Women provide creative responses to the agricultural crisis
In the Diocese of Sindhudurg, projects have been undertaken to develop unused farmland and start new activities at a time when COVID-19 made things hard. For Fr Pais, women “are often less paid” and “Recognising their contribution is important”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Caritas India with the support of Misereor organised a two-day festival in Mumbai to highlight women's work in Indian agriculture, honouring it as a source of wealth, especially at a difficult time because of COVID-19.
The event brought together some 80 women farmers from 11 different dioceses in western India. It included a seminar dedicated to such topics as farming techniques, the environment, and the protection of local cultures.
“Women are fewer than men in agricultural work and are often less paid,” bemoaned Fr Melwin Pais, director of the Sindhudurg Diocesan Development Society (SDDS), speaking to AsiaNews.
Thus, “Recognising their contribution is important, because together with the work in the fields they are also involved in many other activities, including animal husbandry.”
Despite the hardships caused by the pandemic in the farming sector, women have shown great capacity and resilience. Fr Pais cites two examples.
In the village of Paley, women came together to clean up about 40 hectares of unused land and started to grow bamboo, cashews, mangoes and black pepper.
Paley is home to about 113 families and is located in Sindhudurg district, in Maharashtra’s farm country.
Here people who share the same faith also share land in a common practice called “Kul Zameen”.
Until a couple of years ago the village was not united; but now, with the help of a village elder, women got the support of 30 families and each got a portion of the common land on condition of cleaning it up.
The land is fertile, and the women can earn something to improve their families’ difficult economic situation.
In Gavanale, another village in the diocese of Sindhudurg, other women went into business, preparing and selling packaged food, especially on local holidays, Fr Pais explained.
Some 237 families live in the village. About 12 women got together to form the Purva Udhoy Samiti group: Four of its members cook the food, four package it, and four sell it.
Speaking to AsiaNews, one of the women, Gavanalkar, said: “We could not sit and do anything while we saw our income decrease; we had to do something to be able to move forward.”
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24/10/2019 17:56
14/08/2020 13:23
