सिरियै बाहागो
I have been working in India and with rural women for 18+ years now; it’s been the best eye-opener and perspective that I can experience. I started my career in microfinance, where I first learned about the POWER of rural women, and why billions of dollars were going to be invested in getting micro-loans to women, and women only. What was their understanding? Well, women spend money well, they have a reputational risk if they do not pay back their loans, and they want to earn money to optimise the future of their kids. BILLIONS of DOLLARS, if not TRILLIONS of DOLLARS, focused on INVESTING IN WOMEN… it’s a moment to reflect on as a 20-year-old coming from America, to witness the force and strength and opportunity to invest in women.
While working in the microfinance sector, I lived, worked, and spent time with 100K women… on a grassroots level – living in villages, spending time with families, connecting in a real way, and truly gaining the opportunity to understand the role that women play in communities, their POWER.
What were my learnings?
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But the challenge was larger than access to finance. For rural families to be resilient, aspirational, and economically prosperous to break the norms of poverty truly, finance was just not enough. We needed to think about the holistic challenges that rural families face. Today, rural India is home to over 900 million people, and many of them face significant challenges in accessing quality healthcare, electricity, private education/skills, digital access, cheap finance, and other basic services. Without these issues being addressed, we were not really changing the norms. And the reality is women do not have income opportunities – the burden of unpaid care and household work often prevents them from accessing formal employment opportunities outside of their villages. Ultimately, loans are great, but if women do not have a business, a job, or an opportunity, why would a loan make sense?
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One example of the impact that rural women entrepreneurs have is the story of Usha. Usha was only ten years old when she got married. She stayed with her family until she was 14, attending school however, right around this time, her in-laws requested that she move in with them to contribute to their household. Dreams of pursuing higher education diminished in years to come as they experienced the loss of family members and financial instability. At 14, Usha went from being a child playing with her friends to becoming a wife, a farmer, a cook, a caretaker of adults, and within 2 years, a mother.
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Today, Usha has helped over 50 women start businesses, has helped them access over INR 5 lakh of finance, helped 100 families take on solar solutions, delivered 10,000 other services, and has earned over INR 50,000/ year to invest in her family and her two kids that are dependent on her. She’s the centre of her community. “I am finally dreaming about big things, about the future of my children, and it’s a nice dream, not a nightmare; I want every woman in this village to have that opportunity,” Usha said to me. She wants her daughter to become an Engineer or anything professional in life. She sees herself as a leader. She controls her destiny.
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