Challenges facing rural women at International Day of Rural Women

October 15th is International Day of Rural Women. It is a day set aside to recognise the indispensable role and contributions of rural women, especially in the area of food security, poverty eradication, agricultural development and rural development in general.

Women in rural areas are facing a lot of challenges. As we celebrate this year’s International Day of Rural Women, I want to use this medium to highlight some of the challenges facing women in rural areas, with the hope that those concerned will take note and act accordingly to address some of these challenges.

Discriminations against Women are quite obvious in the rural areas. Here in most African communities, women are not allowed to participate in the council of elders, which is the highest governing body where major decisions are taken. Rural Women can only take orders from their husband, even when those orders are not in their favour.

Oppressive cultural practices: There are so many oppressive cultural and traditional practices in rural areas. Unfortunately, a good number of them are not favourable to women. For instance, there are the Female Genital Mutilation, widow inheritance and oppression and domestic violence.

Poor farming equipment: Most of the food consumed in the society is produced by rural women. Unfortunately, these women have no access to mechanised farming equipment. They depend only on poor manual tools, which are energy consuming, with poor result.

Bad roads: Most of the roads leading to farmland and even in most parts of the rural areas are in bad shape. The major challenge facing women in rural areas is the means to transport farm produce from farmland to the nearest market places. As a result, most farm produce is abandoned in the farmland where it is destroyed.

Poor Storage system: Most of the food and even fruits that are produced by rural women are seasonal. Unfortunately, the system of storage is so poor that these poor women have no means of preserving their produce. They watch helplessly and hopelessly as their produce get spoilt due to poor storage system.

Poor power supply: Power supply remains a mirage in rural areas. Most rural dwellers have no access to stable power supply. That is one of the major reasons youths are trooping from rural areas, thereby leaving their poor parents in darkness and suffering.

These challenges notwithstanding, most of the food consumed in the areas and even in the cities are produced by women. Rural women are the most hardworking group in the society. Most farmlands are maintained by women. Few days before market day, these women will go to farm, harvest their products and process them.

If it is cassava, for instance, they will be the ones to peel and grind them, and after processing, the next day, they will still be the ones to take them to the market for sale.

After selling their goods, these same women will still do the shopping. Meanwhile on that same market day, the men will gather together in the name of elders’ meeting, where they relax with gallons of palm wine. As soon as the poor woman returns from market, she will drag herself into the kitchen and start cooking. Most rural women usually cook with firewood and you can imagine the heat that emanates from such. After cooking, she is still the one to serve and service her husband. A woman that does all these deserves the respect of all. She must be celebrated! I wish our hardworking women Happy International Day of Rural Women!