Empowering Women through Agriculture

Swami Vivekananda lightly remarked that, A nation would not march forward ifthe women are left behind. Women's role in agriculture is significant as more than 80 per cent of the economically active women are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. This trend still continues. It is a fact that women grow half of the world's food but own hardly any land. It is difficult for them to get loans. They are generally overlooked by agricultural planners. Rural women are generally engaged in low paid jobs and have no security of the job. Illiteracy and backwardness are also important factors, which have hampered empowerment of women in rural society.Women must not only have equal rights, capabilities and access to resources and opportunities but they must also have agency to use those rights, capabilities, resources and opportunities to make strategic choices. Empowerment of women in rural area is dependent on several factors, including ownership and control over land; access to diverse type of employment and income generating activities; access to public goods (such as water, village commons and forests), infrastructure, education and training, health care and financial services and markets and opportunities for participation in political life and in the design and implementation of policies and programmes.On 24th February 2011, the Commission on the Status of Women convened an expert panel on empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges to provide an opportunity to discuss issues to be considered in preparation for the priority theme of the Commission in 2012. The urgency of rural women's empowerment has steadily moved to the forefront of the attention of policy makers, development practitioners and activists. The substantial contributions that women in rural areas bring to economic growth and the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty are now well established. An in-depth discussion on the situation and empowerment of rural women and their rule in rural development is, therefore, long overdue. There is a need to assess critically whether past efforts have brought the expected results and if not, how to change course.Parbhakar Vani (2004) has stated that women's dependent position is the result of a rigid distinction between men's role and women's role in the society. This leads to exploitation of women. In rural areas, they are the landless agricultural labourer members of family with uneconomic holdings, traditional menial servants and workers in tradition village and cottage industries.Women empowerment is a dynamic process that consists of an awareness attainment actualization cycle. Again it is a growth process that involves intellectual enlightenment economic enrichment and social emancipation on the part of women.Empowerment of women would mean equipping women to be economically independent and personally self-reliant with a positive self-esteem to enable them to face any difficult situation. Moreover, they should be able to contribute to the development activities of the country.Singh, and Kumari, (2007) have suggested various measures to strengthen women's empowerment and rural development which include development of entrepreneurial abilities of women by organizing special type of training, effective planning at the microlevel, adequate representation of women in women-related development planning, development of infrastructure facilities, encouragement of women through formal and non-formal education to involve themselves in the service sectors, establishment of women's organizations such as cooperative societies, mahila mandais, self-help groups etc. awaring of women about the technical and financial assistance available to women entrepreneurs encouragement by government for research and development to find out high income generating activities suitable for women etc. The authors have concluded that experience, awareness, education and competence, willingness, confidence, self-motivation, encouragement from family and society contribute to empowerment of women. …