 the women farmers' entitlements bill, 2018by shri sunil kumar singh, mp————— arrangement of clauses—————clauseschapter i preliminary1 short title, extent and commencement 2 definitions chapter ii certification of women farmer3 certification of women farmer 4 acceptance of certificate as evidence chapter iiiland rights5 equal land rights to women farmers chapter ivwater rights6 equal right to water resources 7 no discrimination for irrigation purposes chapter v legal access to credit and other agricultural inputs8 entitlement of women farmers to get credits, loans and other financial supports chapter vi fund for support services to women farmers9 establishment of fund10 women farmer friendly technology 11 market facilities 12 training and capacity building chapter vii implementation and monitoring authorities, their responsibilities13 responsibilities of central government (ii) clauses14 responsibilities of state governments 15 responsibilities of local authorities 16 women farmers' entitlement board 17 district vigilance committees 18 redressal of grievances chapter viii penalties and procedures19 penalty for non-compliance of provisions of this act 20 cognizance of offences 21 actions in good faith chapter ix miscellaneous22 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 bill no 12 of  2018 the women farmers' entitlements bill, 2018by shri sunil kumar singh, mpa billto 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 rights and for other functions relating thereto and for matters connected therewithwhereas women 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;and whereas it 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;and whereas the married women's property act, 1874 recognised the wages, earnings and other property acquired by a 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;and whereas the 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;and whereas india 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;and whereas 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;and whereas it 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 indiabe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:— chapter i preliminary51 (1) this act may be called the women farmers' entitlements act, 2018short title, extent and commencement(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, appointdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires—1015(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; or20(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 products510explanation—the term "farmer" will include, but not limited to, agriculture operational holders, landless cultivators, agricultural labourers, planting labourers, pastoralists, sharecroppers and tenants the term shall not include corporate entities operated by or involving farmers in case of landless farmers migrating or moving from one state to another, if anyone stays in a state for at least six months, such person may be considered as a farmer in that particular state(d) "guidelines" means the guidelines framed by the authority under this act with the previous approval of the central government by notification in the official gazette15(e) "land" means any land or water body utilised for the purpose of agriculture(f) "woman farmer" means and includes, irrespective of marital status or ownership of land, any woman who is a farmer as defined in sub-section (c) of section 2 and includes—20(i) any woman living in rural area and primarily engaged in agriculturalactivity, though occasionally engaged in non-agricultural activity; or(ii) any woman living in urban or semi-urban areas and engaged inagriculture; or(iii) any tribal woman directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture or shifting cultivation or in the collection, use and sale of minor or non-timber forest produce by virtue of usufructary rights25(g) "rules" means rules notified by the central government under this act chapter ii certification   of  woman  farmer30certification of woman farmer3 (1) a woman farmer certificate issued by the gram panchayat, after the approval of the gram sabha and authenticated by the village administrative officer or an authorized officer of the gram panchayat as may be prescribed in the rules, shall be the conclusive proof of declaring a person as a woman farmer(2) for urban or peri-urban areas, the certificate shall be issued by the urban local body with the approval of any corresponding authority as notified under the rules:35provided that a group of women farmers may obtain the group women farmers'certificate in the same process as may be prescribedacceptance of certificate as evidence4 the woman farmer certificate issued under section 3, shall be accepted as evidencefor the purposes of establishing the status of a person as a woman farmer under this act including in all administrative and judicial proceedings40 chapter iii land rightsequal land rights to women farmer455 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every woman shall have equal ownership and inheritance rights over her husband's self acquired agricultural land, or his share of family property, or his share of land transferred by the government under land reform or resettlement scheme:provided that concurrence of both the spouses shall be necessary in the case of land transfer or acquisition as per the provision of the provided land acquisition and rehabilitation law5explanation—for the purposes of this section, a woman farmer shall be deemed to have ownership and possession of equal and proportional share of agricultural property in her husband's property even, if, it is not mentioned in any of the relevant documents and the fact that she is the wife of a particular person is the conclusive proof to claim ownership and possession of her share of property and to have effective control over such share of property chapter iv10 water rightsequal right towaterresources6 a woman farmer shall have equal right, as enjoyed by male farmers, to all waterresources connected with the agricultural land to which she is the owner, shareholder, possessor or uses for farming activity and shall have access to water, water resources and irrigation facilities for carrying out agricultural activities as defined in this act157 the woman farmers shall not be discriminated on the grounds of marital status,religion, caste, ownership or possession of agricultural land while accessing water resources for irrigation purposesno discrimination for irrigation purposes chapter v20 legal  access  to  credit  and  other agricultural inputs8 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force and subject to the provisions of this act,—25(i) every woman farmer or group of women farmers who have a