In commemoration of World Human Rights Day which is commemorated every 10th December 2020, the Community Initiative Study and Development Group (KSPPM) in collaboration with Subur Tani Buntu Mauli Village Farmer Group and the Buntu Mauli Village Government held a discussion “Towards a Women Friendly Village” which conducted on Saturday, December 12, 2020 at the Office of the Head of Buntu Mauli Village, Sitio-Tio District, Samosir Regency.

Kristina Sitanggang, Coordinator of the Committee, explained that recently the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Villages and Transmigration (Kemendes PDTT) issued a Ministerial Regulation namely Village Regulation No.13 of 2020 concerning Priority Use of Village Funds in 2021 to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) .

In the Ministerial Decree, making Women Friendly Villages become one of the priorities in 2021 as a form of the government’s commitment to integrating human rights and SDGs in development at all levels, starting from the village level. Therefore, this issue must be fully understood by the community in the village, so that it creates collective action to prevent domestic violence and sexual violence against women and children.

The village head of Buntu Mauli explained that until now, cases of domestic violence and sexual violence have not occurred in the village. However, even though no cases have been reported to the village government, these related discussions need to be continuously improved to increase the knowledge and insight of the community in the village regarding women’s issues.

“Realizing women-friendly villages is an urgent need, considering that in reality both in cities and in villages there are still many policies that do not take sides against women, cases of domestic violence and sexual violence against children and women are still high, discrimination and injustice against women are still frequent. happen. And this is also a form of the state’s weakness in protecting the human rights of women and children, ”said Delima Silalahi, Program Director of the KSPPM.

Delima added that to realize this women-friendly village, all parties, the government, civil society organizations, religious institutions, educational institutions and also the village community themselves must actively participate and cooperate with one another, KSPPM as an NGO that has been assisting farmers and indigenous peoples. is also responsible for carrying out awareness and education related to human rights issues. Therefore, in the future, KSPPM is also willing to partner with the village government of Buntu Mauli to create a Women Friendly Village.

“There are several indicators to create a village that is friendly to women, including gender responsive policies that are carried out by drafting a Village Regulation on women’s empowerment, having infrastructure facilities that are friendly to women, the village has a complaint post for women, assistance and recovery for victims who have experienced violence, the involvement of women in Village Consultative Body (BPD) and village officials, women’s involvement in attending village meetings and participating in village development, household-based women’s economic empowerment, entrepreneurship training, and formation and training for village cadres on gender, “said Ester Ritonga, a women activist of North Sumatra.

Mr. Amon Sormin, Head of the Office of Empowerment of Women, Children and Village Communities of Samosir Regency also explained the general description of the Regional Action Plan and the integration of SDG’S-HAM and the development programs that have been going on so far and are planned for the future. As the Head of the Office in charge of village builders, Pak Sormin also said that currently villages are given broader authority to utilize village funds not only for physical development, but also for human resource development. So he hopes that in the future the Village Government will be more active and progressive in designing programs that increase the capacity of women’s human resources in Buntu Mauli. So that gender equality and justice can be realized and the number of cases of domestic violence and sexual violence against children and women also no longer exists.

In the discussion session, the participants were also active in providing opinions, views and also questions to the speakers. All of them agreed to create a Women Friendly Village even though there were many challenges that had to be faced.

*** Written by Anjela Manuhuruk and Kristina Sitanggang