Editorial
Helping women to their rightful position
Key is in recognising their contribution to economy.
It is regrettable to note that so far women farmers had not met at the national level. It is only day before yesterday that the first ever national female farmers' conference was held marking the World Food Day. We appreciate ActionAid for having organised it.
A consensus emerged from the conference demanding social and state recognition of women's contribution in all stages of food cultivation. Such recognition will help protect their economic rights as well as upgrade their status in their families and society at large.
According to reliable statistics, rural women work 20 per cent longer than men in farming, but they hardly exercise any right to decision-making in the households and at the community level. At workplaces they get less pay than their male counterparts, although they have a larger share in activities like farming and livestock rearing. Such discrimination is a shame for a country where the prime minister and the opposition leaders are women.
Increase in literacy among women will help the process of their uplift in many ways. Emphasis on schooling and various financial incentives to women over the years have been helpful in bringing women to the fore.
Women in rural areas and their children remain physically weak and malnourished. But as pointed out by a researcher of Helen Keller International at a discussion on the International Day of Rural Women, the number of underweight among under-five children in South Asia can be reduced by 13 per cent only by improving women's status.
On the whole, the raw deal the women get in society must be reversed with a strategic plan of action formulated by the government in tandem with relevant women rights and advocacy groups.
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