Comment view | المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

السيدة Subhalakshmi Nandi

UN Women

الهند

05.08.2017

Hi, some of my initial thoughts to contribute to the discussion, are as follows.

Main challenges for rural women

Climate change and agrarian distress brought about by political, economic and environmental factors - leading to dispossession of resources (land, water, forest, etc.)
The continuum of collapsing rural livelihoods, leading to distress migration and trafficking
Lack of gender responsive infrastructure (rural roads, energy, water, etc.), public services and social protection - thereby, aggravating women's unpaid work - not only in care work, but also in subsistence livelihoods
Invisbility of women workers - as 'family farm workers' - and therefore, lack of social protection
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination - ethnicity, regional diversity, geography, marital status
Lack of rural women's voice and representation - in government, in unions, in farmer cooperatives, in all decision-making bodies
Gender based violence within the home and outside

Shifting approaches: Transforming gender relations and empowering rural women

The concept of 'family farming' does a disservice to understanding and addressing intra-household poverty and inequality
Focus on women as farmers - as individuals and as collectives (cooperatives, producer companies, unions) - rather than as 'family farmers'
Strengthen agriculture policy with the larger framework of macroeconomic and trade policies (e.g. WTO), labour market dynamics and industrial policies - need to be coherent with and complement each other
Need for human rights based approaches enshrined in CEDAW (Article 14), and its General Recommendation 34, as well as in the Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Need for a greater emphasis on ‘leave no one behind’ – defining a ‘farmer’ to include small and marginal, sharecroppers, agricultural workers, saltpan workers, fisherfolk, forest produce collectors and traders, etc. – all to be included in policy and programme for farming and agriculture
Think beyond 'microcredit'/financial inclusion as a the sole staretgy with rural women
Invest in learning, literacy, education and skills for rural women
Advocacy on land rights to be holistic - include private land/inheritance, common property resources, water resources, etc.
Investing in stronger institutionalisation of the gender agenda in design, implementation and monitoring of rural development and agriculture programmes - through audits, Gender Action Plans, gender-repsonsive budgets and MIS/data, capacity devleopment of staff/functionaries, etc.
Organise, organise, organise....! And visibilise rural women/farmers...!

UN Women's work in India

UN Women in India has supported the creation, expansion and activities of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM) – Forum for the Rights of Women Farmers. MAKAAM is an advocacy alliance that addresses the persistent poverty and vulnerability of women farmers and rural women, to build their resilience in the face of rising insecurities related to social, political, economic and environmental factors. Currently MAKAAM is forum of more than 120 individuals and organisations of farming women, of women farmers' collectives, civil society organisations, researchers and activists, drawn from 24 states of India. In 2016-17, the National Commission for Women (NCW) , Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM – Forum for Women Farmers’ Rights) and UN Women have come together in a unique partnership to collectively review legislation and policy frameworks, and advocate for removing barriers, as well as for creation of an enabling ecosystem for women farmers to realise their rights.

Through research and training inputs under an Action Research on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a flagship programme of the Government of India to promote rural employment, progress was made in adoption and implementation of Gender Action Plans (GAPs) in the Act, leading to increase in women’s participation; from 3 to 21% in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), 12 to 16% in the State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and 17 to 30% in the state of West Bengal (WB). The success in these 3 states led an overwhelming demand by the Ministry for expanding the action research to 4 new states.

A related article:

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/3/experts-take-subhalakshmi…

An older film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pC-YVHSWpk

Some more information:

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/ruralwomen/unwomen-good-practice.h…

The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) with UN Women technical support drafted the first ever Community Operations Manual (COM) on gender and list of gender indicators for the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) with special focus on gender-responsive institutional mechanisms, capacity building of all rural development officers, and institutionalization of gender analysis and agenda setting. NRLM works chiefly with marginalised rural women and has the mandate of reaching out to 100 million rural poor in 6 lakh villages across the country. Five departments of the Ministry of Rural Development implemented Gender Audit Guidelines for 5 flagship programmes with UN Women support.