Rural development has been a fundamental part of our life since ancient times. Our ancestors have accepted it as a way of existence and practice. But the restricted accesses to credit, medical facilities, and support from family are among the many problems women face in Rural India. However, even this scenario has changed and further improving.
Today, rural women in India are seen as significant agents for growth and development. They play an important role in the attainment of transforming economic, educational, and social changes needed for sustainable enhancements.
Rural women contributing to economic development
Rural women engage in both agricultural and off-agricultural economic activities to ensure their families’ financial security by diversifying sources of income. They put their valuable efforts in framing by attaining knowledge of crop selection and agricultural practices. Even their off-farm work is now highly skilled and highly paid as compared to an earlier time. Rural women today share a significant contribution to men in both the agricultural and non-agricultural workforce of India.
With these alterations in rural settings, women in rural are progressing swiftly in supporting their husbands for raising and contributing to the household incomes. Today, in rural areas, women are performing almost equally in work and economic development as matched to men.
As per statistics, today, around 37 percent of the rural women make purchases on their own, and these numbers are getting up to 40 percent for working rural women.
About 84 percent of rural women travel outside their villages or town to district headquarters or a nearby city to make purchases and bring products home.
Further, 60 percent of the working rural women and 67 percent of the non-working rural women purchase branded products for their trustworthiness and reliability. Around 76 percent of rural women make impulse purchases in their own village or a nearby town.
Reducing women’s time constraints, household, and labor work
Enabling women to spread out their options in income generation work requires easing their overall workloads. This scenario can be attained by redistributing household chores and promoting labor & time-saving methodologies. There must be more and more training as well as workshops arranged on challenges such as the division of labor in rural households and the different communities, the avoidance of domestic violence, and women’s involvement in decision-making processes.
The role of rural women in future developments
The involvement of women in a society’s evolution from pre-literate to literate is unquestionable. The fundamental education is significant to a nation’s capability to develop and realize sustainability milestones. Research has showcased that women’s education can enhance agricultural productivity, boost the status of girls and women, trim down population growth rates, and broadly raise the standard of living.
Rural women today play a vital role in supporting their children in education and further life decisions of higher education, employment, and participation in commercial transactions.
Further, women’s formal and informal labor can make over a community from a moderately autonomous society to a contributor in the national financial system. Despite considerable challenges, women’s small businesses in rural developing communities not only can be an extended family’s lifeline, however, but can also become a networked economic foundation for the coming generations. The role of women in the rural workforce has prolonged exponentially in latest decades.
The key role of women in the rural political domain
Some years back, the role of women in the rural political domain was not given significance, and their representation in Panchayats was almost negligible. Today women are playing an essential role in Rural development after getting elected from Panchayatsin the village to district level set-ups.
Although women are still facing confrontation from men in the male-dominated society, many women have proven to be a primary part of this domain in a short span of time.
Women’s contribution has been given a boost up by offering them reservations in Panchayats, and even many other political support involvement activities are being fulfilled to back rural women at national levels.
Key Takeaways
The role of women is at the front-end of the chain of advancements leading to their families, the communities, and the nation’s long-term competence. Empowering rural women is further crucial, not only for the welfare of individuals, their families, or rural communities but also for the agricultural workforce leading to commercial efficiency on a global basis.
