STRIDES BEING MADE TO EMANCIPATE RURAL WOMEN
AS THE world marks the International Day of Rural Women on October 15, significant progress has been made by government in ensuring women in rural areas benefit meaningfully from Land Reform and Rural Development initiatives.
The day was established by the UN in 2007 to recognise the role rural women play in rural development through fighting poverty by enhancing food security. It focuses attention on both the contributions that women make in rural areas and the many challenges they face.
The empowerment of women in rural areas is very important. Access to land is among the key aspects to the empowerment of rural women. To this effect, over 60000 women have been allocated land through the department’s land redistribution programmes since 2009.
Through the deliberate targeting of women as beneficiaries, the department has allocated land to female emerging farmers, former labour tenants, farm workers and women who had been dispossessed of their land through discriminatory laws, policies and practices of the past.
This targeting of women has had the effect of empowering not only the women themselves but the entire rural communities as well, on account of the developmental role they play in society.
Women organisations such as Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (Ward), Rural Women’s Movement, South African Women in Dialogue (Sawid) and Female Traditional Leaders are some of the women-based stakeholder organisations that the department consults and collaborates with during the formulation of policies which affect women in particular.
Growing the pool of emerging black farmers is one of the priorities of the department. Women are also making strides in the agricultural sector as formidable farmers, some of whom have with government support, grown from smallholder farmers to major players in commercial farming. Women luminaries have emerged in agriculture in areas such as chicken farming, fruit farming and livestock production.
The One Household One Hectare Programme initiated by the department, which provides for the allocation of a one hectare portion of state land per rural household for the purpose of agricultural activities, has benefited a significant number of women farmers.
Since the inception of the programme in 2015 rural women in various provinces have produced successful crops which they were able to sell to markets in nearby towns and villages.
Through this programme poverty has been reduced and food security has been achieved for poor families.
In an effort to ensure the programmes meet the objective of empowering rural households, the government has also provided additional support including seeds, fertilisers, agricultural implements and water to rural women who are involved in small-scale agriculture.
The training of rural women is a crucial part of their empowerment especially when it comes to marketing, finances and using modern techniques to create goods for the discerning consumer.
Giving this type of support to rural women forms part of government efforts to break the cycle of poverty and joblessness that leads to migration to cities, which in turn results in overcrowding and the creation of unsafe living conditions.
Poverty afflicts millions of South Africans, the majority of whom are women in rural areas.
Despite the advances made in poverty alleviation initiatives and programmes of government, the battle to banish the spectre of poverty and under-development remains a challenge. Rural women are hardest hit by the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Employment opportunities, access to health facilities and education are still fewer in rural areas than in urban. The government is working to bring about the necessary transformation to improve the lives of rural communities.
Despite the progress that has been made since the dawn of democracy there is still much to be done to bring about the total emancipation of rural women from the chains of poverty and underdevelopment.
The government is intensifying its initiatives, strengthening its programmes and adding resources, in order to speed up efforts to fully realise the vision of bringing about a better life for all, especially rural women.
TSHEPO DIALE Nkwe Estate