Today is dedicated to all rural women. They carry the burden of life through their invaluable and often unnoticed work to keep the world going. We remember their contribution to humanity and their achievements.
Rural women are the backbone of homemaking on the domestic front. Most often their role is unrecognised and unacknowledged. Their role in ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities is invaluable. In agricultural operations they have a key role. It is acknowledged that if women have ‘access to ownership of land and livestock,’ agricultural productivity can be greatly improved.
In India about 65% of population lives in rural households. Women constitute 48% of rural population. Among them about 75 % women are agricultural workers. Female workforce at all India level is estimated to be 80+%.
Empowering women through capacity building, training, exposing them to small scale business, literacy, education etc. can be enormously helpful in nation-building process. If they have better access to sanitation, health care, education, and public services, they can become better asset to the nation. In community decision making process they are given minimal role. This needs a sea change in the mentality of men. Patriarchy and male domination keep women at the receiving end.
The Panchayat Raj process is expected to make women important participants and collaborators in the development process. However, in this area, much progress is needed. It is a men’s world when it comes to policy making, planning and execution of development projects. It is also noticed that, keeping elected women behind the stage, their husbands or male partners do all the string pulling.
An aberration is noticed in rural tribal communities. Tribal women from well-to-do families are lured as female partners by other communities with the motive of land grab and power grab. Such women are made to stand for election and, after their winning, their husbands take over as policy makers and implementers.
It is a long way for rural women to freedom and development.