The agricultural sector has been the backbone of the Indian Economy for decades now and farmers are the pillars to this skeletal structure. However, the work distribution holds an imbalance because women carry out most of the laborious work in the field, also having to look after the household, making it twice the burden of workload.
In such situations their work outside the domestic is hardly seen as productive, which is not rewarded much when compared to their male counterparts. Even after years, the work contributed by women farmers in the field, sometimes more than their male counterparts, which involves tasks such as sowing and harvesting goes unnoticed and unharbored without any extra income. Moreover, for women working in the field it does not guarantee any rights or easy ownership to the land that they have worked so hard upon. Therefore, this creates a clear gender disparity and closing this gap would be essential in order to accelerate the pace of agricultural growth. In India, 85% of rural women are engaged in agriculture, and only about 13% own land; thus, if this statistic does not speak of a clear disparity, what does?
Women today are making their mark be it flying an aircraft, building houses, treating patients or fighting for their rights in the court of law and so are women who endlessly have been and still are devoting their time to grow the crops which helps to nourish an entire country’s population. Thus, it’s time women are recognised as equally empowered and their work appreciated in the agricultural field.
Having worked with farmers in the agricultural field for the last decade, SwitchON Foundation has been constantly trying to bridge the specific gap that still exists in the workforce. The effort to build this bridge has been possible with the launch of a grassroot network of organizations called the SEWA (Sustainable Energy-Water-Agriculture) Network.
The primary aim of this network currently in three states of East India (Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha)is to encourage female farmers to learn and operate solar pumps in their respective agricultural fields.
What is the Govt Programme SwitchON Foundation is promoting ?
The Government of India has launched the PM KUSUM Programme in 2019 with a target to install 17.50 lakh standalone solar agricultural pumps across India. The Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) is promoting solar pumps among small and marginal women farmers and SwitchON Foundation would be hosting a stakeholder meet to discuss how solar pumps can benefit women farmers across the state and help empower women farmers on the 16th and 17th November this month at Ranchi and Deoghar respectively. Previously too in its effort to create awareness on this SwitchON Foundation, has conducted 74 awareness workshops in 6 districts of Santhal Parganas till now in partnership with Jharkhand State Renewable Energy Department (JREDA).
Through these workshops it was concluded that there is a high interest among the farmers for applying for solar pumps under PM KUSUM. Further with 10 active Civil Society Partners in Jharkhand, the SEWA network aims to build, nurture and strengthen the interlinkages between Energy Water and Agriculture while keeping women leadership and livelihood of the farmers in the centre.
The activities of SEWA Network have been designed keeping the livelihoods of women farmers in the centre. Enhancement of livelihoods through women collectives and leadership has been a proven model in the past in Bengal and we wish to carry out the same in Jharkhand as well.
This is a wake up call for all minds young and old alike, to join at the earliest in SwitchON Foundation’s upcoming stakeholder meet titled “Solar Pumps for Women: Strengthening the Energy, Water & Agricultural Nexus” has been scheduled to be organised at Ranchi on 16th Nov, 2021 and Deoghar on 17th November 2021.
The event is likely to be attended by the women farmers themselves alongside civil society organisations in the city, top official bureaucrats and friends from the media fraternity. It is one wouldn’t wanna miss, one is keen to be a part of history in making.
You can Join Us over Zoom via the link provided below:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86856811463?pwd=UmdxUDVhaFB1SEJ6YTNwT0hySWw0dz09
Meeting ID: 868 5681 1463
Passcode: 374348
Therefore, the active involvement of women in this mission has been to create an environment where women champion as farmers alongside their male counterparts and feel empowered to do so. So let’s spread the word about this beautifully thought out and well crafted model of sustainable livelihood agricultural practice and bring women’s latent work for ages to the forefront and give credit where it’s due.
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