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
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
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