Govt urged to take steps to empower rural women

Islamabad: Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders on Sunday demanded of the government to take concrete steps to empower rural women which is central to ensuring food security and ending poverty.

Women farmers control less land and they have limited access to inputs, seeds, credits, technology and finance. Rural women are more vulnerable and marginalised and their voice is muted, said Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt.

He said that empowering rural women is a pre-requisite to end poverty and hunger, achieve food security and ensure uniform development for which bold steps are required. Around sixty per cent working women in SAARC region are linked to agriculture, they are kept poor and unprotected and they can be lifted out of poverty if this sector is supported, he added.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said that all the countries stress importance of female education but proper steps are not taken in this direction which keep share of women in economy very small.

Majority of the women working in agriculture are not paid while they are kept away from critical decision in the sub-continent which requires government intervention. The nexus of limited access to resources, inadequate health care and education, systematic discrimination and barriers to their participation in economic activities exacerbates poverty among rural women, he noted.

Improvement in the lives of farming communities will boost share of agriculture in the GDP while expanding reach of microfinance banks will help them, he said, adding that proper insurance facilities can help farming communities in a big way.