Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), a scheme aimed at empowering rural women farmers announced by the finance minister Pranab Mukerjee in his last budget speech, is all set to roll out.

The rural development ministry which will oversee the implementation of the scheme, issued the draft guidelines last week.

The ministry will discuss the draft guidelines with the states at a workshop at National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad on November 18.

MKSP is expected get rolling by January next year.

According to rural development ministry statistics, the agriculture sector employs 80 percent of all economically active women. They comprise 33 percent of the agricultural labour force and 48 percent of self employed farmers.

About 18% of the farm families in India, according to NSSO reports, are headed by women.

“Women in agriculture are generally not able to access extension services and production assets like seed, water, credit, subsidy etc. As most of them are not recognized as farmers for want of ownership of land, they are not considered as beneficiaries of various government programmes / services,” the guideline paper says.

Further, due to multiple roles that a woman has to perform within the family and the farm, her access to knowledge and information, is constrained and therefore her opportunities get limited, it further said.

To improve the present status of women in agriculture, and to enhance the opportunities for their empowerment, government of India has announced MKSP as a sub component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and decided to provide support to the tune of Rs. 100 crore during 2010-11 budget.  

Some of the stated objectives of MKSP, among others, are:

• To enhance the participation and productivity of women in agriculture

• To create sustainable agricultural livelihood opportunities for women in agriculture

• To improve the skills and capabilities of women in agriculture to support farm and non-farm-based activities

• To ensure food and nutrition security at the household and the community level

• To enable women to have better access to inputs and services of the government and other agencies