City youngster hopes to bring gender equality in agriculture

City youngster, Apoorva Valli Shankar, who attended the United Nations Committee on Food Security (UN CFS) in Rome, is back in Chennai with a bigger mission. An English teacher at the German International School, Chennai, Apoorva says that her aim is to educate children on agriculture and create awareness about bringing in gender equality in agriculture. The 26-year-old staunchly believes that women can reduce the food security crisis if given proper guidance.

“When I attended the global Youth Ag-Summit in 2017, I realised that gender inequality was a cross-cutting issue in the agricultural sector. And when it comes to decision making, women aren’t given any choice or voice. What we wanted is to create a platform that will empower women and help them be part of decision making. At the summit, we identified Kenya as one of the countries that needed intervention, because their statistics were quite alarming,” she says.

Being an educator, Apoorva feels that it’s high time we taught our children on food and food security. “When you ask a child the origin of the food, he/she will blindly say ‘kitchen’. They aren’t aware of the origin of food they consume. It’s sad that the subject of agriculture is not part of any school curriculum. Unless children are exposed to agriculture, how are they supposed to envision a career in it? I am planning to run a series of awareness programmes for children where they can understand food, issue of world hunger, what individual action they can take and how they can make a difference,” shares the agricultural enthusiast. 

She also noticed that the young generation doesn't look at agriculture as an enticing option because of a certain image that is tagged with farming. “Agriculture is more than just farming. We need to turn around the image of agriculture and make it appealing for the youth,” says the eco-volunteer.

Apart from this, Apoorva is planning to visit women farmers across the country and identify their constraints and challenges and find a solution. “If I approach them individually, they might be hesitant to open up. But if I talk to them through the self-help groups, I hope they will share their ideas with me. If women are brought to the forefront in the decision-making for global food security, there will be an uprising," she sums up.