By Devina Singh

 Atram Padma Bai
Sarpanch Patelguda Village, Telangana

Inspiring Fairtrade farmers, women who have contributed significantly to transform their communities.

Women make up almost half of the agricultural labour force in developing countries (43% according to UN Women data). Yet, the general perception is to think of only men as farmers and refer to farmers who are women as a “woman farmer”.

A recent FAO report stated that on the global scale women produce more than half the world’s food. Why, then are they not equally represented in the decision making of their communities and the producer organisations in India? Here’s why, to name just a few reasons:

• Women in India rarely own land. Consequently, they are linked neither to ownership of the crop produced nor the family land.
• The role of women in society and socio-cultural norms often pose as a barrier in women being elected as leaders.
• Many women are reluctant to voice their opinions even as they continue to do the majority of unpaid farm work.

On International Women’s Day, meet Fairtrade farmers in India – women who have fought legal, social and cultural obstacles to bring about significant social and economical reforms in their communities.

Padma Bai, 37, a member of Chetna Organics, a Fairtrade certified producer organisation since 2007. She cultivates cotton, red gram, black gram, castor and soya on three acres of her family land. A tribal Girijan farmer, she was elected Sarpanch of eight villages, with over 2,000 Fairtrade farmers.

In 2013, Padma Bai used a Rs. 30, 000 loan from the Fairtrade Premiums Committee to start a Custom Hiring Centre under the guidance of Chetna Organics. Her venture involves investing in drudgery reducing tools such as pick-axes, sickle, spades, hoes and wheelbarrows that the centre lends to farmers in neighbouring villages who cannot afford them at a marginal rate of Rs. 2-5 per day. Padma Bai has also built cement roads in three villages and one fair weather road with dry mud. She has got government sanctions to make ponds for rainwater harvesting and made clean water available in the village school through a water pump.

Her husband Atram Rajeshwar, a Field Assistant at Chetna Organics could not be prouder of his wife’s achievements. "Women can influence laws better. I’m very proud of her”, he says. Today, he borrows money from her that he returns with interest instead of approaching local moneylenders with their notoriously usurious rates. At Fairtrade India, this is women’s empowerment.

Lingu Bai
Samuguda Village, Adilabad
Entrepreneur Board Member of Pragati Cooperative

Lingu Bai told me that if I was a designer, she wouldn’t speak to me. Yashoda, a water shed expert, rushed in to introduce me as a Fairtrade India member. With that, she instantly opened up her home to us and welcomed us with a cup of tea made from the root of an indigenous plant from her cotton and food crop farm.

Lingu Bai started a poultry business, Rainbow Roast Chickens, with an interest free loan of Rs. 40,000 from the Fairtrade Premium Fund. She makes the feed for her chickens with a mix of jowar, maize, and algae from her fishpond. Her massive chickens earn her Rs. 60,000 every four months, enabling her to repay her loan and now own a highly profitable business.

Lingu Bai is on the board of Pragati, one of 12 cooperatives established by Chetna Organics. Farmers in her women’s self help group (SHG) make natural fertilisers for organic farming and brooms during the season when raw material is available in the forest. Each women can make 20 brooms in a day and the brooms earn them a profit of Rs. 20 each, contributing significantly to their financial independence and decision making power.

Yellow Saree Women
Members, Pratima Organic Grower’s Group, Bhajiguda, Orissa

As recently as about a year ago, men, women and children who migrated from the rural Orissa to work at brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh were trapped into bonded labour and slavery. Those who tried to escape were tortured and their hand’s mutilated as an example to others who might dare attempt the same.

To resolve the problem, a group of Fairtrade SHG women worked with Mr. Pati of the Pratima Organic Growers’ Group (POGG) to start their own brick kiln with a bank loan of Rs. 33,000. They now supply bricks to the Indira Awaas Yojna, a social welfare flagship programme by the Indian Government to provide housing for the rural poor in India.

The initiative has earned over Rs 1,00,000 in four months. These women were trained to utilise their clay brick making skills during the season when they cannot farm their cotton and there are few opportunities to earn an income.

To honor their path-breaking community work, the Block Development Officer presented the group with yellow sarees that have earned them the moniker of ‘Yellow Saree Women’.

Shobhana
Secretary, Thavinjal Panchayat, Mananthavady taluka, Wayanad, Kerala

I met Shobhana for the first time at the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala(FTAK) Seed Festival in 2014. She had come to Kelakam with other farmers from her panchayat. Their all-women stall had a board that said ‘Gender Justice’.

Shobhana has been working to protect biodiversity and travels to different villages exchanging seeds to protect what matters most to her. When I asked her what gender justice meant to her, she said, “For the first time in my life, I am travelling for work while my husband is taking care of the kids. For me that is gender justice”. Shobhana and her associates have also launched a seed bank with Fairtrade Premiums and contribute to the newly launched seed wiki by FTAK. At every seed fest, the women exhibit 26 varieties of chilies and other seeds, laid out with pride. The group also makes pickle to supplement their earnings.

FTAK has been empowering its farmers by teaching them about gender equality, protecting bio diversity and ensuring food security and assuring farmers obtain a fair price for their produce.

Paneerselvam
Tea Plantation Worker, woman, loves to run

54 years old, Panneerselvam has been living in the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC) estates for the past 35 years and has been a permanent employee for 28 years. She lost her husband 6 years ago and all her three sons have left to work in the cities.

Her Fairtrade Premium Committee receives a premium on sales of tea which has been utilized to provide scholarship for kids, notebooks for students and smokeless stoves in the homes of the estate workers.

When asked what do you really love, she looks at us and says, “Kabbadi, long jump, relay, skipping, but now I am getting old according to my sons so I only took part in throw ball and shotput in this year’s Rural Olympics at the estate” and then she looks at us and says, “It’s ok if I am old, I can still teach the young kids in the estate running right?”

She has won several competitions over the years, and runs with a heart full of love and happiness.

This International Women’s Day, Fairtrade India salutes the spirit of these women. We aim to reduce gender gap in the farming communities further and empower more women to take control of their lives and set examples for other women in their communities.