‘Rural women on frontline of pandemic, calamities’

Rural women are on the frontline of natural disasters and afflictions such as the Covid-19 pandemic, with these adversities directly affecting them in more ways than one, observed speakers during a session held in relevance to the International Day of Rural Women on Thursday.

In line with this year’s theme of ‘Building Rural Women’s Resilience in the Wake of Covid-19’, the session organised by non-profit organisation Management and Development Foundation particularly focused on ‘Women, Peace and Water Governance.’

It included participation by women from rural areas of Hyderabad and Tando Muhammad Khan, as well as of activists, academics and people from other walks of life, who acknowledged the role on rural women during calamities and lauded them for their resilience during such challenging times. 

“Whenever natural disasters like floods, rains and storms hit, these [rural] women are at [the] frontline, facing direct consequences,” said Sindh Agriculture University, Jamshoro, enhancement director Prof Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar. He added that following the coronavirus outbreak, the livelihood of rural women was badly affected and many of them had to opt for stitching masks to continue earning even a meagre amount. Hence, they need to be encouraged, he stressed. 

Zulfiqar Halepoto, an activist and author, highlighted the need for taking initiatives to provide rural women with means of income in the post-pandemic scenario.

“There are [many] challenges that rural women are facing following the pandemic, including accessibility to food and sources for feeding their families,” he noted. “Rural women are capable of managing livestock and agriculture,” he said, adding that post-Covid-19, different steps needed to be taken to provide them sources of livelihood.

Halepoto said that in many countries, rural women had taken up to stitching masks, besides their routine household work and agriculture, so as to avoid the effects of the coronavirus. Here too, he said, rural women are stitching masks, not just to earn income, but also to keep the looming threat of a food security crisis at bay. 

He also emphasised the need to take measures for building resilience against Covid-19 among rural women to ensure their good health and safety.

A peasant woman from Tando Muhammad Khan, Mai Nasreen, shared with the attendees that water resources available to them were shrinking fast.

“Mostly, we women collect water from channels crossing through our villages. However, they sometimes run dry, leaving entire communities at risk from water scarcity,” she raised alarm. 

Also speaking on the occasion, MDF chief executive officer Mustafa Rajpar said his organisation had been working with rural women in Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan and Hyderabad on water management for the past three years. 

“During this period, we have managed to convince parliamentarians to ponder on a water ordinance amendment,” he said, however, adding that it was yet to be promulgated on the Sindh Assembly.

According to him, 90,000 women will benefit from the ordinance.