EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN COMING YEARS
--Leena Mehendale [ Yojana, August 2001]
I recall that way back in my student days, I always considered myself lucky for having been born in free India and in an environment where access to education was not denied. Happily, it never occured to me then or now to question the luck for being a woman. Much later did I realize how great it was to be educated and to be treated as equal. Since then I have cherished the Constitution of India wherein the very preamble pledges the Indian citizen for secular democracy and equality to all irrespective of "Religion, Race, Caste, Sex or Place of birth". The term 'secular' as it applies to Indian democracy is not restricted only in the sense of religion but carries the essence of equality to all without any discrimination on the ground of religion, race, sex, caste, place of birth or economic status.
During the 50 years prior to Indian independence we saw a substantial participation of women in the freedom movement, through revolutionary and social activities. We can cite the examples of Capt. Laxmi Sahgal of the Azad Hind Sena and Durgabhabhi or Kasturba Gandhi, Kamla Nehru and many more who participated in either kind of activities. It was a result of this meaningful participation of women in the freedom struggle and the social reforms started by great stalwarts like Swami Vivekanand, Dayanand Saraswati, Subramanyam Bharati, Savitribai Fule or Mahatma Gandhi etc. etc. that while drafting the Constitution of India, members of the drafting committee put great emphasis on being both secular and democratic in the governance of the country.
During the first 50 years after independence, the question of bringing women in the forefront through opportunities and capabilities has been considered from time to time. Our national plans started using the term "women Welfare" during the early period itself. Throughout various social and economic movements, especially the Cooperative movement, it was realized that women's participation in decision making was important. The Cooperative Societies Act and the Zilla Parishad Act of 1960 of Maharashtra can be cited as example. Under these, it is mandatory to co-opt two lady members if there are no elected lady representative. Then came the coinage "Women's Development" which was better enabler than 'Welfare'.
During 80's the concept of women's political participation evolved in a big way. Only towards the end of the century our planning strategies have started talking about women's empowerment. Thus in terms of government policies and programmes we have moved from the concept of women's welfare to women's development to women's participation in the social and political affairs to women's empowerment. This can be considered as theoretical or attitudinal change in our perception of the role of women.
How do we define the women's empowerment? To my mind fearlessness, dignity and awareness are the key words. Can women, decide, with dignity and without any fear, their own goals and have the freedom and capability to act towards them? Do they have access to means of production to ensure economic independence and physical security outside the house as a precondition to freedom of movement? Do their opinions and desires count at the level of family, the society and the country? How do we provide opportunities to enhance their capabilities? A woman should have the right to own and enjoy property. She should have freedom from the drudgery of the laborious domestic chores and meaningless social restrictions. She should be able to freely participate in the development and status building of the nation. She should have mastery over vocational, managerial and life-saving medicinal skills. In short, if the society's chariot runs on its two wheels, namely, the man and woman, then the woman, representing half the society, should be equally capable and empowered as the man is.
In the last 50 years we have witnessed a large number of individual achievements by women. To name a few, we have Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsale, Mother Teressa, Amrita Pritam, Anna Malhotra, Rama Devi, Nirmala Buch, Sujata Manohar, Subbalaxmi, Sonal Mansingh, Bachendri Pal, P.T.Usha, Romila Thapar, Kiran Bedi, Sudha Chandran, Neerja Bhanot, Nandini Satpathi, Shashikala Kakodkar, Kalpana Chawla etc.etc. We had Smt. Indira Gandhi at the topmost executive level in the country.
Still in the above examples we can see some gaps. Women have distinguished themselves in administration, academics, science and technology, industry and entrepreneurship, yet it has to be admitted that their number is not big. In the areas of financing, banking, espionage, trading, military affairs, physical sciences, technology, oceanography, space, war tactics, strategic planning, or even in the game of chess etc. women do not find even a small presence. Women also have yet to make their mark as philosophers, coordinators, team leaders, or as tough negotiators in domestic or international affairs. It is still believed that women do not have a place in these "manly" areas. Wherever a subject presumably requires an all-time alert mind or strategic planning for checkmating the opponent, either individually or collectively, it is clamoured that women cannot acquire the adequate expertise and mental tenacity to achieve the objectives.
