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She is the author of an award-winning book, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, which has had an impact on governments, NGOs, and international agencies in promoting women's rights in land and property.[2] This work has also inspired research in Latin America and globally.[3]
Agarwal's parents were Suraj Mal and Shyama Devi Agarwal, Agarwal named a book prize in their honour.[4] She earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Cambridge, and her doctorate in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, her dissertation was Mechanization in Indian Agriculture: An Analytical Study Based on the Punjab.[5]
Agarwal's expertise is on subjects related to rural economy. She has creatively used diverse methodologies (from econometric analysistoqualitative assessments) and an interdisciplinary approach, to provide insights on land, livelihoods and property rights; environment and development; the political economy of gender; poverty and inequality; law; and agriculture and technological change. She deals especially with the connectedness of gender inequality, social exclusion, property, and development. Her pioneering work has had an impact globally both within the academia and among policy makers and practitioners. A large part of her work compares countries, especially within South Asia. In A Field of One's Own (Cambridge University Press, 1994), her most famous work, Agarwal stresses that "the single most important factor affecting women's situation is the gender gap in command over property."[10] She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.[11]
Spurred on by Agarwal's work, and the successful movement she led in 2004–2005, Indian policy makers passed the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act in 2005. This Act gives all Hindu women (married and unmarried) equal rights with men in the ownership and inheritance of property, in particular agricultural land.[12]
Agarwal has consistently challenged standard economic analysis and assumptions. In her writings on the "bargaining approach" to intra-family relations, she challenges unitary household models and extends formal bargaining models to highlight the importance of social norms, social perceptions and property ownership in determining women's bargaining power. She also demonstrates the interconnectedness of the family, the community, the market and the state in determining a person's bargaining power in any one sphere. Her paper "Bargaining and Gender Relations" is the single most downloaded paper to date in the journal Feminist Economics.[13] In another article "Bargaining and Legal Change", Agarwal examines how women in India were able to bargain with the State to pass the inheritance laws of 1956 and bring about its amendment in 2005.[14]
In another important extension of her work on gender, property and power, Agarwal demonstrates in her empirically rigours article "Towards Freedom from Domestic Violence", that women's ability to own and inherit land acts as a significant deterrent against marital violence. Her recent books include: Psychology, Rationality and Economic Behaviour (coedited; Palgrave, 2005),[15]Capabilities, Freedom and Equality (co-edited, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2006).[16] Her most recently authored book is Gender and Green Governance (Oxford University Press, Oxford and Delhi, 2010) which has been widely cited and favourably reviewed in both academic journals and the popular press (EPW and Indian Express).[17]
In 2009, Agarwal was nominated to the board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) – such nominations are approved by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). On 29 March 2010 the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) awarded her the 2010 Leontief Prize – an annual award named after Nobel Laureate Wassily Leontief. GDAE Co-director Neva Goodwin wrote: "Bina Agarwal embodies the kind of theoretically rigorous, empirically grounded, and policy-oriented economics that the Leontief Prize was created to recognize," and "Her contributions to both scholarship and policy on economic development, the environment, well-being, and gender have been an inspiration to GDAE for many years." She is the currently president-elect of the International Society for Ecological Economics. She also heads a "Working Group on Disadvantaged Farmers, including Women" for India's 12th Five Year Plan, and is on the Indian Prime Minister's Panel on Land Reform. Additionally, Agarwal is on the advisory board for Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP).
In 2017, she received the Balzan Prize for Gender Studies[19] in recognition of her work in studying women's contribution to agriculture in India.[20]
First Ramesh Chandra Agrawal Award 2005 for Outstanding Contributions to Agricultural Economics.
Malcolm Adiseshiah Award 2002 for Distinguished Contributions to Development Studies.[3]
AWARDS for A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia:
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize 1996, given by the Association for Asian Studies (USA) (First South Asian to win the prize.)[3]
Edgar Graham Book Prize 1996, given every two years by The University of London's the Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies.[3]
The K. H. Batheja Award 1995–96 given every two years by Bombay University and the Batheja Trust awarding the most deserving works about India and Development.[3]
The Institute of Social Studies (ISS) awarded Agarwal with an honorary doctorate in 2007 and the University of Antwerp gave her an Honorary Doctorate in April 2011.
Padma Shri awarded by the President of India in 2008[21]
Agarwal, Bina (1976). Monsoon poems. USA: Ind-U. S. Incorporated. ISBN9780892538089.
Agarwal, Bina (1986). Mechanization in Indian agriculture: an analytical study based on the Punjab. New Delhi u.a: Allied Publishing. ISBN9788170230793.
Agarwal, Bina (1986). Cold hearths and barren slopes: the woodfuel crisis in the Third World. New Delhi: Allied Publishers. ISBN9788170230076.
Agarwal, Bina (1994). A field of one's own: gender and land rights in South Asia. Cambridge England New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521429269.
Agarwal, Bina (1988). Structures of patriarchy: state, community, and household in modernising Asia. New Delhi: Kali for Women. ISBN9788185107066.
Agarwal, Bina; Vercelli, Alessandro (2005). Psychology, rationality, and economic behaviour: challenging standard assumptions. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan in association with International Economic Association. ISBN9781403942531.
Agarwal, Bina (2007). Capabilities, freedom, and equality: Amartya Sen's work from a gender perspective. New Delhi New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195692372.
Agarwal, Bina (2010). Gender and green governance: the political economy of women's presence within and beyond community forestry. Oxford England New York USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780191614309.
Agarwal, Bina (2009), "Engaging with Sen on gender relations: cooperative conflicts, false perceptions and relative capabilities", in Kanbur, Ravi; Basu, Kaushik (eds.), Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume II: Society, institutions and development, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 157–177, ISBN9780199239979.
Agarwal, Bina; Panda, Pradeep (2005). "Marital violence, human development and women's property status in India". Journal of Human Development. 33 (5): 823–850. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.01.009. Pdf.
Agarwal, Bina; Panda, Pradeep (2007). "Toward freedom from domestic violence: the neglected obvious". Journal of Human Development. 8 (3): 359–388. doi:10.1080/14649880701462171. S2CID28511073. Pdf.
^"Lincei, all'indiana Bina Agarwal il distintivo di accademico". Askanews (News article) (in Italian). Rome, Italy. 14 November 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2016."Nel 2005 - ha raccontato Bina Agarwal - ho guidato una campagna per modificare la legge di successione in modo da consentire in India l'ereditarietà della terra anche alle donne. Dopo 9 mesi di battaglia, la modifica è passata e oggi la legge sull'ereditarietà è completamente paritaria, uomini e donne hanno gli stessi diritti di proprietà. E questo riguarda l'80% delle donne in India.
^Agarwal, Bina; Vercelli, Alessandro (2005). Psychology, rationality, and economic behaviour: challenging standard assumptions. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan in association with International Economic Association. ISBN9781403942531.
^Agarwal, Bina (2007). Capabilities, freedom, and equality: Amartya Sen's work from a gender perspective. New Delhi New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195692372.
^Agarwal, Bina (2010). Gender and green governance: the political economy of women's presence within and beyond community forestry. Oxford England New York USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780191614309.
^"For challenging established premises in economics and the social sciences by using an innovative gender perspective; for enhancing the visibility and empowerment of rural women in the Global South; for opening new intellectual and political pathways in key areas of gender and development". (Motivation of the Balzan General Prize Committee)
