Empowered You!
“To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?” – Mahatma Gandhi
Women! They are important but unfortunately, remain unappreciated irrespective of demographic and cultural boundaries that separate them. They have always been the backbone of the very structure we refer to as society. They are silent doers, not hunting or fishing for compliments for their achievements. Whether it is an urban stage or a rural setting, the very notion of society will break in their absence or if they suddenly decide to do nothing.
The International Day for Rural Women is one bleak attempt to show our appreciation for rural women and honor them for the role they play in rural development and agricultural enhancement across the length and breadth of this world.
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The Story of Rural Women Who Are Bringing About A Change In The World
ATRAM PADMA BAI
The elected Sarpanch of eight villages with more than 2,000 farmers, 37-year-old Padma Bai was a tribal Girijan farmer who only cultivated cotton, oil seeds and pulses on her three acre land. In 2013, she used a Rs. 30,000 loan from the Fairtrade Premiums Committee to launch a Hiring Centre for agricultural tools.
With the support of a Fairtrade India certified producer organisation, she invested in drudgery reducing farming tools such as pick-axes, sickle, spades, hoes and wheelbarrows. Her idea was to lend these tools to poor farmers in neighbouring villages who could not afford them, at a marginal rate, through her hiring centre.
Using the premiums, Padma Bai also set up a drudgery reduction unit, and constructed two concrete roads and a fair weather dry mud road. The hard working sarpanch has also managed to get government funds to make ponds for rainwater harvesting and install a water pump that will make clean water available in the village school.
WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE
Amid the country’s deepening climate change induced poverty, women in rural Makoni district, eastern Zimbabwe are now fully participating in various income-generating projects to fight adverse impacts of climate change. The community projects, which include a piggery and gravity fed irrigation scheme, poultry, cattle pen fattening and fish farming are running under the auspices of Makoni Green Fields, a programme spearheaded by World Vision, an international humanitarian organisation. The projects are covering Makoni district’s Wards 14, 24, 25, 26 and 39 which has a population of more than 33,000 people. The piggery project started with only 11 pigs in September 2016. Today, the number of pigs has risen to 90.
Besides the piggery project, rural women are also running gravity-fed irrigation scheme and will soon expand to the fishery. The local traditional leaders provided a five-hectare piece of land for the projects, and the gravity-fed irrigation system gets water from a river which cuts across a mountain about 4.5 kilometres away.
The community piped the water to the project site and are currently using two tanks which have combined the capacity of 10 000 litres pending the construction of a 70 000 litre water tank. Also there are six 20x30m fish ponds under construction in the same area. There is an interdependent relationship between the horticultural project, fish farming and piggery projects as products from one project can feed the other. This will then reduce the costs of feeds and inputs such as fertilisers.
HAJJA ZEINAB - EGYPT
Twenty six of these local women used to be members of the Al Tod Agricultural Community Development Farmers’ Association, but since the land was owned only by their male counterparts, the men dominated decision-making and did not let the women have a say.
After years of marginalization and hardship, the 26 women left the association and formed a cooperative, which spurred them to independently start raising cattle – a new source of income for them. The cooperative has secured decent jobs and working conditions for these women, nearby and where the women are shareholders and make the decisions on the division of labour or buying livestock. The new women’s cooperative is part of the “Pro-poor Horticulture Value Chains in Upper Egypt” (Salasel) project, an MDG-funded Joint Programme designed to improve the efficiency of the horticulture and agribusiness sector in Upper Egypt, in efforts to combat poverty. The joint programme brings together four UN organizations – the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Women – in a partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Investment. By organizing income-generating activities, it aims to improve the position of small farmers in export and domestic markets and create decent and secure employment in the region for both men and women.
MENTAMER - ETHIOPIA
When Mentamer’s mother died, she was left homeless and lived on the streets of Tilili, a small town in northern Ethiopia, not far from Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. After giving birth to her son, she took up work as a day labourer in order to feed him. She was making injera, the traditional Ethiopian bread and local alcoholic beverages that she sold on the street. Balancing insecure employment, variable daily income, and the demands of life as a single mother with no one to help her was “difficult,” to say the least.
