How Wotr is Working Towards Women Empowerment in Rural Areas
Rural India has had a constant problem with unemployment and poverty. Roughly 280 million people in rural India live in poverty owing to their over-dependence on agriculture as a source of income. Agriculture being extremely vulnerable to climate change and the degrading ecosystem is not a reliable source of income. The constant problem of unemployment and poverty has pushed this segment of population into a vicious cycle wherein due to a lack of income they can’t invest in education or upskilling themselves, which leads them to being stuck with traditional businesses and traditional ways of practicing agriculture, which brings them back to the problem of poverty. To add on to this, rural India faces a problem of a rigid mindset and pre-defined gender roles. Traditionally women were required to do household chores, raise children, etc but with modernisation the role of women is shifting from a primary caregiver to someone who can contribute towards the economy and be financially independent. While there is a shift towards this thought process in urban parts of the country, rural India still views women as primary caregivers. Almost all households have entrusted women with the responsibility of domestic work like cooking, cleaning, raising children, and taking care of the elderly. Roughly 48% of the population of rural India is female. The pre-defined gender roles have rendered so many women who can potentially contribute economically, useless both to their family needs and themselves. Herein, enters ngo for women empowerment, some of them have been working tirelessly in the rural areas to educate people about this fact.