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http://www.isiswomen.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1254&Itemid=200
Secrets in Feeding
Cai Yiping, Executive Director of Isis
International, gives a glimpse of the distressed dragon during this food
crisis. She leads us behind the skylines of
I just cannot
emphasise enough how important food security is for
In the Chinese social and political context,
there are two objectives which need to be met to ensure food security: How to ensure
grain self-sufficiency; and how to create the incentives to produce and boost
rural incomes despite all the risks and challenges China must face since it
joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in November 2001, with the
commitments that bound it to the harshest terms in WTO history.
In Chinese, there is an old saying “Min Yi Shi Wei
Tian,” that literally means that the issue of food is as big as sky.
Up to now, the majority of the poor
population in
I think the food crisis and the financial
crisis are new warnings for the Chinese on how to keep its agriculture and
economy sustainable. If we want to feed
We have this saying that, no matter how high a tree
can grow, the falling leaves will return to the root. There is a bond between
your land and identity.
Land in
Since the financial crisis broke out and spread
worldwide, it was estimated that about 20 million out of 130 million migrant
workers—the farmers who came to cities looking for jobs, have lost their jobs.
Many of them don’t know how to farm anymore when they go back to the rural
areas, since they have been working in these cities for a long time.
Every year, you will see migrant workers
going back home to spend the holidays. But after the Chinese new year, they go
back to the city to look for a job. But because of the crisis, they are
confronted by two questions: How can they find a job in the city and what will
they do, should they decide to stay in the village?
I think there is an opportunity from the food
crisis.
Then there are the returning migrant workers,
men and women, who are typically better educated and more knowledgeable on laws
and rights as well as skills on social mobilisation. They can be an engine for
change. The returning migrant workers may also start their own businesses and
similar ventures in the communities.
This crisis is also the chance to modernise
the countryside, democratise the rural community and advance agriculture.
If you go to the countryside, it is not
surprising to see that women outnumber the men. Once they get married and have
children, they are usually left behind in the village to take care of children,
the elderly and the small farmland while the men go to cities to look for jobs.
This “feminisation of agriculture” has been going on for 20 years.
Since agriculture is not a flourishing and
profitable industry, people in agriculture usually have low technology and
income. In many senses, agriculture remains devalued and women are discriminated.
So being women in agriculture, they are doubly devalued.
Women in rural communities not only produce
but they reproduce. They care for the children and the elderly. This and other
roles in the households and communities have not been fully recognised by the
policy makers, communities and even families. More resources should be
allocated to women so that they can better practice their multiple roles and
equally benefit from the economic growth and community development.
This is becoming an imperative issue
because it affects so many women who have no secure access to tenurial rights
to the land, especially with marriage and migration. Even when they are still
members of the community, their right to their lands is not fully recognised.
Now this issue is outstanding because a lot of lands now are sold to developers
or the government and farmers are supposed to receive compensation. So there is
a lot of money here. But it is not only an economic issue.
This is really a human rights issue because
of gender discrimination. For example, even if women are not married, the
presumption remains that they will get married anyway and move out of the
village where they are registered. And when one gets married, the wife is
supposed to move into her husband’s family and community, where she will gain
rights to the land.
This heteronormativity is deeply rooted in
the culture, reinforced by economic and political interests. They deprive the
rights of marginalised group. Actually, it is the women’s family members—the
father, brother and sister-in-laws, who refuse to give land rights to women
because their own interests have been tied to this patriarchal family system.
That is a part of the reasons why there is the son preference, gender-selective
abortion and imbalance sex ratio at birth.
Actually, it is the women’s family members – the
father, brother and sister-in-laws, who refuse to give land rights to women
because their own interests have been tied to this patriarchal family system.
How ironic! All these discriminatory
practices could even be done in the name of democracy. Because of women’s low
status, they cannot speak for themselves. They are underrepresented in the
village committee. Most of the time we see a war between women—daughters vs.
daughters- in-law—and the dispute is meant to be reconciled and mediated within
the community by applying the “majority rules” principle, where the patriarchal
mindset is dominating.
But I believe that this chain can be broken
at any part through education, awareness raising, enforcement of laws and the
promotion of women’s participation. We have to claim that these are issues of
gender discrimination and violation of women’s human rights. Changing the
deep-rooted patriarchal culture is the biggest challenge that we have to face
in
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