’s Database on Indian Economy (DBIE). Each link opens the DBIE section that holds the table; the figures used here are given in full under each one.

REFERENCES

The figures. Every figure on this page comes from the DBIE tables listed in the annexure above, each linked to its page on this site.

Further reading, for context only; no figure here comes from these. Down To Earth: Half of India’s women farmers recorded as unpaid helpers, report says; Center for Food Safety: 17 reasons to celebrate women in agriculture.

METHOD

Shares of workers, not numbers of people. DBIE gives, for every thousand people who usually work, how many work in each sector. The percentages here are those counts divided by ten: 727 in every thousand is 72.7%. DBIE has no count of workers, so it cannot give women’s share of all farm workers.

Usual status. The figures count principal and subsidiary activity together, DBIE’s “ALL” columns, the only basis the table gives for every survey.

The sectors. “Farming” on this page means agriculture and allied activities, as DBIE’s table groups them, including forestry and fishing. Primary is agriculture and allied activities. Secondary, called industry here, is mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity and water, and construction. Tertiary, called services, is trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, and other services.

Breaks in the series. The NSS rounds and the PLFS differ in design. The rounds cover periods of different length: some half-years, the PLFS July-to-June years, and the calendar years 2024 and 2025. DBIE’s table has no survey between 2011-12 and 2017-18.

No age groups. DBIE’s employment table gives no ages, and its only table by age is of bank depositors, not workers.

The pictures. The 3D farm at the top, the landscape, trees, birds, carts, tractors and buildings are decoration. Only the figures in the fields, the factory yard and the shop front stand for data: each is one in every hundred rural workers.

Nothing typed from elsewhere. Every number on this page is read from the DBIE tables named above.