certificate ofwoman farmer from the appropriate authority shall be entitled to kisan credit card which as of now available mainly to male farmersentitlement of women farmers to get credits, loans and other financial supports30(ii) a woman farmer or group of women farmers shall be entitled to borrow moneyand other financial support for agricultural activity either on her own capacity or as a member of a women group as may be prescribed in the rules without any discrimination on the grounds of marital status, place of residence, caste, religion, or absence of collateral security chapter vi fund  for  support  services  to  women  farmersestablishment of fund359 (1) the central government shall set up a central agricultural development fundfor women farmers (cadfwf) under this act, which shall be used to empower women farmers like, incentives for development of women farmer friendly technologies, training and capacity building, creation of market facilities, organization of creches and day care centres, social security for women farmers, old age pensions and other related issues as may be prescribed in the rules40(2) the fund shall operate at the central, state and district levels and shall be administered under the guidance of an appropriate authority to be appointed by the central government at the central level and offices of the authority appointed in consultation with the state governments at the state and district level in such manner as may be prescribed(3) the fund shall receive contributions and grants from the central and state governments, user fees as specified under the rules and guidelines framed under this act45(4) the authority shall support individual and groups of women farmers organized in the form of registered women's cooperatives or mahila kisan kendras as per the guidelines framed under the act(5) the appropriate authority shall frame guidelines with the previous approval of the central government by notification in the official gazette for distribution and utilization of the fund5(6) the central government shall frame a scheme for social security of women farmers, especially old age pension as may be prescribed(7) the appropriate authority shall also have the power to secure lands from the government and other sources for distribution of lands to women farmers as prescribed under this act1010 any person who wants to develop women-friendly technology, may qualify forshort term and long term loans or grants or subsidies or venture capital from the fund as per the guidelines framed under the actwomen farmer friendly technologyexplanation—the terms 'any person' in this section means individuals and small and medium scale industriesmarket facilities1511 the appropriate authority shall create and facilitate market facilities for womenfarmers with the assistance of group of women farmers or of its own in different parts of the country including the establishment of rural godownstraining and capacity building12 the appropriate authority shall organise regular and periodical training and capacity building programmes for women farmers in different parts of the country to make them aware of the provisions of this act and to help them in realizing their entitlements and empowerments envisaged under this act20 chapter vii implementation and monitoring authorities, their responsibilities2513 the central government shall be responsible for overall implementation andmonitoring of the act, except as provided in this actresponsibilities of central government responsibilities of state governments14 (1) the state governments shall be responsible for implementation and monitoring of provisions relating to certification of women farmers, realization of land and water rights, operationalization of the fund at the state and district levels and other responsibilities as mentioned in this act30(2) the state government shall appoint appropriate authorities for carrying out suchfunctions(3) the offices of the authority set set up in consultation with the state government shall ensure that the land rights and water rights of the women farmers are institutionalized within the state with suitable amendments to the laws and/or gazette notification35responsibilities of local authorities15 for implementing different provisions and schemes of this act, the local authoritieslike the panchayati raj institutions in rural areas and urban local bodies in urban areas shall be responsible for discharging such duties or responsibilities as may be assigned by notification to them by the concerned state governments4016 (1) each state government shall set up a women farmers' entitlement board at the state level to advice the state government in implementation and monitoring of the actwomen farmers' entitlement board(2) the board shall consist of a practising woman farmer as its chairperson and two other members dealing with or experienced in technology, credit, inputs and marketing(3) the tenure of the board members shall be such as prescribed under the rules45(4) the board shall follow such procedure in its proceedings as may be prescribed in the rulesdistrict vigilance committee17 (1) for ensuring transparency in functioning of this act and accountability of thefunctionaries, every state government shall set up a district vigilance committee in every district(2) the composition of the vigilance committee shall be such as may be prescribed5(3) the vigilance committees shall look into effective implementation of all the provisionsof the act at the district levelredressal of grievances1018 for expeditious and effective redressal of grievances of women farmers, eachstate government shall set up effective institutional mechanisms at the taluka or tehsil or block level and an appellate mechanism at the district level in such manner as may be prescribed under the rules chapter viii penalties and procedures1519 whoever fails to comply with provisions of this act, rules or guidelines made under this act shall be punished  with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine, or with bothpenalty for non-compliance of provisions of this actcognizance of offences20 (1) any person aggrieved by violation of any provision of this act, rules orguidelines made under this act may file a complaint, within ninety days from the date of such violation, to a court not inferior to that of a judicial magistrate of the first class or a metropolitan magistrate:20provided that the court may entertain any complaint after the expiry of the saidperiod of ninety days if its is satisfied that the complainant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the complaint within time(2) for the purposes of sub-section (1), person means—(a) any women farmer who is affected;25(b) husband or representative of the