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Feminizing village development, enhancing the role of women
The interesting phenomenon of this development process is the fact that women have influenced the decision making on utilization of village budgets in a substantial manner.
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Struggle for life -- Two women carry pasture grass for cattle in Parangbatu village, Tuban, East Java, on Oct.3. Residents in the village still depend on forests for their livelihoods. (Antara/Aguk Sudarmojo)
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he United Nations has designated Oct. 15 as International Day of Rural Women. Through this day, the UN recognizes the role and significant contributions of rural women, including indigenous women, to the enhancement of agriculture and rural development, food security and poverty eradication in rural areas.
For Indonesia, the important day serves as a reminder of the pivotal role women play in supporting the well-being of their families, villages and even their country and the world.
The international day should therefore encourage us to redouble efforts to liberate rural women from two forms of marginalization. First, marginalization of villages as residential areas that lag behind urban areas. Second, marginalization as a result if unequal gender relationships.
The 2014 Villages Law aims to eradicate this marginalization through the principles of recognition and subsidiarity. The state’s recognition is translated into provisions of official codes on rural areas, and distribution of village funds. Currently, there are 74, 961 villages across the country and the government disbursed Rp 468 trillion (US$28 billion) in village funding from 2015 to 2022. The impact has been that the budget for villages across the country increased from Rp 52 trillion to Rp 118 trillion.
The use of the village funds is shown by the Village Development Index, which measures the social, economic and environmental resilience level of a village.
Between 2015 and 2022, the number of least-developed villages declined by 8,471, from 13,453 to 4,982 villages. The less-developed villages fell by 24,008, from 33,592 to 9,584 villages. The number of developing villages increased from 22,882 to 33,902 villages, the number of advanced villages soared from 3,608 to 20,249 villages.
The indication of village development is confirmed by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) through the improvement of facilities in villages, such as access to education, health, telecommunications and the creation of jobs beyond the agriculture sector.
