ZZZ Women empowerment what does it mean ?

Women empowerment : what does it mean ?

The year 2001 -- the first year of the new millennium -- has been declared by the Government of India as the Year of Empowerment for Women.  Government and voluntary agencies, academicians and all are expected to plan, strategise, and implement such policies and programmes as will pave way for accelerated development of women and lead them in the direction of empowerment.

How do we define the women’s empowerment? To my mind fearlessness, dignity and awareness are the key words. Can women, with dignity and without any fear, decide their own goals and have freedom and capability to act towards them?  A woman needs economic independence; for which she needs access to means of production. She needs complete freedom of movement for which physical security outside the house is a precondition. Her opinion and desires should count at the level of her family, the society and the country.  She should have all opportunities to enhance her capabilities. She should have right to own and enjoy property.  She should have freedom from the drudgeries of the laborious domestic chores.  She should be able to freely participate in the development and status building of the nation.  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.  Whether the woman has achieved such a capability and empowerment will decide the success of our plans .

Various factors will contribute to this empowerment. Freedom from fear (this implies absence of crime against women) and freedom from drudgery of work will be two major pre-requisites. Other important factors are - access to education and health, freedom from social restrictions and freedom for growing, access to opportunities, ownership and right to property and other assets, mastery over vocational, managerial as well as  life-saving medicinal skills.
What is the status of woman after 50 years of independence?  Our cultural heritage talks of Goddesses like Parvati, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Durga, etc. and we take pride in quoting “Where women are revered the Gods shall dwell there happily”.  But is there that reverence for women?  This is a question for major introspection.

The most alarming pointer to the declining status of women in the last 50 years, is the factor of rampant female infanticide. This  has now worsened into female foeticide and pre-selection technique that prevents the very conception of a female foetus.  The data of 2001 Census show that the female to male sex ratio for the 0-6 age group has declined from _____ in 1951 to _____ in 2001 and has been continuously on the decline during these years.  The very right to be born as a woman is under jeopardy.

[A digression – in the 60+ age group, the number of widowed women is far above that of widowers, and schemes have to be provided for maintaining the dignity of these aged single women.]

This decline in female to male ratio is related to other issues among which the high rate of dowry death and dowry torture are most important.  The cruelty shown to women in their married lives has become a matter of grave concern.  Annually, on average, the police registers as many as _____ cases of dowry deaths and ____ cases of dowry harassment.  The number of cases of bigamy, deserted women, and divorce by mutual consent is going up.  Of course, the concerned woman has invariably been compelled to consent in face of her desertion and other atrocities.  It is estimated that more than 5 lac cases of deserted women are pending  in various courts for maintenance.
The institution of family which is a characteristic and a representative of Indian society is itself under question mark.  If a woman is unsafe, or under fear and tension in her own house, then empowerment is a far cry.

Safety to woman outside her home is equally important in the empowerment issue.  Annual reports of the National Crime Records Bureau show that in one year there are nearly _____ cases of rapes, ____ cases of kidnapping and abduction of women, ____ cases of molestation, ____ cases of sexual harassment.  The reports also estimate that due to many social and financial compulsions the crimes against women actually recorded are only 10 to 25 percent of the crimes actually perpetrated.  Those that are registered are 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 are as low as 15%, thus denying the very right of due and befitting justice to women in the crimes committed against them.

There is also an alarming increase in collective and organized crimes against women.  The cases of gang-rapes, mass rapes, rapes and other sexual exploitations of small girls, flesh trades run by organized gangs in 5-star environment, increasing population in brothel houses, etc. are the common headlines of the newspapers.  In Jalgaon sex scandal and some more subsequent cases, the latest methodology seems to be to lure needy girl with small temptation into taking her objectionable photographs and then black-mailing her for further sexual exploitation.  There are cases of one group perpetuating sexual atrocities against the women of another group, in order to teach a lesson to the other group or collective atrocities on women “to break her spine".  We need to take specific note of such crimes and make all out efforts for speedy and strict handling of these cases.  Currently, however, these cases are also handled with the same routine carelessness, as are the other cases.

If freedom from fear is the first criterion of women’s empowerment, then during coming years, we will have to demand that our investigative machinery should be more efficient, the process of justice should be more sensitive towards women, the punishment for sexual atrocities should be stringent and the current lethargic criminal procedure should be made speedier.  The entire justice delivery system may have to become more broad-based, going beyond the police and judicial machinery. What concrete steps and plans of action are before us for this?

The government may identify ten most important schemes towards this goal and report with regular frequency the progress made in implementation of such schemes
After safety within and outside the family, 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?

Even after half century of independence, 70% of the women workforce are employed and getting paid only in unskilled jobs.  Take the example of a common construction site.  We find a man standing near a pile of sand and cement, smoking bidi, and once in a while preparing the “mixture” of cement, sand and water, which is continuously carried by women as a head-load to the second or fourth storey, going up and down, up and down .......  On the storey under construction, another man is cementing the bricks with this mixture to build up the wall.  Somewhere a third man is loitering, waiting for the truck delivery and he will only keep account of the material delivered.
 In this whole scenario the women engaged at the site are carrying head-loads nearly fifty times a day up and down the stairs and undertaking much more physical exertion, yet they are called unskilled labour and they necessarily get lesser wages than what the men get because their jobs are considered skilled jobs.

The picture continues in almost all sectors.  All the excruciatingly tiring and monotonous jobs of the women come in the category of unskilled work, accordingly and the payment is also less.

