why is women empowerment important?
With each shining woman, shines a family, a community and a generation. Last years’ (2019) Nobel prize winners - Esther Duflo and husband Abhijit Banerjee highlighted the importance of empowering rural women as one crucial step to alleviate poverty in developing nations. It’s long known that women play a catalytic role in achieving transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. Empowering them is essential, not only for the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity.
My interactions with our women artisans
I (Sindhu Holla, Founder and co-creator) have been working with rural artisans - especially women artisans for the last seven years. Over these years I have had the opportunity to communicate with many women artisans from different parts of rural India to understand the issues they face, what inspired them to join the workforce, why it took them so long to join work etc. Whilst I am very proud that over the years there has been a significant increase in the number of women coming to join the team alongside their male counterparts, we need more women to become financially independent. During my conversations with these women artisans over these years, I realised there were two main issues that stops them from leaving the comfort of their household:
- Who will take care of my children when I am out for work (as there is no concept of day care in rural areas)
- Will I be able to manage doing house chores, taking care of my children, elders at home and working in the farm (as agriculture is the main occupation in these rural areas).
By partnering with the head of our artisan team in Haryana, we were able to come up with a solution to barriers that have kept women out of the workforce: “cape of hope.”
Last year you helped us raise money through our gifting campaign for this cause. We realised that this issue needs more nurturing, so we will continue our endeavour to raise awareness about this issue which is at the core of what we believe in.
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