Women's empowerment needs some basic ingredients. They are
- fearlessness (implying absence of crimes against women)
- freedom from drudgery of laborious domestic chores
- Economic earning and productivity
- Ability to travel and control speed
- Authority to take decision
- Sharing power and property with men
- A liberalising education that can prepare grounds for the above.
Safety to woman outside her home is equally important. Annually nearly 12000 cases of rapes, 13000 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women, 26000 cases of molestation and 11000 cases of sexual harassment are registered. These nearly a lakh cases represent, as per police's own estimate, only 10 to 25 percent of the crimes actually perpetrated on women. These are further often affected by inadequate investigation, indifferent presentation in the courts, excruciating delays and insensitivity towards the problems and emotions of women victims. Even when women victims cope up with these inadequacies, the conviction rates that are as low as 15%, de facto deny befitting justice to women.
Collective and organized crime against women like gang-rapes, mass rapes, sexual exploitations of young girls, flesh trade run by organized gangs in 5-star environment, increasing population in brothel houses, etc. are the common headlines of the newspapers. In a recent sex scandal needy girls were lured with small temptation into posing for objectionable photographs and were then black-mailed for further sexual abuse. Through this several women are also being pushed into pornography. Other variety of collective crime is where one group perpetuates sexual atrocities against the women of another group, in order to teach a lesson to the other group or collectively assault women "to break her spine" as what happened in case of Bhanvari Devi.
Every stage in deterioration of law and order affects women victims more adversely, yet women have very little say in its management. If freedom from fear is the first criterion of women's empowerment, then a speedy justice delivery system needs to be ensured. We need to make our investigative machinery more efficient, the process of justice more sensitive towards women, and the punishment for sexual atrocities more stringent. There has to be a method of public monitoring of inefficiencies and delays. The entire justice delivery system may have to be revamped, going beyond the present monopoly of police and judicial machinery. What concrete steps and plans of action are before us for this? How do we present them for public monitoring? These questions need pondering and new strategies to be brought about quickly.
After safety, comes the question of earning the bread. How does the woman of today earn her bread? By undertaking to work! What type of work, how does she do it, how is it accounted for and how is she paid for it? We have to analyze four different issues. Even after half century of independence, 70% of the women in workforce are employed and getting paid only for unskilled jobs. For example, at a construction site, women carrying head-loads of cement, mortar, bricks etc. up and down the stairs several times a day undertaking much more physical exertion are called unskilled labour. But men preparing the mortar once in a while, or laying bricks for the wall or keeping accounts of the material delivered , are regarded as skilled workers and get more wages. Similarly, in most of the sectors, all the excruciatingly tiring and monotonous jobs of the women come in the category of unskilled work, and they are paid less wages.
Secondly, Women continuously perform jobs for which they do not get any payment, for example, collection of fire-wood for the house, carrying pales of water from a long distance, cooking and cleaning the house, daily purchases, looking after children, etc. A woman spends nearly six hours on these domestic jobs which are neither counted as work nor are paid for, but do demand labour, create drudgery and monotony, and there is no escape from these for an ordinary woman. Her status and the respect shown to her are the most essential ingredients for empowerment, but they are not elevated when she demonstrates her capacity to perform these jobs. In our society, a man is generally not required to participate in these domestic jobs as he is considered the epitome of empowerment. If seen sharing them, he is ridiculed for his "woman like behavior. It is extremely necessary that women get respect for doing these domestic chores, get full participation of the men-folk in the family and get occasional respite from these. To prepare such a mind-set is not within the capacity of government. The social thinkers, writers, voluntary organizations and several persons with sensitivity will have to work towards it. Even the religious organizations cannot escape from their responsibilities of creating such a mind-set without which their talk of an equitable society remains a rhetoric only. To establish this respect, and enhance opportunities for economic independence, it is necessary to find ways of inter-change between the formal and informal sectors of education and give recognition, evaluation and respect for the typical skills acquired by women.
