Aheli Moitra
Autumn has dawned and celebration of female divine power is underway. From birthing to nurturing and protection, the feminine in our lives is a symbol of the light that ignites our collective way forward. At home, the feminine has mended the fragile; on field, she has fortified the foundation of human society.
Even as we celebrate the feminine in us, the way women have been shortchanged in social, political, economic life is on a note far from celebratory. While the disparity in development of men and women has remained wide, a gulf remains in the development of women living in urban and rural areas.
The United Nations’ commemoration of the International Day of Rural Women (October 15) comes at an apt time—not only because it is harvest time but because it is time we recognize the injustices that have contributed to making women in the rural areas near invisible even as their labour ensures our nutritional and food security. They continue to bear the worst burdens of poverty, inequality, exclusion and effects of climate change. These injustices become enhanced in the case of indigenous women in rural areas.
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, called on countries to take action to ensure that women and girls in rural regions fully enjoy their human rights, including the right to a life free of all forms of violence, discrimination and harmful practices, and to quality, affordable and accessible education throughout their lives. For this, countries need to make targeted investments, legal and policy reforms that make sure women in rural areas are involved in decisions that affect their lives.
Since the male dominated state structure will make no effort to put their minds to making policies that may uplift half the rural population from poverty, even this burden falls on women. While several programs have been held across Nagaland State to foreground women farmers, the Chizami Declaration endorsed by 119 farmers and those engaged with indigenous farmers from Phek, Dimapur and Kohima districts is a sharp policy document that shows clear direction.
The Declaration appeals to the Nagaland State Government and local authorities, particularly village councils, to promote and support diversity based agriculture, ensure access to good quality indigenous seeds, enhance access to credit and working capital to women farmers, promote indigenous pest management practices, universal cover for social security schemes, strengthen local markets and adopt gender appropriate technologies for hill agriculture.
These policy initiatives are aimed at strengthening the economic capacity of the Naga woman farmer in rural areas. In many cases, women have themselves taken up economic reform by becoming seed bankers and starting Self Help Groups. While this has helped women gain some form of economic freedom, it has still not brought political empowerment to women. It goes without saying, thus, that women have to be allowed to enter the realm of politics, starting from the rural, to affect decisions most relevant to their upliftment.
To understand this simple point, a pinch of the feminine should be inculcated in all beings.
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