women farmer who is affected; actions ingood faith overriding effect power to give directions;(c) any association of person of farmers (whether incorporated or not), if it isaffected or on behalf of an affected women farmer;30(d) any local authority within whose local limits the affected women farmer orassociation of persons or farmers live21 no prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any person for anythingdone or intended to be done in good faithprotection of action taken in good faith chapter ix miscellaneous35overriding effect22 the provisions of this act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistenttherewith contained in any other law for the time being in force other than this actpower to give directions4023 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in forcebut subject to the provisions of this act, the central government may, issue directions in writing to any person, officer or any authority in order to give effect to the provisions of this act and such person, officer or authority shall be bound to comply with such directionspower of state government to restrict the application of the act to certain areas4524 notwithstanding anything contained in this act, if the state government, afterconsultation with, or on the recommendation of  the local body or authority, is of opinion that certain provision or provisions of this act need not apply to certain areas of the state, it may, by notification in the official gazette, restrict the application of such provisions of this act to such area or areas as may be declared therein and thereupon such provisions of this act shall not apply to such area or areas25 (1) if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central government may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions not inconsistent with the provisions of this act to remove the difficulty:5provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of a period of twoyears from the commencement of this act(2) every order made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament26 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act10(2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, suchrules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—power to remove ofdifficulties(a) issuance of women farmer certificate under section 3; (b) facilitating financial support for women farmers under section 8;15(c) utilization of central agricultural development fund for women farmers(cadfwf) under section 9;power to make rules(d) functions and proceedings of the women farmers' entitlement board undersub-section (3) of section 16;(e) composition of district vigilance committee in every district undersection 17;20(f) institutional mechanism for expeditious and effective redressal of grievancesof women farmers under section 182530(3) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made,before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both houses agree that the rule or regulation should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonswith a gradual decline in the size of farm holdings, small and marginal farmer families are in need of multiple sources of income to come out of the poverty trap rural men belonging to resource poor families increasingly tend to go to towns and cities seeking work and income earning opportunities consequently, there is an increasing feminization of agriculture while women farmers are extremely hard working and are also conversant with sustainable agriculture practices, they suffer from several handicaps such as title to land, and access to credit, inputs, insurance, technology and market as early as 1995, the fourth world conference on women held in beijing urged developing countries to pay attention to the gender specific needs of women farmers india is on the threshold of enacting a landmark food security bill legal entitlements to food can be implemented only by improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of small farm holdings, since small and marginal farmers produce nearly fifty percent of the foodgrains in the country, as well as milk and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits in order to safeguard national food security, and to strengthen the livelihood security of rural women, a majority of whom are engaged in crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and agro-processing, the bill is being proposed it is necessary to implement the aforesaid decisions under article 253 of the constitution of india in so far as they relate to the women farmers' entitlementsnew delhi;sunil kumar singhjanuary 1, 2018 financial memorandumclause 9 of the bill provides for establishment of a central agricultural development fund for women farmers it also provides for appointment of an appropriate authority to administer the fund at central, state and district level clause 11 empowers the appropriate authority to create and facilitate market facilities for women farmers clause 12 provides for organising training and capacity building programmes for women farmers clause 16 provides that state governments shall set up women farmers' entitlement board as state level it also provides for appointment of a practising woman farmer as its chairperson clause 17 provides for setting up of district vigilance committee clause 18 provides for setting institutional mechanisms at taluka or tehsil level for redressal of grievances the expenditure relating to state shall be borne out of the consolidated funds of the state government concerned however, the expenditure relating to union territories shall be borne out of the consolidated fund of india the bill, therefore, if enacted would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a recurring expenditure of about rupees ten crore per annum would involve from the consolidated fund of india a non-recurring expenditure of about rupees one thousand crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 9 of the bill empowers the authority to make guidelines with the previous approval of the central government by notification in the official gazette clause 26 empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the matters in respect of which rules, guidelines may be made or framed relate to matters of procedure or administrative detail and it is not practicable to provide for them in the bill itself, the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character———— a billto provide for the gender specific needs of women farmers, to protect their legitimateneeds and entitlements and to empower them with rights over agricultural land,water resources and other related rights and for other functions relatingthereto and for matters connected therewith————(shri sunil kumar singh, mp)