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Women : Worst Victims of Rural Poverty
SHE works 14 to 17 hours a day to support her family. On top of that, she has to prepare food for her brood often without a man to help.
Denied access to credit with which to improve her tot. she has to work even harder to provide for her family. In the process, she gets poorer and worn out.
She is the new picture of the rural women that emerged from a survey on female poverty conducted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Covering 1 14 developing countries, the IFAD study was the major working paper presented at the first Summit on the Economic Advancement of Rural Women held tn Geneva recently.
The survey placed the number of rural women now living In poverty at some 565 million. A good majority of them. 363 million, are in Asia. Africa accounts for about 130 million. Some 43 million live In Latin America and the Caribbean and 18 million In the near East and North Africa.
Commenting on the survey results, IFAD President Idriss Jazairy said the face of rural poverty Is Increasingly female.' Poverty among rural women Is Increasing much faster than among males.
The survey noted the alarming increase In the number of women acting as bread-win-
ners and sole heads of their households. Numbering about 66.2 milltori, they take care of roughly 33 million other family members. Of this number. 16 million are landless and least able to bail themselves out of poverty.
Bangladesh, for Instance, saw a three-fold increase in the number of women headed households, from 5-7 per cent 20 years ago to 16 per cent. In Cape Verde, the number has doubled over the same period
Because of this, labour force on family farms has become increasingly feminised. Indio tlon of this is that half of the food grown in the Third World is produced by women. In Africa, women produce 70 per cent of the food grown.
Tn short, women by their labour outside the house are vital elements in sustaining life In the poorest areas," said Mr
Jazairy Yet, they are bypassed by rural development assistance and overlooked by Institutions supposedly working to Improve the rural economy.
The survey cited migration of males to urban areas and to richer countries abroad as the main reason for the Increase of women-headed households. Other causes include widowhood. divorce and disintegration of family bonds.
“Clearly. In these countries, the women-headed households constitute the most important target of poverty alleviating investments," Mr Jazairy pointed out
And with the right assistance. these women could yet overcome their disadvantaged position (as poor as women and as single heads of households) and contribute to the household, the community and the future generation through their impact on their children, he added. Mr Jazairy told the summit that steps will have to be taken quickly to ease the burden of poor women in rural areas. Otherwise, he warned, population growth will worsen the problem.
By the year 2025. world population Is projected to Increase to 8.5 billion and 7.1 billion will be In the developing world.
As Mr Jazairy put ft, "population growth will hit the poor harder, especially the women, thus widening the differences between the disadvantaged groups and people In the mainstream of national development."
Clearly, these women must be helped to meet obstacles far greater than men. Mr Jazairy pointed out. — Depthnews Asia