EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIA:
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS BY MAMTA MOKTA
The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian
Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights,
Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution
not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the state
to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of
women. ‘Empowerment’ may be described as a process which
helps people to assert their control over the factors which affect
their lives. Empowerment of women means developing them
as more aware individuals, who are politically active,
economically productive and independent and are able to make
intelligent discussion in matters that affect them. Present
article discusses about various initiatives taken by Government
of India for empowering women by analysing position of India
in Gender Inequality Index and Global Gender Gap Index of
United Nations. Article concludes with the note that due
recognition must be given to women and society should come
forward to ensure equal status for women in all spheres of
life.
‘EMPOWERMENT’ MAY be described as a process which helps people
to assert their control over the factors which affect their lives. Empowerment
of women means developing them as more aware individuals, who are
politically active, economically productive and independent and are able
to make intelligent discussion in matters that affect them.
1
Women
empowerment as a concept was introduced at the International women
Conference in 1985 at Nairobi, which defined it as redistribution of social
power and control of resources in favour of women.
2
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNDFW) includes the following factors
in its definition of women empowerment:
• Acquiring knowledge and understanding of gender relations and
the way in which these relations may be changed.
• Developing a sense of self-worth, a belief in one’s ability to secure
desired changes and the right to control one’s life.
3
Batliwala (1974) defines empowerment as “the process of challenging
existing power relation and of gaining greater control over the source of
power”. Women’s’ empowerment is seen as the process and the result of
the process of:
• Challenging the ideology of male domination and women’s
subordinations.
• Enabling women to gain equal access to and control over the
resources (material, human and intellectual).
4
EMPOWERED WOMEN’S CHARACTERISTICS
(i) Empowered women define their attitude, values and behaviours
in relation to their own real interest. They have autonomy
because they claim their freedom from existing male hierarchies,
whether they live in traditional societies or modern industrial
societies.
(ii) Empowered women maintain equal mindedness. They act out
roles that challenge male dominance. They respond as equals
and co-operate to work towards the common good.
(iii) Empowered women use their talent to live fulfilling lives. They
not only survive the harshness of their own subjugation but also
transcend their subjugation.
(iv) Empowered women maintain their strength on the face of
pressures from the religion and work and contribute towards
the empowerment of all women.
(v) Empowered women define their values and formulate their
beliefs themselves, they do not derive their sense of being from
male authorities nor do they live vicariously through men.5
3
V.S. Ganeswamurthy,
5 Dimensions and Parameters of Women Empowerment
The process of empowerment has five dimensions, viz. Cognitive,
psychological, economic, political and physical:
(i) The cognitive dimension refers to women having an
understanding of the conditions and causes of their subordination
at the micro and macro levels. It involves making choices that
may go against cultural expectations and norms;
(ii) The psychological dimension includes the belief that women
can act at personal and societal levels to improve their individual
realities and the society in which they live;
(iii) The economic component requires that women have access to,
and control over, productive resources, thus ensuring some
degree of financial autonomy. However she notes that changes
in the economic balance of power do not necessarily alter
traditional gender roles or norms;
(iv) The political element entails that women have the capability to
analyse, organise and mobilise for social change; and
(v) There is a physical element of gaining control over one’s body
and sexuality and the ability to protect oneself against sexual
violence to the empowerment process.
6
The parameters of women empowerment are:
• Raising self-esteem and self-confidence of women.
• Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against
women and girl child.
• Building and strengthening partnership with civil society
particularly women’s organisations.
• Enforcement of constitutional and legal provisions and
safeguarding rights of women.
• Building a positive image of women in the society and recognising
their contributions in social, economic and political sphere.
• Developing ability among women to think critically.
• Fostering decision-making and collective action.
• Enabling women to make informed choices.
• Ensuring women’s participation in all walks of life.
• Providing information, knowledge, skills for self-employment.
• Elimination of discrimination against women’s participation in the
areas of:
– Access to food
– Equal wages
– Property rights
– Family resources
– Freedom of movement and travel
– Access to credit
– Control over savings, earnings and resources
– Guardianship and custody of children and their
maintenance
• Gender sensitisation training in schools, colleges and other
professional institutions for bringing about institutional changes.
7
Women have to swim against the stream that requires mere strength.
Such strength comes from the process of empowerment. The women
empowerment can be done through providing proper education, health and
nutrition facilities.
