When we began the journey to lift a million people out of poverty, we undertook a year of exciting study, traveling and meeting NGOs, experts from corporates, government officials, and many rural community members. This study took us to Bangladesh, where we had the privilege of meeting Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC. ‘Women can manage poverty; they can also manage wealth’. With this thought and our experiences with the rural communities, we believe women play a catalytic role in the prosperity of their households and in their wider community.

With this thought and my experiences with the rural communities, I believe rural women across the globe play a catalytic role in the prosperity of rural households and communities. For developing and developed countries, empowering rural women is a precursor for achieving holistic development.

While the nation has made positive strides in the corporate world, rural women need more focus. Despite Skill India Mission, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and other economic upliftment initiatives, Indian rural women still need to do better on formal education, need more opportunities to work outside the home, and to have equal wages and treatment like men.

We believe that it begins with attitude – most often formed by age-old societal norms. We need to create a “can-do” attitude in rural women. Building a spirit that women can contribute to their own and the wellbeing of their households but, also of their village, in general, is essential.  Women should be able to dream of a better future for themselves, their family and their village.   Another related mindset is what we call mental poverty… where there is a lack of hope. For e.g. a woman in a village thinks to herself: ‘I walk so many miles for my family’s daily need of water. My daughter cannot go to school as she has to join me in fetching water. There is nothing I can do. My daughters and I have to wait until dark to relieve ourselves. The earnings of my husband are sometimes insufficient to feed our children. I cannot support him. There is nothing I can do.” That is the most heartbreaking thing I have seen. This is the key to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and is often more difficult than building a toilet or water structure.

Creating “can-do” attitude and to be able to dream of better future are key building blocks for women leadership especially in rural India. I believe that women in leadership roles bring many unique qualities: they are collaborative rather than competitive; they tend to build harmonious relationships that benefit the whole. A small village Kasarwadi, in Maharashtra, offers me hope. Here it is the women that lead their village development committee. They decided that each house should prepare healthy meals and roped in their Anganwadi worker to conduct nutrition awareness sessions. They also arranged for door-to-door eye care van visits and motivated the elderly to take eye tests. Importantly they also invited the residents from 12 nearby hamlets for eye screening. These women created such a massive impact on the residents of other villages, that they developed similar committees to bring in a change in their village. These committees are also working on improving the household income plans for both men and women. Tribal Women of Kasarwadi village took ownership of not just their development but, also their village development and created a ripple effect in the nearby villages. This ownership by women for the betterment of their lives is the first step in the ladder of empowerment.

In urban and some parts of rural India, there are a few hopeful examples of women taking this first step of empowerment. Along with women like Ruma Devi, a tribal artisan from Rajasthan who started a Self Help Group with 10 other women from her village and put rural women on the fashion map, and Bhuri Bai, the first tribal artist of the country to popularise the art of Pithora Painting to winning Padma Shri for her contributions, there are many budding entrepreneurs, social leaders, artists. These women are using their skills and potential to change their and lives of people around them.

While the basic services of water and sanitation are a must for any human being, if villages do not have these women suffer the most. They are forced to walk miles to fetch water with their eldest daughter. The women struggle to do any work aside from their domestic chores. And their daughters often skip school. Alleviating these are essential to the health and dignity of rural women.

In addition, many doors can be opened for and by rural women.

Empowering Self Help Groups (SHG) and women-led enterprises through Financial Literacy: Participating in SHG’s enables women to exert control over resources, participate in decision making, and access to resources. It leads them to become aware of their rights and entitlements within the community. However, challenges like market linkages, capacity building, financial literacy, and management are often faced by SHG women. NGO’s and Corporates are doing some wonderful work in this area but more is needed. E.g. BharathRath a social platform is creating markets for the products by SHG’s, artisans, and tribals. An economically empowered rural woman is aware and can leverage the loans and schemes e.g. in agriculture, art, animal husbandry, or any other enterprise. Mandeshi Foundation, BRAC, and Seva International do wonderful work in this direction.

While the health of women is a complex issue there is one focus area I would like to suggest: let’s work together to alleviate Anaemia, especially in adolescent girls and women. With more than 64 million anaemic adolescent girls in the country, it should be our first health priority. It is not impossible with the right coordination and partnerships. It is achievable. I want to give thanks to the many ASHA workers I have met who are doing such wonderful work. This community-driven approach is the key to promoting health and the right nutritional practices.

Digital Empowerment for women is a massive opportunity and great learning for us. Women surprisingly embrace digital platforms. With approx. 49% of rural women having access to a mobile phone rural women can be greatly benefitted from a well-thought-out strategy in this direction. In rural Maharashtra, we have experimented with an initiative of conducting training and awareness programs on health and nutrition, mother and child care, SHG’s empowerment, etc, using the power of a video conferencing platform.

The impact of the above initiatives is the creation of a force of women leaders, with a can-do attitude and the training in financial, economic activity, health, nutrition could create a huge leap forward as empowered women are the best changemakers. All of us need to participate in this. But it is my firm belief that all real sustainable change has to be community-led where Gram Panchayats and community leaders like Anganwadi workers and ASHA workers take the lead with support from us as civil society and government. Empowering women is a challenging road but one truly worth taking.

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