Transformation of Women’s Labour Within the Changing Agrarian Landscape: The Study of the Karbi Tribal Women of Assam

The expansion of commercial plantations has brought significant changes to the socio-economic landscape of hill tribes in Assam, with a particularly profound impact on women. This article examines the rise of pineapple cultivation in various parts of Karbi Anglong district and its implications for Karbi tribal women. Traditionally, Karbi women actively participated in jhum (shifting) cultivation alongside their communities, where labour and benefits were equitably shared. However, the shift to large-scale commercial pineapple plantations has disproportionately burdened women while offering them only a marginal share of the profits. Fieldwork reveals that although women are deeply involved in every stage of pineapple production from land preparation to harvesting, they are largely excluded from the marketing and profit-making processes, which are dominated by male family members. This gendered disparity is further exacerbated by the fact that Karbi women lack ownership rights over land and property, leading them into deeper marginalization under the commercial plantation regime. This article argues that the transformation from community-based cultivation to market-oriented agriculture has reinforced patriarchal structures and economic inequalities, particularly affecting the agency and livelihood of Karbi tribal women. This study situates Karbi women’s experience within a broader labour history framework, tracing the shift from collective, subsistence-oriented jhum labour to market-driven plantation work that reconfigures both economic value and gender relations. The findings of the study represent not only an agrarian transformation but also a restructuring of labour relations, where women’s collective and autonomous labour in jhum is replaced by gendered, informal and often invisible labour in commercial plantations.