Women empowerment ensures proper nutrition
The emancipation of women has a profound impact on society, starting from proper education of children to increase in household income to making a community more productive. At a recently held seminar, the role of empowered women in ensuring better nutrition and food security was lauded. While Bangladesh has made strides since the 70s in securing rights and freedom for women, the role of a mother or wife in ensuring food security and proper nutrition for children is still not recognised by many rural communities. The government plus the development bodies have a duty to carry out mass awareness building so people understand that a woman who can make independent choices can turn into a reliable mentor for the next generation.
For a long period, malnutrition was a major worry in villages which was due to women being prevented from making any firm decision about any family affairs. As this fuelled a blinkered outlook, misogyny became deeply entrenched, spurring a vicious cycle of exploitation. This led to family atmospheres marked by prejudice and flawed notions about what women can and cannot do. Fortunately, through social campaigns, much of that has changed though more is needed because unless society recognizes the equal footing of women, other scourges like molesting, forced and underage marriage will remain.
The government in the last ten years has been relentless in promoting the image of the ideal rural family where men and women work together. With help from development partners, numerous projects have harnessed the skills of rural women, making them self-sufficient, skilled and confident. With more women getting knowledge about nutrition, health care, education and entrepreneurship, the rural face of Bangladesh is changing fast. Countless women are growing vegetables on small patches of land on their homesteads. This helps meet the food demand for the family, allowing housewives to start small enterprises.
A prudent move would be to take SME loans to small communities to help make womens livelihoods more secure. In many parts of Bangladesh, womens empowerment has made food scarcity a thing of the past. With more positive changes on the way, the next move should be to take digital age communication techniques to rural women so they will be able to form a business chain with the cities. Once its widely accepted that a woman with power to decide can bring about social improvement, many abhorrent cultures will evaporate.
