The Hindu Business Line : Empowering rural women

The poverty of women in Sri Lanka has drastically increased in the last two decades and is linked to their unequal situation in the labour market and status within the family. In the Hambantota district in the south, the unemployment rate for women is 40.5 per cent, against 13.4 per cent for men. The socio-economic conditions of women in this district are very poor as against the national level.

The Ruhunu Rural Women's Organisation (RRWO) was founded in 1990 in Weeraketiya to improve the socio-economic conditions of rural women in the district. Its mission is to enhance the capacity of disadvantaged people, especially rural women, and bring about sustainable development. With of 3,200 direct members fostered, RRWO has developed about 48 community-based organisations (CBOs) in 40 villages.

It has adopted a gender and development (GAD) approach to develop sensitivity to gender issues and actively promote the empowerment of rural women at all levels and aspects of their work. The GAD analysis is based on the development philosophy of promoting empowerment of the poor. Since women are the majority of the poor in the Hambantota district, RRWO's organisational goals focus on improving their position.

RRWO's main product is micro-financing and it has developed a savings and credit board. Some of its activities include community mobilisation, organic home gardening, rainwater harvesting, development of entrepreneurial theoretical knowledge, basic finance and accounting training for savings programmes, and organising farmers to implement environmental-friendly farming technologies.

The Hambantota district is in the dry zone, and there is an acute water shortage during the dry season, which lasts between six and nine months. In the villages, women have to walk nearly 2 km to fetch water. Sometimes they fetch water twice a day.

Over the past two years, RRWO's most successful project has been `Making the Domestic Role of Women Effective,' supported by the British High Commission. The project aims to ease domestic activities, promote productivity among women and improve nutrition levels of over 325 low-income families. A major objective is to educate the local community about the advantages of harvesting rainwater and construct percolation tanks to save women the burden of fetching water lover long distances. It also plans to provide energy-efficient clay stoves and help put up organic gardens. "Before the rainwater harvesting tanks, we used to walk for miles to fetch water," says Mary Edirisinghe from Dangathwala. Thanks to rainwater harvesting, a household can save up to 1,344 hours per year.

RRWO has designed training programmes for work-efficient kitchens, which includes using energy-efficient clay stoves. The clay stove, which costs Rs 200, also enables women to cook two dishes and boil water at the same time.

It needs less firewood, emits less smoke and ash, thereby improving their overall health as well. "Because of the clay stove, I can now heat water and prepare two dishes at the same time. My health has also improved," says H.A. Ramyalatha from Budhiyagama village.

The time saved by the women is used to plant trees and cultivate fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs in their home gardens.

RRWO also encourages its beneficiaries to form their own CBOs. A savings programme is created in each CBO to increase the households' savings and ensure sustainability of the project. Each CBO collects funds every month from its members. This allows members to avail loans for maintenance or repair of the rainwater harvesting tanks.

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