Bina Agarwal, an Indian developmental economist and academic. All her life, Bina has extensively written on land, livelihood, and property rights, along with taking up issues of environment and gender.
She is also the author of the award-winning book A Field of One’s Own. At the time of its release, the book had a huge impact on governments and international agencies in promoting women’s rights in land and property globally. Her work is said to have inspired research in Latin America as well.
Bina Agarwal earned her later degrees in education from the University of Cambridge and the Delhi School of Economics. Her specialisation was in Indian agriculture, with a case study in Punjab.
But her actual academic career took flight after she worked with some of the most prestigious institutes in the world, like Princeton, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and New York University. Alongside, she also held the presidency and participated in various global associations, including the UN Committee for Development Policy, because of her expertise in the rural economy.
Bina Agarwal has constantly challenged standard economic analyses and assumptions in measuring gender inequality, social exclusion, property, and development. She also challenged the unitary household models of economics and extended it into a formal bargaining model.
The formal bargaining model, in a way, highlights the importance of social norms, social perceptions, and property ownership in determining a woman’s bargaining power.
Agarwal has also been nominated for several prestigious awards like the Leontief Prize, the Balzan Prize, several honorary doctorates, and, finally, a Padma Shri by the President of India in 2008.
As a champion of feminist economics, Bina Agarwal’s work helps all of us understand our rural economy and its link to women.