  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, but demand labour, create drudgery and monotony, and there is no escape for an ordinary woman.  Her status or respect which are so essential for empowerment, is not elevated for her capacity to perform these jobs.
In our society, a man is generally not required to undertake these domestic jobs as he is considered the epitome of empowerment; he alone  is  eligible for status and respect.  If a man is seen as participating in domestic activities, he is ridiculed for his “woman like behaviour”.  As long as these routine domestic  jobs and the women performing them are victims of non-recognition, as long as a common woman has no way of escaping from them, there is no meaning to women’s empowerment.

It is extremely necessary that women get respect for these domestic works, also get occasional respite from these and whenever the jobs have to be carried out, she gets full participation of the men-folk in the family.  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 hard. Even the religious organizations cannot escape from their responsibilities of creating such a mind-set.  They will have to consider that if the laborious work of the women in the family remains unrecognized and unparticipated, then all their talks and hopes for an equitable religious society will remain  rhetoric.

In recent years, the Labour Ministry has started addressing some important issues such as: non-payment of equal wages for equal work to women, the work distribution pattern under which women get to do only the unskilled work thus earning  smaller wages or the question of occupational health hazards for women, e.g. women employed in the fish processing industry, working for long hours with ice slabs and cold storages, which adversely affects their fingers and back.  The government can address these issues; but who will address the issue of unpaid domestic work of the woman within her house ? Govt. and society will have to find indicators to measure the quantum of increase in the respect and reduction in routine drudgery of the women.

To re-establish this respect, it is important to give  recognition, evaluation and respect at various social fora for the skills of women. For 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 formulate schemes so that girls  having experience of handling smaller children will be given preference for appointment in crèches 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.

Unless we find ways of inter-change between the formal and informal sectors of education and create opportunities for girls and women trapped in informal and unskilled sectors to enter into formal sectors, it would be equivalent to denying empowerment for the 70 percent women in our workforce.

The prescription for empowerment cannot however be complete only by ensuring respect for the domestic unpaid work of the woman.  It is equally necessary that the women have the means of economic independence.  This in turn necessitates vocational and skilled education.  In today’s environment of increasing domestic violence against women in her marital home and the possibility of being suddenly thrown out, it is an absolute must for the self-confidence and dignity of woman that she has her own economic earning or at least a guarantee that whenever need arises she can immediately engage herself in work and earn her livelihood.
Once I happened to ask an ordinary middle class woman as to what was her concept of empowerment. The knowledge that a meaningful work was available for ensuring her economic independence, but not having to actually do the work was her concept of women’s empowerment, was her reply.
We have to acknowledge that the government schemes so far have not adequately provided for imparting vocational education which alone can ensure a quick beginning of the earning.  In present system, no vocational education can be started until 8 years of formal education.  Those women who are acquiring skills in traditional ways find no institutional arrangements for expanding or updating them.  Secondly, 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 lower cost as per the training needs of the traditionally skilled women. Both types of institutions need to be planned and provided for immediately.

One powerful medium of widespread vocational training facilities at a cheaper rate is the TV network that has grown enormously in the last 25 years.  It is perhaps a sad commentary that the use of TV medium for imparting vocational skills to the millions of women residing in the far-flung corners of the country cannot compete with the idea of using TV for entertainment programmes in order to generate more revenue for the government. The priority should be fixed up immediately in favour of vocational skill building because any plan of imparting vocational education through formal schooling is enormously costly.  This is an area to be tackled on priority.

The Census of 2001 shows that ____ percent of women in the country are still at the brink of illiteracy.  Hence speeding up the scheme of universalisation of education should be the top priority.

Various studies of disaggregated data at the taluka and district levels have established a favourable link between high literacy rate among women and declining rate of population as well as better access to health, legal awareness and many such indicators of development.

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 women 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 other advanced countries.  The rich  contributions of Indian women in our struggle of independence whether by the revolutionary methods or by the non-violent methods, have earned this right for them.  Stalwart freedom fighters like Kasturba Gandhi, Capt. Laxmi, Durga Bhabhi, Kamla Nehru, etc. are today respected as much as other freedom fighters.  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 to be elected.  This has resulted in a new wave of awareness and empowerment amongst women at the grass-root levels.  In the last 12 years, we have seen ample examples of the 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.  On the other hand, women have also shown distinguished achievements in the areas of administration, academics, science and technology, industry and entrepreneurship,  although it has to be admitted that their  number  in these professions is  not adequate.

Some eyebrows are raised on the issue 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 alcoholic needs of the husband.  These have 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 tribes, especially the women, is through ownership of forests.  There are two widespread misunderstandings: first  that  the tribal people are the destroyers of forests and the second that the development of tribal people has to follow the same course as that of development for others, even if at the cost of their centuries-old value systems and life styles. Throughout the centuries the tribal people and the scheduled castes have been preserving a huge reserve of knowledge and skills.  A proper module for empowerment 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.

The question  of sharing property by the women is equally serious.  Today, even when 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 unfortunte 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 as a mental attitude in which it is still believed that women do not have a place in certain “manly” areas such as science, especially physics, scientific research, mathematics, philosophy, war tactics, strategic planning, banking, espionage or even the game of chess. It is presumed that wherever a subject presumably requires an all-time alert mind or mental efforts or strategic planning for checkmating the opponent, either individually or internationally, women cannot acquire the adequate level of expertise and will-power to achieve the goal.

For the Empowerment of Women these issues have to be addressed in right earnest.
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