Women's empowerment a myth or reality

Col (retd) KK Sharma Introduction Women empowerment debate stems from the concept of denial of strategic life choices and ability to change their own future. Most sociologists and legal pundits concur that empowerment is both a process and an outcome. Sardenberg (2008) spoke about liberating empowerment focused on power relations and discussed empowerment as simultaneously an instrument for social transformation and an end in and of itself, as it entails womens liberation from the chains of gender oppression. Empowerment is a process with personal, economic, social and political dimensions. India is one of the 192 countries that assured UN to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015. Third MDG covers promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment. It lays down three central issues - gender parity in education, share of women in wage employment, and proportion of seats held by women in national legislatures as outcomes of such initiatives. Each of these three indicators with regard to education, employment and political participation, is considered essential for the achievement of gender equality and women's empowerment. Women empowerment also includes a sense of self worth; right to control own lives, both within and outside home; ability to influence the direction of social change to create a just social and economic order nationally, internationally and universally. Modern India is straining to change with its youthful energy and a thriving knowledge economy, which is linked to balanced gender equations. The policy makers, social reformers and developmental agents need to think big and scale up rapidly in most of the areas of a nation in economic progress, but above all in the equality of both genders. Government of India (GOI), ministry of women and child development set up a national mission for empowerment of women (NMEW). It was launched on International Womens Day in 2010 with the aim to strengthen overall processes that promote all-round development of women. It has the mandate to strengthen the inter-sector convergence; facilitate the process of coordinating all the womens welfare and socio-economic development programs across ministries and departments. Connected with hundreds of NGOs working in this field and a conscious civil society, change can come faster than many skeptics and doomsayers predict. Deprivation across ages and continents History shows that women had to struggle all through to gain her stature. Due to lack of opportunities or feudal mind sets, ancient Roman or French societies had termed women as halfsoul creatures responsible for the destruction of society. The Asian civilizations did not cover themselves in glory in their depiction of women, including our own religious scriptures. Most

men viewed themselves as being the superior life-form in society. Even in the land of Magna Carta, Shakespeare portrayed women as being manipulated, if not controlled outright by the men in their lives. Many European states granted electoral rights to women only in sixties and seventies. All the changes in the West came not from the Bill of Rights, but from constant struggle and strident feminist movements. Indian women were denied political powers from ancient times, with society validating sons right to ascension to the seat of power. During the eighteenth century women suffered from several handicaps like female infanticide, sati pratha, purdah culture, child marriage, illiteracy and forced child widowhood. Widows of Vrindaban or poor gender ratios in North India point to this male-dominated attitude. Many social reformers attempted women empowerment and have rendered great services. These include Raja Rammohan Roy, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi (Jha and Pujari, 1998). Independent India saw a slew of legislative safeguards and constitutional provisions, but they are yet to reach a stage where Indian women can feel really empowered. Repeated blocking of 33 percent reservation in Indias parliament, through women reservation bill, is one such case in point; to show how the male dominance resonates even after 65 years of parliamentary democracy. Khap panchayats of Haryana and Western UP are examples of this mind-set even till this day. Issues of the Conference Education Empowerment. Perhaps the most important measure and means of empowerment is education. Out of all of the worlds children who are not enrolled in school, 70 percent are girls. In India, female literacy rate has progressively increased from 8.86 percent in 1951 to 65.46 percent in 2011; however compared to this the male literacy is 82.14 percent (Mint & WSJ, Mar 31, 2011). The link between female literacy rates and development is obvious and has received much attention in the development literature. For example, Rajasthan, which has a 52 percent female literacy rate, is still burdened with widespread practices like sati, female foeticide and child-marriage. On the other hand, Kerala, with 94 percent female literacy rate, is almost devoid of all these practices except the practice of dowry. Illiterate mothers are unable to help their small children in their educational pursuits, thus remaining dependent on the male counterparts. Many studies reveal that responsibilities of the family, or death of either of the parent, normally cause a girl child to dropout from school at an early age. Early marriage is another common feature leading parents to withdraw their girls from school, and once they are gone, very few girls return to school. Education is a massive empowering tool as it leads to economic empowerment and a sure way out of gender discrimination. Social Empowerment. Issues like socialization, gender justice, Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) legislation, role of civil society, historical and sociological issues and rural conditions can be grouped under social empowerment. In spite of gradual changes in our society, patriarchal nature of social set up continues to benefit males. Most of our legal provisions are gender insensitive and patriarchal in nature. The problem starts from the smallest civic unit of family, where traditions take precedence and social prestige, pressure and conformist behaviour is cited to justify gender discrimination. Michel Foucaults concept of power being relational is more applicable on women in social settings. Power is everywhere, in every relationship and we constantly are either subjects or objects of it. A key element in the subordination of women has been men's control over women's sexuality (N P, Stromquist, 1990). The discrimination of

