Speaking on the occasion of fourth death anniversary of Cooperative doyen Jaya Arunachalam, the current President of Indian Cooperative Network for Women – Working Women’s Forum (ICNW – WWF) Dr. Nandini Azad said that about 75 percent of full-time workers on Indian farms are women, with less than 8 percent of women farmers owning land.
More than two hundred women cooperators cum artisans and farmers had assembled at ICNW-WWF headquarters in Chennai to remember Jaya Arunachalam, a woman of grit and determination, who impacted not only lives of thousands of them in the Southern states but also won accolades in Delhi. She was also awarded the Padma Award.
Talking about ICNW-WWF and its transformational impact on the poor women, Dr Azad informed that the co-op organizations have reached 600,000 women members across four states in South India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana) in 267 occupations.
“The voices of poor women are heard at global high tables with representation at the World Farmers Organization (largest independent voice of farmers), and International Raiffeisen Union (oldest cooperative union) as board members as the President ICNW is the only woman to be elected in 50 years”, she stated.
Dr Azad explained that members connected to ICNW-WWF are engaged in 267 occupations as diverse as fish, flower, and vegetable selling, idli (rice cake) and snack shop keeping, weaving, farming, poultry, lace making and hawking (service, manufacturing, production & trading center).
They represent a convergence of class, caste, and gender that create very difficult social conditions of living for them. But our grassroots women have demonstrated that they can cope and recover from any climate shock or disaster through our ‘Gender and Equity’ model, she said.
Dr. Azad shared a number of stories of empowerment from WWF-ICNW (For eg.: Ms. Dhanalakshmi, Ms. Kaliammal Kumar, Ms. Saroja, from Kanchipuram). They highlighted the experience of transformation brought about as it helped bring land ownership to the landless through financial inclusion. The participants of the workshop were Indian Cooperative Network for Women (ICNW) Staff, (CEO’s, Cooperative Officials, members) and Working Women’s Forum (WWF) Members/Staff.
Dhanalakshmi joined the ICNW 20 years ago. They continuously provided her financial assistance from Rs.1,000 to Rs.48,000 in loans. She started to plant coconut trees, mango trees, tamarind trees, neem trees, etc. Her mother-in-law divided the land and the garden among the 4 children. Her family was devastated when her husband died but she built herself and is today earning well due to the support received from ICNW.
Similarly, Kaliammal Kumar, a widow from Vippedu in Kanchipuram district met the WWF-ICNW Coordinator who helped her receive a loan of Rs.1400 (as a member). Next with a loan of Rs.2400 she cultivated crops, ploughing land with hired cows. After the rains she received 4000 rupees as loan and grew peanuts, brinjal, greens (Keerai), tomatoes that received a good yield and sold profitably in the market. Today, she has educated her 2 sons on Information Technology education.
The participants also had group discussions that led to a Plan of Action for climate financing based on saving soil, organic systems, and climate smart technologies for the next year. It bears recalling that during the World Farmers Assembly in South Africa Dr. Azad had highlighted that due to ICNW-WWF, poor women have begun to own land through financial inclusion. Our members have had these climate smart technologies for 100s of years, she remarked.
