Shifting rural women from manual work to desk work
The workforce in rural areas are the largest hence they need to be targeted to come out of their comfort zone and upgrade their lifestyle.
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Our education system lacks tremendously in skill building process. The private education system may give a lot of practical training where the traditional system is lacking in hands-on training on what is being learnt. Indian economy consists of women with many issues and end up with manual labor which is available easily. There is dire need for the women in rural areas to get skillfully trained to work in offices. The workforce in rural areas are the largest hence they need to be targeted to come out of their comfort zone and upgrade their lifestyle.
Among the deficiencies in the education system amongst rural women are:
1. The learning process involves resources that not all women can afford. The education standard is getting higher but cannot be widely reached because of expensive resources used.
2. Women in rural areas are always exposed to discrimination especially when it comes to education. They are told that women don’t need education as their prime responsibility is to cook and take care of the family.
3. Girls end of compromising their education so that they can support in the boys of the family getting proper education as they are known to be the bread winners of the family. The girls get the minimal exposure to education and make do with it for the rest of their life. Sometimes girls don’t even go to high school because of the meagre income of the head of the family.
4. There are no proper policies enforced by central or administrative levels to provide suitable and relevant programs for women from rural and economically backward sections.
5. There are limited training given to rural women which relates to jobs like tailoring, soap making, candle making, clothes and shawl weaving, incense stick making, basket weaving, rope making, pottery, etc. there are no marketing skills that are involved or taught. The products are sold in a very simple way. Hence these training could not have a great impact in the overall development of women in rural areas.
There is large need to convert manual labor to jobs that are desk oriented. When women have the right exposure and proper guidance they will reach better heights than many men. All they need is the support and encouragement and of course the right kind of training. Our society now feels the need of imparting technical skills as well as soft skills to women in rural areas. Some of the skills that the institutes should impart are:
1. Personality development
2. Communication skills
3. Language skills
4. Leadership skills
5. Basic accounting
6. Business etiquettes
7. Management skill
8. Basic computer knowledge
Some popular institutes work on training the women on all necessary skills and development of the same. These skills will help them to compete in the market whether it is for work or businesses. Sometimes it is a challenge to find relevant jobs even after skilled training. Reasons may be:
1. Long working hours, gender bias, tough competition, family problems, language issues, etc.
2. No support from family, problems related to mindset
3. Women get married at an early age, hence their family responsibilities do not give them enough time to develop themselves.
4. Lower salary paid compared to men in the economy
5. Women safety is a major issue in many parts.