I would like to elaborate this by an example. We are often concerned that the eldest daughter in a poor family misses her school education while looking after the younger kids in the house. We can have a policy in which girls having experience of handling smaller children could be given preference for appointment in creches or for nursing courses just with the addition of some crash course to make up for the lost formal study. In practice, however, such a girl is considered ineligible. Only the girls with formal schooling are given these opportunities while the girls I described above remain trapped in informal sector.
In one article, Alka Arya has aptly described how an ordinary middle class woman may define her concept of empowerment. Happiest is the woman who knows that a meaningful work is available for ensuring her economic independence, but does not have to actually accept the job. But the shrinking job market makes this vision a distant goal and most middle-class women are scared that by quitting one job, they may not find another when they are ready for it.
The role of proper education cannot be over emphasized. We have heard the old saying that true education must liberate!. On applying this litmus test we find that our education system today needs a complete overhaul in favour of economic productivity. The system has to be more vocation-oriented and has to promote skill building. It should be a tool to character building in which the values of truth, honesty, expertise, justice and patriotism are carefully inculcated. It should be more easily accessible and should invoke quest for knowledge and travelling. For women empowerment, a revamped system of education is the second critical input after better crime control situation. Our present system does not adequately provide for imparting vocational skills that alone can ensure a quick beginning of the earning. Presently, no vocational education can be started until 8 years of formal education. Women acquiring skills in traditional and non-formal ways find no institutional arrangements for expanding or updating the same through formal channels.
Whenever vocational skills are to be converted into actual production and earnings, there arises a need for further training in managerial aspects such as procuring loan, marketing, financial management, quality control, inventory control, pricing, etc. There are no training institutions where such short courses are available at affordable costs as per the training needs of these women.
Thirdly, some kind of self realizsation is needed for empowerment. May I take the liberty of putting up a personal experience! I had once launched a program of economic rehabilitation of Devadasis in Sangli district of Maharashtra. This included vocational training and some working capital for production. We found that the programme could go beyond a certain level only when we supplemented the vocational training program with yet another training namely personality development that emphasized on 4 skills:
i) Singing group songs
ii) March past and saluting the national flag
iii) Cycling and
iv) Photography
Even from among these four, mastering the skill to ride the cycle and commute on the cycle was most effective in making the training successful.
In another example of training to the rural women, a group was given vocational training in masonry work. However, after three months, the women demanded that the training emphasis should be changed. Accordingly they were trained not just to work as a mason but further to fill up the tenders for the works in the Gram Panchayat and Taluka panchayat. They were trained to engage construction labour, to measure the work done, to inspect quality of work done and accordingly decide the wage payment to the labour and so on. This women's group has now become a "building contractor". Third is the example of many women sarpanchas who were able to achieve spectacular developments in their villages in areas of proper schooling for drop-out girls, water-shed management and other rural development works.
These examples show the importance of mobility, the decision making authority and economic viability in the issue of empowerment of women. One powerful medium to spread vocational training facilities at a low cost is the TV network that has grown enormously in the last two decades. It is perhaps a sad commentary that the use of TV for imparting vocational skills to the millions of women residing in the far-flung corners of the country cannot compete with using TV for entertainment programmes in order to generate more revenue for the government. The priority should be redefined immediately in favour of vocational skill building because imparting vocational education through formal schooling is enormously costly.
The discussion of women's empowerment cannot be complete without discussing the issue of sharing power and property. The first step towards women's empowerment was taken in the country immediately after independence when every adult woman was given equal constitutional right to vote and to contest the elections. This right has been earned by the Indian women much before it was earned by the women in many advanced countries. The rich contributions of Indian women in our struggle of independence earned them as much respect as to male freedom fighters. As a result, during the election for self-rule government and also immediately after independence, a large number of women were elected to Assemblies and Parliament. Later, this number started dwindling. On the other hand, the need to decentralise power upto the village level was also felt. This culminated in the 74th Constitutional Amendment under which a new methodology of gram panchayat was envisaged, giving 33% reservation for women in gram-panchayat elections. It is to be noted that the Maharashtra Gram Panchayat Act of 1960 which is nearly 20 years older than this amendment had provided for political reservation but only to SC, ST but not to women. Thus the amendment was the real concrete step applied all over the country. It has resulted in a new wave of awareness and empowerment amongst women at the grass-root levels. In the last 20 years, we have seen newly elected first timers among the women Panch and Sarpanch who were very effective in implementing the schemes of female literacy, rural development, water and land conservation and prohibition.
