Tis fast degrading, and weakened agricultural soils are breaking down under tremendous stress, the men are leaving their homes for towns to earn more money.

Migration of agricultural labour from Bihar and UP takes place extensively as does that of fishermen from Kanyakumari. The destruction of forests and grazing lands has put extreme pressure on tribal and nomadic people, forcing them into landlessness and migration in search of jobs.

What happens to the women left behind? Divorce rates are high among emigrants, and the wives are usually deserted.

Then there are added problems. Femaleheaded households are generally poorer than male-headed households. This is a worldwide phenomenon and one of the factors why 70% of the world’s poor are women. breadwinners in 25 per cent of poverty-stricken families. Households where women are the sole adult income earners are already quite numerous: about 18.7 per cent of households in India, according to one estimate.

As fuel and fodder becomes scarcer, the traditional methods of manuring fields will be given up. Cowdung will be used as fuel but with the lack of manuring, these fragile soils will be exhausted very soon.

A study notes that with receding forest cover, energy expended in direct agricultural activity as compared to energy expended in fodder and fuel collection will decrease every year as women will have to go further and further to gather wood and forage.

A vicious circle which will push women more and more into poverty.