8
Indicators of Women Empowerment
Beijing Conference 1995 had identified certain quantitative and
qualitative indicators of women empowerment. These indicators are
discussed below:
Qualitative Indicators:
(i) increase in self-esteem, individual and collective confidence;
(ii) increase in articulation, knowledge and awareness on health,
nutrition reproductive rights, law and literacy;
(iii) increase in personal leisure time and time for child care;
(iv) increase on decrease of workloads in new programmes;
(v) change in roles and responsibility in family and community;
(vi) visible increase on decrease in violence on women and girls;
(vii) responses to, changes in social customs like child marriage,
dowry, discrimination against widows;
(viii) visible changes in women’s participation level attending
meetings, participating and demanding participation;
(ix) increase in bargaining and negotiating power at home, in
community and the collective;
(x) increase access to and ability to gather information;
(xi) formation of women collectives;
(xii) positive changes in social attitudes;
(xiii) awareness and recognition of women’s economic contribution
within and outside the household;
(xiv) women’s decision-making over her work and income.
Quantitative Indicators
(a) demographic trends
– maternal mortality rate
– fertility rate
– sex ratio
– life expectancy at birth
– average age of marriage
(b) Number of women participating in different development
programmes;
(c) Greater access and control over community resources/
government schemes—creche, credit cooperative, non-formal
education;
(d) Visible change in physical health status and nutritional level;
(e) Change in literacy and enrollment levels; and
(f) Participation levels of women in political process.
Components of Women Empowerment: Four components of women’s
empowerment are identified:
(i) Acquiring knowledge and an understanding of gender/power
relations and ways in which these relations may be changed;
(ii) Developing a sense of self-worth, a belief in one’s ability to
secure desired changes and the right to control one’s life;
(iii) Gaining the ability to generate choices and thereby acquiring
leverage and bargaining power; and
(iv) Developing the ability to generate, organise or influence the
direction of social change to create more just social and
economic orders nationally and internationally.
9
OBJECTIVES OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
• To identify gaps in the empowerment of women, development of
children and adolescents;
• Create a national network of pubic, private and NGO centres for
delivering reproductive and child health services free to any client;
• To create an enabling environment through convergence with other
programmes;
• To open more child care centres for working women and expand
the availability of safe abortion care;
• To use energy saving devices to reduce drudgery of women;
• To identify the ways in which the effects of policies and
programmatic interventions to promote women’s empowerment
have been measured;
• To improve access to sanitation, drinking water, fuel, wood and
fodder for women;
• To develop health management and health package at all levels;
• To improve accessibility and quality of maternal and child health
care services;
• To identify the evidence on how women’s empowerment affects
important development outcomes such as health, education, fertility
behaviour, income levels, etc.
• Supporting community activities package for women;
• To improve and increase clinical and contraception delivery services;10
• To organise educational and empowerment programmes for girls
and women;
• To train resource persons, animators and trainers for activities
visualised;
• To conduct and promote experimentations and innovations and
research in the problems and programmes of empowerment of rural
women;
• To increase awareness in women, for their development to use
their talent optimally not only for themselves, but also for the
society as a whole;
• To develop the skills for self-decision- taking capabilities in women
and to allow them to present their point of view effectively in
society;
• To create awareness among women to be truly ambitious and to
dream for betterment;
• To make efforts in organising the women for fighting against the
problems and difficulties related to them; and
• To integrate socio-economic activities with concern for health and
environment protection in the light of the rural women culture.
10 Women Empowerment in India
The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution
in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive
Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also
empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour
of women. Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws,
development policies, Plans and Programmes have aimed at women’s
advancement in different spheres. From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-
78) onwards there has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s
issues from welfare to development and then from Eighth Five Year Plan
emphasis was shifted from development to empowerment. In recent years,
the empowerment of women has been recognised as the central issue in
determining the status of women. India has also ratified various International
conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights
of women. Key among them is the ratification of the Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in
1993. The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of
Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women.
The Cairo conference in 1994 organised by UN on Population and
Development called attention to women’s empowerment as a central focus
and UNDP developed the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) which
focuses on the three variables that reflect women’s participation in society—
political power or decision-making, education and health. 1995 UNDP
report was devoted to women’s empowerment and it declared that if human
development is not engendered it is endangered. The Government of India
declared 2001 as the Year of Women’s Empowerment (Swashakti). The
National Policy for the Empowerment of Women was passed in 2001.
Thus road map for women empowerment is there but still we have
miles to go on this path of empowerment. We hope that in coming years
ahead women empowerment will prove its worth. Women are an integral
part of a society. They play an important role in determining the destiny of
a nation. It has been rightly said by Swami Vivekanand, “The Best
thermometer to the progress of nation is its treatment of women”. Therefore,
due recognition to them in the society and their greater involvement in
socio-economic and political affairs becomes all the more important. Every
person should come forward to ensure equal status for women in all spheres
of life.
"Woman is an incarnation of ‘Shakti’—the Goddess of
Power. If she is bestowed with education, India’s
strength will double. Let the campaign of ‘Kanya
Kelavni’ be spread in every home; let the lamp of
educating daughters be lit up in every heart" —Narendra Modi
