The livestock sector is one of the most rapidly growing components of the rural economy of India, accounting for 5% of national income and 28% of agricultural GDP in 2018-19. In the last six years, the livestock sector grew at 7.9% (at constant prices) while crop farming grew by 2%. Livestock contribute significantly to the income of poor households, particularly the income controlled by women, and enables poor and landless women to earn income using common-property resources.
Contribution of women to livestock rearing in India

• Women constitute about 69% of the workforce engaged in the livestock sector. In tribal populated states of India such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha etc. their (women) share comes to around 90%.
• Women accounted for 31% of all members of dairy producer cooperatives in 2020-21.
  • In India, the number of women’s dairy cooperative societies rose from 18,954 in 2012 to 32,092 in 2015-16.
  • There were five million women members in dairy co-operatives in 2015-16, and this increased further to 5.4 million in 2020-21.
• Women play an important role in activities dealing with livestock such as care and management or transformation and marketing of certain livestock products.
  • They are also involved in milk production, although not all women control the sale of milk and its products
  • Women are typically responsible for milking ewes, providing feed/fodder and water, caring for newborn lambs/kids and sick animals.
  • Young girls are also involved in the grazing of goats and sheep.
• Furthermore, livestock ownership patterns especially for small stock and poultry appear more equitable than that of other assets like land, capital, and knowledge.

Issues faced by women in the livestock sector in India

• Lack of gender-disaggregated data: Recent employment surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey fail to collect data on women engaged in livestock rearing. This makes them invisible to policymakers.
• Lack of access to credit & capital: Women in poor households, without collateral to offer to banks, find it difficult to avail loans to purchase livestock.
• Limited access to extension services: The reach of extension services to women livestock farmers remains scarce owing to distance and cost factors.
• Lack of technical knowledge: Women livestock farmers lack technical knowledge on choice of animals (breeding) and veterinary care as men invariably perform these specific tasks and take animals for artificial insemination.
• Lack of decision making powers: Women are usually not aware of the composition and functions of dairy boards as men exercised decisions even in women-only dairy cooperatives. Further, the voice of women from landless or poor peasant Scheduled Caste households was rarely heard.

In view of these challenges, it is pertinent to ensure that women are included in every stage of decision-making and development of the livestock sector and their invisibility in the official statistics is corrected.