International Rural Women’s Day is globally celebrated on October 15, annually to appreciate their contribution to the economy and environment.
We celebrate the United Nations (UN) International Rural Women’s Day on October 15. Initially, the United Nations General Assembly established this day on December 18th, 2007, but later the UN General Assembly adopted October 15th to celebrate International Rural Women’s Day. For the first time, an International Rural Women’s Day was observed on October 15, 2008.
Since 2016, this day has been observed by the government of India as “Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas” to recognize their contribution to improving rural livelihoods and ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities’ overall well-being.
The theme of the International Rural Women’s Day 2022 is “Rural Women, the key to a world free from hunger and poverty.” The main focus of this theme is on equality and women’s empowerment, and it wants to help women fight against the problems of hunger and malnutrition.
In this age of time, women are achieving great things in the world, but their roles and invaluable contributions are still continuously neglected in some fields. Agriculture is one of the areas where women are not getting enough appreciation or are even being ignored by everyone.
We always talk about equality, but do we really follow that term? Do we praise rural women for their equivalent contribution to agriculture or many other fields?
Rural women play an important role in development. They play a catalytic role in environmental and social changes and transformational economic development.
Sadly, they are not recognized, and also, rural women and girls have to face discrimination and many problems in their daily lives, like poverty, domestic abuse, and limited access to health care and tertiary education.
How Can We Sustainably Empower Rural Women?
As it is said, $1 invested in a woman is a wise investment. If a woman is empowered, then her generation and her family are empowered.
If we are all committed to taking small but significant steps to empower and develop women, then we can accomplish this heavy task.
The steps we can take to make rural women empowered are:
Give them adult training and education, skills training, economic and financial skills training, etc.
One of the greatest obstacles to rural women’s empowerment is a lack of opportunities and access to a quality life.
If we educate rural women and give them access to good healthcare, they will become confident, learn about their rights and take a step against abuse and violence.
