The Hindu : National : Women seek better deal in budget

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Friday, Feb 15, 2008
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Women seek better deal in budget

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Women’s groups have asked the government to address the needs of women farmers who are adversely affected by the agrarian crisis. Although credit to agriculture has increased, women cultivators continue to be denied access to institutional credit because of the absence of land titles and other collateral in their names.

A delegation of representatives of women’s groups that met Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for a pre-budget interaction here on Thursday demanded special measures to ensure that women cultivators not holding land titles but cultivating household land or as tenants got access to institutional credit up to Rs. 1.5 lakh as per Reserve Bank guidelines.

The women suggested devising a comprehensive relief package for farmers to address indebtedness, and explicit recognition of the needs of indebted women cultivators as a separate entity.

Half-hearted measures to provide region-specific relief packages and token interest subvention need to be replaced by debt write-offs for small and marginal farmers across the country and reducing the interest rate to 4 per cent, a memorandum submitted to the Finance Minister said.

Pointing out that women have been active participants in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the memorandum said the government should ensure proper rates for women as prescribed in the guidelines, entitlement to receive minimum wages for anganwadi workers, mid-day meal workers and health workers in the public system who perform social functions and a comprehensive legislation backed by adequate Central funding to address the social security needs of all women workers.

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