gender roles are developed as a part of personality through the socialization process. Femininity roles and characteristic of gender are learnt and reinforced during the socialization practice within family relationships, where publicly attributed actions and responsibilities conform to the norms of each society (Dick & Cassell, 2002). Gender socialization starts from the time we are born, with the easy query is it a boy or a girl? (Gleitman et al., 2000, p. 499). Since 1970s, concepts of empowerment and gender justice have been discussed and employed to challenge womens political and economic inequalities. Gender equality, equity and womens empowerment are spoken in the same breath. Gender justice encompasses rights, citizenship, and social justice as related to women. UN efforts on global human rights developed with the participation of womens groups including the 1995 Beijing conference on women gave adequate international momentum. The Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the most noteworthy attempt to formalize global principles of gender justice. The 73rd amendment brought PRI under a national legislation in 1993, with an aim of strengthening democratic participatory mechanisms. In addition to that, GOI approved 50% reservation for women in these institutions on 27 August 2009. This has empowered women at grass root level and helped in having their say in community development. However, in many places, men still call the shots and usurp the authority. On various gender-related international comparisons, India is in the bottom 20th percentile among the major gender gap indices. It is 129 out of 145 countries in the UNs gender inequality index; 113 among 135 in the world economic forums global gender gap index (lowest among the BRICs); 84 among 113 in the economist intelligence units womens economic opportunity index (Mint & WSJ, Apr 2011). GOI and state governments had taken many steps to bring social equity in gender. These attempts at gender mainstreaming centered on strategies such as electoral quotas, legislative change, education and economic empowerment initiatives. But biggest hurdle to women empowerment comes from the family and society at large. In South Asia, men have coercive and dominant power and authority over women regarding the decision making matters specially decisions about family planning, education, social settings and marriages. Though, these tendencies and trends are being changed in the society due to rising education levels, this mindset problem remains the core of this struggle. Economic Empowerment. After education and social empowerment comes economic freedom. Education and economic freedom are largely interlinked, and both have a major role in empowerment. UN studies give out that six out of ten of the worlds poorest people are women and girls. Predispositions against women manifest in several aspects that take account of employment and economic gains (Fagenson 1993). Female workers are not given the similar wages as male for same labour. Women tend to be concentrated in less prestigious and lower paying occupations (Bose and Rossi, 1983). In India, there are a few women business leaders leading banking, manufacturing or pharma companies; but glass ceiling still stays. Women entrepreneurship needs capacity building through financial incentives, active participation of the

state and creating level playing fields. GOI introduced gender budget in 2005-06, which had 10 demands for grants. This has increased to over 33 grants under 27 ministries and departments as well as the five Union Territories. However total allocations for women as proportion of the total union government expenditure have been in the range of five to six percent. Constraints in financial resources continue to be a major hurdle in women entrepreneurship. Mohammed Yunus pioneered Grameen bank and self help group (SHG) concepts in Bangladesh, to provide microfinance to women at rural level. The experiment was replicated in India, but had a backlash in Andhra Pradesh. Micro-finance is a perfect measure and SHG can empower women in rural India. Conclusion Though many initiatives have been taken by GOI, state governments, local bodies, civil society and legal system; women are still a long way from realizing empowerment and justice. The debate on Bharat and India is more appropriate in discussion of this theme, as the empowerment mirrors the social prejudices and patriarchal mind-set of Indian populace. There is abject deprivation of social and economic rights in rural India when compared with the urban centers. It is imperative that every scheme towards women empowerment be based on a measurable criteria and outcomes evaluated on a periodic basis. NMEW needs to involve women groups and NGOs in setting up scalable and measurable parameters at both urban and rural levels. The stakeholders in strengthening the half of its population include general public, governments at all levels, policy makers and change agents, NGOs, civic society, administrators and above all the educational institutions and family unit. But most important and influential stakeholder in this debate, who needs to express themselves as loudly as possible are women themselves. God has gifted women with compassion, caring nature and concern for others. These are not frailties but positives to make women capable leaders. In order to achieve their rightful place in the society, women need to empower themselves. Empowerment of women is the prerequisite to transform India from a developing country into a developed country. Government needs to create an enabling environment for womens empowerment, and supporting those who are tackling deeper-rooted issues of power that impede transformative change. There are many success stories in the form of government and NGOs led initiatives all over the world. These must be compiled under NMEW and made available to the public to work their way around. Monitoring and evaluation of various schemes, initiatives and measures is mandatory if the agenda of women empowerment has to advance in India. The economic empowerment of women is a vital element of strong economic growth in any country. Empowering women enhances their ability to influence changes and to create a better society. In India, the empowerment process has already begun. We are now witnessing a steady improvement in the enrollment of women in schools, colleges and in professional institutes. Their health is better as compared to earlier decades. In this decade, women are entering into the job market in increasing numbers. They are showing their skills even in nontraditional sectors like police, defence, administration, media and research fields. Increasing role in political process like PRI and much awaited 33 percent in parliament are the steps in right direction. Focus of NGOs and government needs to be to change social mind-sets through better education and targeting rural populace.

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