Tribal women farmers of Tirupati seek gender equality at work as they venture into herbal products market

These women gather forest produce and process them into saleable medicinal products such as soaps, liquid scent, decorative items and herbal face packs

Women farmers of Chinnagottigallu mandal in the Tirupati district gather forest produce ahead of preparing medicinal products. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Despite working for long hours, women agricultural farmers seldom get their due recognition. They have not limited themselves to competing with men in growing cereals and horticultural crops, but have also donned various ‘ Avatars’ as cattle rearers, gatherers in forests and beekeepers. Yet, their strenuous work is hardly acknowledged

October 15 has been marked as the ‘International Rural Women’s Day’ and in India, it is observed as the ‘National Women Farmers Day’.

But the women living in the forest fringe villages of Chinnagottigallu and Rompicherla mandals in the Tirupati district observed the day by giving a clarion call for the gender equality among the farmers.

These women have been creating wealth with the help of a little training from Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam’s Women Biotech Incubation Facility on entrepreneurial perspective.

They gather forest produce and process them into saleable medicinal products such as soaps, liquid scent, decorative items and herbal face packs.

Similarly, about 220 SC/ST women of Surabhi Farmers’ Producer Organisation, supported by a Tirupati-based social organisation Women’s Initiatives (WINS), are preparing herbal tooth powder after getting trained by RASS-Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

“The Indian government’s key commitments on doubling farmers’ income or creation of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations can be achieved only when the role of women farmers is built into policy and practice”, observes R. Meera, Secretary of WINS .

Kamala, a women farmer, sells a 10 gram packet of herbal powder for ₹10. She uses locally available products like neem leaves, sage tree bark, guava and mango leaves, pellitory root (Akkala karra), lemon peels, gooseberry, roots of prickly flower, holy basil leaves, dried ginger, black pepper and cloves into making it.

These empowered women now look beyond individual benefits to strive for community goals. “For example, Gangulamma, a tribal woman from Erlapalyam, strived to get a water tank and roads for her village. Others are voicing their demands for bio-fertilisers, multiple cropping and protection of natural resources”, Ms. Meera recalls.

As the women eke out a living through multifarious roles, they demanded support through cooperative societies. They also sought priority in managing custom hiring centres, formation of a board for unorganised workers and allocation of two acres of land with clear rights to landless women farmers.

What apparently inhibits their growth is a minimum recognition as ‘farmers’.