Is the Productivity of Unpaid Female Family Workers in Indian Agriculture Very Low

The significant increase in the number of unpaid female workers in Indian agriculture between 2017-18 and 2023-24 is a positive, rather than a negative, development in the Indian rural economy because their productivity is in all likelihood not any less than that of paid female workers in rural areas, as indicated by the recent study by Areef and Shekhar (2025). While Areef and Shekhar find that per-adult consumption expenditure in a farming family with unpaid female workers is relatively lower than that of such a family without unpaid female workers, there are some doubts about the inference one may draw regarding relative productivity or earnings of unpaid female workers in rural areas based on this piece of empirical evidence, and more research is therefore needed to gain a better understanding of the issue

Agricultural productivity · Agriculture · Consumption (sociology · Earnings · Productivity · Unpaid work · Agricultural risk and resilience · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion