How empowering women in rural communities transforms families and economies

Rural women comprise one-quarter of the world’s population, as per the estimates by International Labour Organization. Here’s an equally interesting fact, they are also 41% of the world’s agricultural labour force.

Their work is crucial not just to uplift rural households but also for national economies through their participation in agricultural value chains.

However, women in rural India face a lot of roadblocks and disempowerment due to cultural, social, economic, and systemic barriers. Deep-rooted traditional norms and structural inequalities bar their growth pushing them to marginalisation.

How can this change?

Encouraging participation and leadership in rural women

As primary caregivers, women understand community issues deeper as compared to others. Their involvement in the decision-making process ensures that grass-root concerns like education, healthcare, water, and infrastructure addressed. Therefore, their active participation in local institutions such as gram sabhas, panchayats, and in other local bodies is vital for a complete rural development.

Further, this empowers other women and girls to step forward and strengthens the communities as a domino effect. Starting at the ground level, they can also serve as excellent bridges between governance and their local communities ensuring overall development and creating inclusive communities.

As per research quoted in this UNDP article, organisations with gender-inclusive cultures are over 60% more likely to have enhanced products & productivity. Also, almost 60% experience improved credibility, enhanced creativity and becoming a desirable place to work at.

Strengthening families through education

Enabling equal access to education is fundamental for women's empowerment. This is the reason why education for girls contributes to SDG 1 i.e. "No Poverty", because it has the potential to break poverty cycles.

Investing in educating a girl child is the key transformative step toward not only achieving the SDGs but it is fundamental to build the foundation of complete independence for women, especially in rural areas. It not only helps in equipping them with knowledge and skills but also contribute to important decision making within families. Some ways to ensure this are:

• Open dialogues to promote education in girls and not restricting them to household chores. Encourage ambition in women
• Host regular awareness campaigns that are targeted towards parents to break cultural & mental barriers that may hinder their education.
• Focus on maintaining schools in rural areas and ensuring they are in a healthy condition, are appropriate and welcoming to girls.
• Encourage attendance by providing lucrative incentives such as scholarships, free textbooks, and meals etc.

Economic development through skills development

Not just agriculture but women also make up for 70% of the global handicraft workforce, as per the International Trade Centre and especially in rural areas. Further, it states that countries, such as India and Bangladesh, women constitute over 80% of the handicraft workforce and it is a significant source of income for them.

With a humungous representation of women in these industries, it’ll be a loss at the macro level to not allow them financial security and social inclusion. Some ways to enable that are:

• Expose them to the micro-finance programs to help them with the financial resources they need to start their own businesses.
• Help them in forming cooperatives to collect resources and share knowledge. Further, provide them with training and mentorship programs on entrepreneurship, marketing, financial management etc to help build their skills that helps them compete in the marketplace
• Enable and provide platforms and initiatives that take rural women to larger markets. Further, ensure their products and services are priced fairly and they are not exploited
• Empowering women financially not only benefits them individually but also helps in the overall economic development.

Reducing urban migration

As per the World Social Report 2021, “Reconsidering Rural Development,” re-looking at the existing approaches can enhance the much-needed standard of living for 3.4 billion people approximately, living in rural areas without them having to migrate to cities. This is possible now by leveraging technology and internet connectivity.

The rise of digital consumption is the perfect opportunity to close the rural-urban divide. Access to digital finance, better tools for crop yields and in providing remote jobs can help, especially for women. It can significantly help rural women by increased exposure to information, markets etc.

Programs and initiatives on digital literacy makes it easy for them to use mobile applications to help with agricultural insights, online learning platforms and banking – the key to unlocking financial inclusion in rural women.

Land Rights

Women face challenges in asserting their land rights due to deep-rooted patriarchy, more so in rural areas. Therefore, it’s imperative for legal reforms to help them claim equal land ownership.

There must be advocacy efforts and awareness campaigns to educate women about their rights so they can fight for their claim. Further, there must be strict action against those who hinder it.

Land ownership is not just important for their security but also enhances women's voices, leadership abilities and decision-making power in families and communities.

Women, especially in rural areas, are key drivers of economic, environmental, and social progress essential for overall development. It’s time to support them as allies, not stand in their way.. Limited access to financial resources, health care and education couple with socio-cultural barriers are some of the major challenges they face. Aggravated food, economic and climate change crises do not help either.

Considering their humungous contribution in the agricultural, art and handicrafts workforce worldwide, empowering them is key not only to their own well-being and of their families or the rural communities, but also to overall economic productivity and development.

(Courtney Lalotra is Founder and Director of Samarpan Trust)

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)