In 2011, the Ethiopia Joint Programme on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, led by UN Women and the UN Population Fund, was initiated in the town of Tilili. The country-wide programme has four components: women’s economic empowerment, supporting women’s leadership, mainstreaming gender in federal and local level governments and ending violence against women and girls.
As one of the most impoverished members of her community, Mentamer qualified for the programme, and in March 2012, she successfully applied for a loan of 4,000 Ethiopian Birr (215 USD). The programme provided a six-day training course in business administration, vegetable farming, and livestock care.
Mentamer used the money she borrowed to buy two lambs, and the course gave her the skills she needed to grow and process food and raise healthy animals. After three months, she sold the lambs and made a profit of 800 Ethiopian birr (43 USD). Mentamer has continued to develop her business, and today, one year on, she has six sheep in the backyard of her hut, and has made a profit every three months since she first bought the lambs.
She now earns a regular income, but that isn’t the only way Mentamer’s life has changed over the past twelve months. She has also joined a women’s group that practises collective savings, discusses social issues and problems within the community, and cultivates potatoes collectively on a shared plot provided by the Government. She is the chairperson of the group and at their monthly meetings is in charge of collecting contributions from all the members and keeping the records. Mentamer and the other women in the group take turns using the savings for their businesses.
ARATI DEVI
Former investment banker and MBA holder Arati Devi already made news a few months back when she was invited to speak at an International Leadership Programme in the US. She spoke about state government functions, government transparency and accountability.
She is the sarpanch at Ganjam district in Orissa, which is also her hometown. She was also nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Leadership Award 2014.
She has introduced the benefits of Public Distribution System to her village, which wasn’t known to most people. Now they avail wheat, kerosene and other items at subsidised prices.
She also started a major literacy campaign for women in the panchayat where only signatures would be recorded for official applications, instead of thumb impressions. She has been known to revive traditional folk art in Ganjam.
She has stated that she wishes to spend the rest of her life in service of the ruralfolk.
SUSHMA BHADU
Sushma Bhadu, (in blue sweater, second from right) is a sarpanch from three villages in Harayana. Sushma Bhadu has to her credit improving the dwindling education and sex ratio levels of her villages.
But she is more popular for the "unveiling" of her 'ghunghat'.
Fighting centuries old patriarchal and controlling norms of her society, she has earned the respect and admiration of her villages. She is elected sarpanch of three villages - Salam Khera, Chablamori and Dhani Miyan Khan.
The literacy rate stands at 69.10% in the 2011 census against 58% in 2001.The sex ratio also now stands at 903 per 1,000 men in 2011 census as against 884 in 2001.
Defying the trend in the state, Dhani Miyan Khan has a zero dropout rate at the village's only school. She also makes sure that every child in the village attends school.
Taking a cue from Sushma, 30-year-old Kamla Devi, an anganwadi worker, not only gave up the ghunghat but also married off her two sons without taking dowry.
Shaking hands with women and folding them in front of men, the unveiled sarpanch has no objection to her daughters wearing western outfits, which she admits she is also fond of.
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“Ghar Ghar alakha jalaenge hum,
Hum badalenge zamana.
Sab se banaenge mitti ko sona,
Jeevan banega upwan salona.
Seejhake pull banaege hum,
Hum badlenge zamana”
We shall transform the times by enlightening our society. Together we shall transform sand into gold; life would be like a beautiful orchard. Together we shall build a bridge and transform our society.
Rural women spend a lot more time in domestic work and household activities than any urban men or women. International Day of Rural Women is not something to show any sympathy towards the hard work of any women. But this day is a mark of respect for the critical role and contribution of rural women. These women take part in the enhancing the agricultural and rural development, improves the food security and also eradicates poverty. These women have to face a lot of inequalities in terms of education, finance and health. But still these women offer their heart and soul for providing food to their families.
This day is in honor of these women and is a tribute to them.