"I am the first woman farmer in my block who started cultivation 15 years back," said 45 years old Aisha Begum Khatoon of Hridaypur village in Ambedkarnagar district. When she picked up the hoe for the first time, all the villagers rebuked her for treading on a man's domain. However, she decided to move forward, despite all odds, in order to look after her three daughters and one son.
Her husband lives in the city and takes no interest in agricultural activities. She owns a mere half acre land, but by resorting to organic farming, she is able to provide bread and better to her family of five members. She is now able to produce more than 20 varieties of crops, thanks to organic farming, and has become a role model for other women farmers of her area. Aisha Begum is grateful to the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG), for teaching her multi-layer cropping patterns, as well as time and space management.
Organic farming has provided her with a sustainable and economically viable model of agriculture production. She is also involved with Ekta Self Help Group and is the President of NARI Manch (this forum provides agriculture related information to women farmers). She has also been successful in creating more than 250 self help groups. Now her husband and her other family members take pride in her work. The Uttar Pradesh state agriculture Minister, Mr Chaudhari Laxmi Narayan, awarded her recently, during the Kisaan Sansad (Farmers' Parliament), in recognition of her excellent work in agriculture production.
Women farmers, despite being one of the biggest labor forces in India, are still fighting for their rights and identity. In India more than 84 per cent of women are involved in agricultural and/or allied activities. The agricultural sector provides employment to nearly 4/5 of the total women work force in India. One third of the agricultural laborers are women and 48 per cent of the women farmers are considered self employed in the agriculture sector.
According to a study conducted by GEAG, in Uttar Pradesh, 70 per cent of the state's population is involved in agricultural activities, making it a food surplus state. Women family members of about 80% of small and marginal farmers are involved in agricultural activities.Yet land holding rights of women farmers are a mere 6.5 per cent out of which a majority of them (81 per cent) got their land after the death of their husband, while only 19 per cent got it from their mother's side.
Neelam Prabhat, State Coordinator, Aaroh Abhiyaan, (a campaign for the empowerment of women farmers and their rights) working in GEAG, Uttar Pradesh said, "despite the tremendous contribution of women farmers in agricultural sector ,they have always been marginalized and denied their rights, not only by their family and society ,but by the policy makers as well. In general, they are treated as the assistants of male farmers."
She further said, " According to a recent report published by The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year mostly due to soaring food prices, and the number of undernourished people worldwide is approaching the 1-billion mark. We can reduce this number if we empower women farmers and give them land holdings rights and joint bank accounts with their husbands."
The total number of hungry people has risen to 963 million this year, up from 923 million last year. FAO has cautioned, in the latest edition of its global hunger report, that this number could rise further as a result of the ongoing financial and economic crisis. In view of this we should strengthen production in a comprehensive way and should give the rights, long over due, to women farmers. In this way they will become an asset, not only to their families but also to society and the entire country.
PermalinkSubmitted by rakib ahmad on Sun, 28/03/2010 - 15:14
Thanks Amit, for the inspiring story of a marginalised woman farmer in UP. I am working at grassroots level in Assam. Separation of land patta in favour of daughters sh be completed by fathers in their lifetime. 2ndly' Issuing landholding certificates by circle officers/ tehsildars in favour of woman sh be legally made mandatory, within say, 100 days of application. Due to lack of land papers, woman farmers find it difficult to form acceptable groups for subsidy.
Causing major inconvenience to over 1,000 people, the Kolongpar passenger train stranded for over two hours after the train developed technical snag in Morigaon district on Thursday. The passenger train developed technical snag at Barahu near the Jagiraod train station at around 8.30am on its way from Nagaon to Guwahati. The stranded passengers were later brought to Guwahati in the Silghat-Kamakhya passenger train.
One person was killed and six were injured when a tempo collided head-on with a truck in Morigaon district on Thursday. The incident took place at Golchepa in the wee hours when the tempo, carrying ten passengers lost control and collided with the truck coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the tempo, Junmoni Bordoloi, died on the spot while others were rushed to the hospital. The tempo was on way from Jagiroad to Morigaon.
ULFA begins strike in Sivasagar district in the run up to the independence day. A police team had a narrow escape in Charaideo when a powerful bomb exploded in their full view near a body they were going to recover on Thursday.
The incident took place in the morning when a team of police from Mothurapur arrive in the Lengubor area to recover the body. As they reached the site, a powerful bomb exploded which was planted at an electric post. Identified as Michel Puty, he was taken away by a group of unidentified miscreants on Wednesday night. The body was spotted on Thursday morning where the bomb exploded. But there was no report of any casualty.
Tinsukia again falls in the deep grip of gas leakage erupting in sparks of fire. In yet another forecast of impending danger of gas leakage, the local in Hilikhaguri have noticed fire a week after they saw high levels of natural gas emissions in their fields. They came to see some sparks of fire in the field on Wednesday night in the evening. The villagers are afraid of devastating gas leakage in the area and even to burn fuel even to cook food in their houses. Same it happened in the nearby Deohall teas estate as well. The residents of the village blamed the nearby Oil India refinery for not paying any heed to their complaints. The villagers feel that the company should look for a long...
A CBI team will visit the violence-hit BTAD areas on Thursday acting on chief minister’s recommendation for a probe into the riot. Led by CBI Special Director and Joint Secretary (North East) at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sambhu Singh, the team is set to hold discussions with the Assam Police officials regarding the cases related to the ongoing violence in Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon districts which the investigating agency is likely to take over.
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Fresh tension is simmering in Kokrajhar when unidentified miscreants burnt down the headquarters of the All Bodo Students’ Union on Wednesday evening. The incident took place in the evening demanding that the State government provide adequate supplies including baby food, medicines and text books to inmates of the relief camps.
Ravi Shankar has stressed rebuilding of hopes and confidence of the people left traumatized at the height of the violence in the burning BTAD areas. During his visit to Kokrajhar on Wednesday, the spiritual leader also stressed a helping hand for the displaced people. He said that them that they were not alone in their moments of grief.Earlier he visited the violence victims a camp in a school in the Kokrajhar, where he distributed clothes to them, and gave them his blessings.
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BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday demands immediate sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border to help the state get rid of the trouble mongers. He alleged that the ruling Congress has a tie-up with infiltrators from Bangladesh for its vote-bank politics and that this is the main problem for the recent violence in Assam. Speaking at a discussion on Bodo Hindus - Refugees in their own land, he said that Bangladeshi immigrants are main reason for the violent incidents in Assam. He appealed to all political parties to stand by the people of Indian origin and throw out the illegal migrants.
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