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Dairy production is central to the livelihood strategies of many rural Indian households, yet extension and training systems frequently treat the household as a gender-neutral production unit. This assumption obscures a recurrent division between women’s responsibility for routine animal care and men’s greater control over livestock assets, external services, marketing, credit and income. The resulting mismatch limits the relevance and adoption of dairy advice. This critical narrative review examines gender-based dairy extension training needs in India, with special attention to rural Bundelkhand, where drought, fodder and water scarcity, dispersed veterinary services, small herds, labour migration and expanding women-owned milk producer institutions create a distinctive training environment. Literature published from 1 January 2000 to 4 June 2026 was selected from accessible scholarly indexes, institutional repositories, official sources and verified journal records. Evidence was appraised for study design, measurement validity, gender analysis, geographical relevance and the extent to which training outcomes were linked to resources, decision authority and service access. Across Indian studies, animal health, feeding and fodder, breeding, housing, clean milk production and calf care consistently emerge as priority technical domains. The literature also reveals less visible needs in financial literacy, record keeping, market participation, digital access, leadership, asset ownership, drudgery reduction and climate-risk management. These strategic needs are often ranked lower because women are excluded from the associated decisions, not because the capabilities are unimportant. Evidence of training effectiveness is positive but methodologically limited by small local samples, cross-sectional designs, self-reported outcomes, weak counterfactuals and inadequate measurement of women’s agency or time burden. For Bundelkhand, a defensible model is village-based, modular and seasonally timed; delivered through women facilitators, self-help groups and milk producer organisations; and linked to veterinary care, inputs, finance, markets and climate adaptation. Evaluation should move beyond attendance and knowledge gain to feasible adoption, animal health, income control, workload, resilience and collective agency.