World Rural Women’s Day

By Ritam Banati According to the Human Development Report of 1995, "If women`s work were accurately reflected in national statistics, it would shatter the myth that men are the main breadwinners of the world." The World Rural Women’s Day, 2006 aims at the execution of policies today that will ensure that rural women of today become the leaders of tomorrow. The state of rural women is almost the same in most countries of the world. They are discriminated against despite the fact that they perform the same tasks assigned to men like in the third world countries. The rural women tend to be more independent than urban women in nations like India as most of them are working either by assisting with farming or working as labourers. Even though they are on their own two feet yet their condition is not commensurate with their laborious toil. The following facts will highlight the exact condition of rural women throughout the world: 1) Even though there are 1.6 billion rural women farmers, who on an average produce food upto 80% in Africa, 60% in Asia and between 30 and 40% in Latin America and western countries, they own only 2% of the land and get just 1% of all agricultural credit. 2) Village women represent a whopping two thirds of all illiterate people in the world 3) The number of women living in villages in poverty is twice the number in 1970. Statistics show that nearly 500 million women live in abject poverty in the villages. 4) Rural women are often not in a position to access services like credit, training and education. The contribution they make to society is more often than not ignored. 5) Women produce around 60-80% of basic foodstuffs in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. They meet around 90% of household water and fuel needs in Africa. Women process 100% of basic household foodstuffs in Africa. 6) Women perform over 50% of the labour involved in intensive rice cultivation in Asia. 7) Women perform at least 30% of the agricultural work in industrialized countries. 8) Rural women comprise more than one quarter of the total world population and around 500 million of them live below the poverty line in villages. It has been found that rural women work more than men. For instance in Nicaragua, women perform nearly 57% of all work during the harvests. But still they are not paid appropriately. In Central America they get only half of what men earn for doing similar kind of work. In Peru, almost 65% of indigenous women are illiterate compared to only about 26% of urban women. In Bolivia, nearly 68.5% of women in the countryside are illiterate. In the Mexican countryside, 60% of illiterate adults over age 15 are women, and only 20% of all rural men are illiterate (Agencia de Noticias, Cimac, 1998). In his message for International Women`s Day 2003, Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General had said, "There is no time to lose if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015. Only by investing in the world`s women can we expect to get there. When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life." By and large, little has been done to improve the condition of rural women throughout the world even though their efforts have been recognized in some quarters. In India, rural women get elected to the local bodies (Panchayati Raj) and have a say in the decision-making processes of their respective villages. World Rural Women`s Day was launched by several international NGOs during the 4th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995. Ever since 1997 an international campaign is organized each year on this day aimed at educating and empowering rural women. Women`s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) is credited for this world-wide movement wherein events take place in more than 100 countries across the world. Each country’s lifeline is its villages. Once villages prosper only then can the nation hope to make any tangible progress. And this progress can only be achieved when both sections of society men as well as women not only do similar work but also get treated equally and justly for the same. When this is implemented in every nation at the local level only then can true prosperity hope to be achieved for the world. In fact rural women are adding more to society than they are getting in return. A little bit of respect alongwith just treatment can go a long way in acknowledging their worth as human beings equal to men in all respects.