It must be said that the women have proved their capability for sharing political power as ably as the men. Some eyebrows are raised on the decision of reservation for women not only in contesting the elections but also in admission to educational institutions or government services. It is enough to mention that the need for positive discrimination in favour of women was felt and provided for as long back as during the framing of Constitution, but the provision is being implemented only now, and is, therefore, totally justified. In final stages however women's empowerment can be considered as "complete" only when women, as a collective group, no longer require any positive discrimination or reservation. It is a happy sign that lot of young women have started expressing that they would prefer to come up in life on the basis of merit rather than through reservation. A right kind of "seed" for empowerment is already sown and it will be necessary to nurture this.
The sharing of power acquires a different dimension for the women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They suffer for being women as well as for their backwardness. These are the women who after a long day's work return home with insufficient wages, only to be beaten up for the needs of the alcoholic husband. They have also to suffer the rage of another more developed group in the village. When two tribal communities fight, these are the women who are either themselves the victims of atrocities by other tribe or are rendered widows. These are the women who have to bear maximum brunt of forced evictions either due to natural calamities or due to large scale land acquisition programmes of the government. Perhaps the real way of empowering the tribals, especially the women, is through ownership of forests. There are two widespread misunderstandings: first that the tribals are the destroyers of forests and the second that the development of tribals has to follow the same course as that for others, even if at the cost of their culture, value systems, knowledge-base and life styles. Throughout the centuries the tribals and the scheduled castes have been preserving a huge reserve of knowledge and skills. A proper module for empowerment of these women can be developed, keeping their existing knowledge, skills and traditional culture at the centre of such development schemes. We have to go a long way in preparing, testing and implementing such a module.
A doubt has often been raised as to whether our family system which is so unique to Indian culture, creates a hinderence in the empowerment of women. As I see the situation, the family system is at the root of any bigger social system. It can, however, sustain itself, only when there is an equitable sharing of roles, drudgery, responsibility, access to knowledge and decision making authority within the family. This requires the sharing and caring of each others' positive aspects and supplementing each other by respecting the inherent equality of the members of the family. The question of sharing property by the women is therefore important. Even though the share of women in production and productive skills is acknowledged, there is a great reluctance to allow them a share in the property rights. In recent times, many legal amendments and other administrative methods have been tried to ensure a due right to women in the property. It is unfortunate that these efforts are also being vehemently retaliated. As the awareness for rights of women and their assertion increases, women will invariably be faced with retaliation and a temporary increase in intolerance against them. This is one challenge in way of women's empowerment.
The other challenge comes from a mental attitude under which it is still believed that women do not have a place in certain "manly" areas. Unfortunately, we are witnessing unprecedented deterioration in family system resulting from domestic violence against women. Surely, it will be very unwise to lay the blame on women whose self confidence and self esteem has increased and hence, their demand for equality within the family. The sensitivity of the men in the family has not developed at the same rate and hence, the friction.
Lastly, I would like to mention yet another important aspect to consider for future. It is the impact of information technology and bio-technology. Both these technologies are capable of creating either immense centralisation or immense decentralisation. They are also capable of creating large scale opportunities for women provided the women are given the right kind of know-how and the right kind of authority to take decisions that affect the economics and productivity from them. With half of our female population still reeling under illiteracy and another one- forth of women population dropping out of school before completing primary education, it will be a challenge for all of us to ensure that these very women are taken to the controlling heights of these technologies in the coming century. Let us hope that our secular democracy and the rights given to every citizen will allow us to move in the right direction to ensure this.
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