NEW YORK, Mar 19: Highlighting the challenges faced by women farmers in India, a group of Indian NGOs has called for putting in place strong policies to ensure land rights for them and stressed the need for customised financial products including easy loans and capital availability to support them.
The Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society (CECOEDECON), Public Advocacy Initiatives for Rights and Values in India (PAIRVI) and Stree Adhaar Kendra, here to attend the ongoing 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), came together on the sidelines of the conference to discuss the challenges faced by India’s women farmers, particularly those posed by the effects of climate change.
Women ministers and thousands of women representing hundreds of non-governmental organisations have been at the UN headquarters this week for the CSW, an annual two-week event which is this year focused on women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.
The discussion by the three Indian NGOs highlighted how women farmers are coping with the challenges of climate change and the need for government policies to support them.
PAIRVI’s Aparna Sahai enumerated the challenges faced by women farmers including subjugation, poverty, lack of access and control over resources and inadequate remuneration.
Stree Adhaar Kendra’s founder Neelam Gorhe underscored the need for improving linkages between sustainable development goals and gender equality. She emphasised that natural disasters are increasing in various parts of the world and women farmers suffer more due to unequal power relations and lack of resources. She called for strong policies to ensure land rights for women, according to a statement.
The NGOs said systems need to be put in place to ensure control over produce and revenue generated. There is also an urgent need for collective farming opportunities, and forming women’s groups in order to build their bargaining power.
Women farmers also need support for accessing markets and financial institutions must develop customised products to support the needs of women farmers through easy loans and capital availability.
CECOEDECON’s Vibhuti Joshi highlighted the major contributions of women farmers in coping with the onslaught of climate change, including through organic farming, integrating farming with livestock rearing and alternative cropping and farming practices.
She added that policy frameworks are needed to support the women farmers.
The NGOs also underscored the need for policy makers to integrate concerns of women farmers in future policy plans.
Policies must give due credit to women’s role in agriculture and their management of natural resources. “There must be increased sensitivity of the policy response towards women farmers, including framework modifications, reassessment and effective structuring of policies,” they said.
The NGOs also called for inclusion of rights of women tenant farmers as well as agricultural labour in the policy framework.
“Women farmers need access and actual power and control over resources, inclusion in decision making processes and subsidized climate friendly technological inputs,” they said. (PTI)
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