On October 15th, we celebrated International Rural Women’s Day 2022. It is an opportunity to recognize women who live on farms and ranches across the world as well as the contributions women make to rural communities around the world.

Established by the UN General Assembly through a resolution – 62/136 passed on December 18, 2007, the International Day of Rural Women is celebrated every year on 15th October to recognize the important role and contribution of rural women in improving agricultural and rural development, to reduce rural poverty and to improve food security.
The resolution urges the Member States, alongside the agencies of the United Nations and civil society to put in place and implement policies that will improve the lives of rural women, including the ones in native communities.

International Rural Women’s Day 2022 Theme

The theme for the International Day of Rural Women 2022 is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.

It reiterates that equal representation and participation of rural women in the socio, economic and political decisions at all levels; the impartation of economic education and training, the teaching of the financial process, and provision of credit and other services to the rural women; policy formulation and implementation to accord women full and equal rights to own land and property are all necessary steps to ensure the upliftment of rural women for a society develops when all of its people develop equally.

Rural women play an essential role in producing, processing, preparing, consuming, and distributing food as well as in securing adequate family and community nutrition. They play a key role in the agricultural sector and contribute to the economies around the globe yet they are denied their autonomy which limits them from enjoying their basic human rights.

Women’s Role in Agriculture and Rural Development: International Rural Women’s Day 2022

The agricultural sector in India plays a crucial role in the Indian economy and is sustained largely by the female workforce. Women are the invisible life force of the agrarian community of India. Indian rural women since childhood bear the burden of household responsibilities and caregiving, they are often dropped out of school and married off at an early age.

Most Indian rural women lead a life of servitude and namelessness. Extremely few of these women have ownership over the land they cultivate forcing them to spend a life of financial dependence, lack of autonomy, and ill-treatment.

One way of enabling rural women to gain autonomy and financial independence is to provide them with entrepreneurial skills along with giving them ownership of land. Rural women’s entrepreneurship can boost economic growth and improve women’s position in society. The economic development of women will lead to the development of family, community, and country, opening up new ways for generating employment.

In recent times Women’s entrepreneurship including in rural areas has increased to a great extent giving us rural women entrepreneurs whose efforts have generated new employment opportunities in rural India and changed the destiny of their communities.

We celebrate International Rural Women‘s Day 2022 by honoring the hard work and dedication of these amazing women. Some of the rural women entrepreneurs in India are:

• – Anita Devi
  • Known as the Mushroom Lady of Bihar, Anita Devi owns Madhopur Farmer’s Producers Company where she has undertaken the production and cultivation of mushrooms.

• – Gunavathy Chandrasekaran
  • Native to a small village in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Chandrasekaran monetized her artistic skills of quilling, wall art, card making, jewelry by selling them under her brand- Guna’s quilling.
• – Navalben Dalsanghbhai Chaudhary
  • With 80 buffaloes and 40 cows in her name, Navalben, a 62-year-old woman from Gujarat sells milk under her company and is closely associated with Amul Dairy Cooperative Society.
• – Pabiben
  • With no formal education Pabibenhas become a champion of online businesses. She runs an all-women online enterprise by the name Pabiben.com which sells quilts, dhurries, cushion covers, etc., and has employed over 60 women.
• – SobitaTamuli
  • Sobota is an entrepreneur who runs an all-women self-help group by the name Seuiji which manufactures and sells organic manure which is stronger and better than most manures available.

• – Anita Gupta
  • Anita Gupta from Bihar founded the BhojpurMahila Kendra in 1993. The organization empowers rural women by providing education and vocational training.

• – Godavari Satpute
  • MsGodavari Satpute turns waste material into decorative paper lamps which she sells through her company- Godavari Akashkandil. The motive of her company is to make women financially independent.

While the Indian rural economy contributes to half of the nation’s GDP it is essential to focus on rural development for overall national economic growth. Rural development can only be achieved when rural women are equipped with the skills required for financial independence and individual autonomy so that they become batons of change and growth.

At Wishes and Blessings, we do our best to uplift rural women by providing them with the required nutrition through ration and skill development training so that women in rural areas can take charge of their own lives.

Help us improve the lives of rural women, donate.

International Rural Women’s Day Quotes

“In the end, all the struggles at the same objective: the defense of life.”- Anna Sandoval.

“No country can succeed if it excludes the voices and talents of half its population.” – USAID.

“Ending gender equality is not just the right thing to do, it is a smart thing to do because FAO says giving women farmers access to resources they need would lift around 150 million people out of hunger.” – Ertharin Cousin.

“Women have always been the backbone of a large majority of farming businesses and they have probably not had the recognition they deserve.” – Minette Batters.

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