For International Women’s Day we ARE bringing you stories from around India. Today’s story comes from the hills of Himachal Pradesh. 

“When you think of a farmer you always picture a man.  The men who own the land and who inherit it, but actually 90 percent of the farming work all over India is done by a woman.”

Vandana is a filmmaker who’s been following women farmers in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.  She says women in India are never seen as farmers both socially and legally. 

“A woman spends most of the time in the fields." She says. "She walks the long distances for water, fodder, and firewood. She digs the land, irrigates, reaps and even weeds it. After the harvest season she takes the crops to the store house.

"Men actually only sow the seeds and plough the land. Women are forbidden from doing this part of the job as they are considered impure and are said to bring misfortune to the land."

Vandana and her team went to the villages, and tried to explain to the men that women too should have equal rights to land ownership. "But most of them said: ‘Why should she own the land when there is a man in the house?’", she says.

It’s very unfortunate that in India, a woman’s role as a farmer is never recognized.”

South Asia Wired's partners in India WAVE have their video bloggers spread all over the country who voice their perspectives on issues that matter through video blogs.