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A Summary - Women in Agriculture

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#women #womenempowerment #womeninagriculture #agribusiness
My views on this at recent seminar
My main focus was on the need to accord space to women in decision making and financial planning. That is minimal while the work participation rate is there in Agriculture operations. To reduce the drudgery in work which women had to take up. Most agricultural operations and dairy, the element of drudgery was left to women. But the role in decisions was absent. Then the women could contribute better with better quality equipment which made for ease of operation by women. Maybe the use of hydraulics too for lifting. Innovation was required. At most camps for training in rural areas, women were absent and even if present, chose to remain silent and at least I never came across a woman asking for clarifications in the presence of men. A higher degree of effective participation by women would certainly improve productivity and diversification as also promote practices which were environment friendly. Entrepreneurship in any manner or field is empowerment but is limited to a limited set of activities generally. Credit was another concern as in the absence of collateral (including rights to land) the credit was denied only. Moreover awareness levels were strikingly low on matters of government schemes and credit and empowerment including in feudalistic oriented states such as Punjab or Haryana. What we quote as inspirational figures by way of examples are very few. We need more effective policies and implementation in the field. Progress is there but slow. Next we need not quote religious texts to indicate we are gender friendly when we know intrinsically our biases and our gender ratios, data does not substantiate our subtle justification through the backing of any religious text. We have to first acknowledge reality then seek improvement. I have come across through my service a lot of women who readily accepted they were not reading newspapers or following the news. Education, Awareness, A larger push by political leaders and more skill development would all matter. And women have to free women first by being free of prejudices (mom in laws and daughters in law for example and the dynamics within families) and men will have to learn to step back and create that space too. It’s time we moved on thi

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