Food Regime as Gender Regime: Restructuring Agri-Food Systems in India

Agri-food systems sit at the centre of discourse on nutrition, livelihoods, gender equality and environmental sustainability. They are also embedded in unequal power relations that favour industries over small scale producers and depend primarily on women’s unpaid work. This paper treats food regimes as gender regimes and focuses on India, where the contradictions are stark. It argues that food insecurity is a product of structural and gendered inequality, and that addressing it requires transformative change in how agri-food systems are organised. It begins with the literature on agri-food systems, gender and food regime. It then uses data from India to showcase where women stand in the system. The final section delineates policy recommendations that follow from the evidence.