This article was published in "Beyond headlines" on 25t.3.2013
BeyondHeadlines
(BH) is a leading alternative news portal providing information and
analysis that the mainstream media have chosen to ignore.
BeyondHeadlines is associated with INSAAN International Foundation.
Empowerment of Indian Women – A Myth
or Reality ?
Feminists
of the world, talk about “empowerment of women” vehemently and advocate it as
the magic solution for all the problems facing women. Yes, it is true that,
social economic, political and legal empowerment are important for women to
reach gender equity. It is because they would assure ,education , skill
acquisition , health awareness, employment, laws to
protect women against crimes , political rights and positions
etc., These are the tools of empowerment . But the big question is
whether these tools can guarantee empowerment? ,
To
answer this question we a should have a clear understanding about
the concept of “empowerment of women”
Indian
women have very low social. Economic, legal and political status
and because of this reason India is simply not doing enough
for its women. The country has fallen from 112 out of 134 countries in 2010 to
113 out of 135 countries in 2011 according to the Gender Gap Index 2011
released by the World Economic forum (WEF). What is the historic reason
for such a position? The history of Indian women is “history of silence”. They
were silent when basic human rights were denied to them, when they were treated
as beasts of burden by the family and the society and when violence against
them continued uncontrollably. Suppression of their rights and tolerance of
crimes continued since they belonged to inferior sex. Women also
were taught that “patience” is women’s virtue. They were taught to
adjust to any situation for the sake of family welfare and society’s opinion.
Women too accepted the patriarchal society’s dictates because of
their economic dependency on men i.e., on fathers, husbands and sons in various
stages of their life. In other words lack of income earning capacity crippled
them and made them suffer in silence if they were not blessed with good life.
This situation led to endless crimes against women and suppression of their
basic rights. In many other countries too women were suffering in
innumerable ways.
Hence,
feminist all over the world raised their voice against inhuman treatment
of women in the beginning of 19th century and started demanding
basic rights and dignified treatment through women liberation
movement .The UNO recognised the justice in their demand and declared,
that “women rights are human rights” and through international conferences,
workshops and committees drew a draft plan for women empowerment process and
offered the guidelines and instructions to be followed to improve the status
women. The member countries initiated women oriented development and welfare
programmes and enacted suitable laws to protect their rights. The
empowerment process was initiated through education, training, health,
employment, legal and political facilities but these are only tools of
empowerment. Can they alone guarantee “real” empowerment? The answer then is
“no’. Because unless women understand the goals of empowerment they can not
elevate their status within the family, society and the nation
The
goals of empowerment are—-
The
goals of empowerment are—-
- An economically empowered woman or an employed women should have the ability to plan and take independent decision about her own life( in matters of education carrier, marriage, child birth etc.,)
- She should be able to face challenges of her life, with courage and confidence and with the support of laws or supporting groups.
- She should be able to use the resources(such as education job, money, time and energy ) at her disposal to her best advantage, i.e., to achieve goals of her life
- She should be able to take part in decision making process at the family level in matters concerning, marriage, higher education or job of children, property acquisition and disposal, saving and investment matters etc and at national level through representation in the law making and administrative bodies.
- She should be able to put an end to violence against her through legal awareness.
- She should be able to live with dignity without depending on others, even during crises.
If a
woman’s income does not permit her to have these advantages, there is no use of
her economic power. There are thousand of employed women who totally surrender
their salary to the family and depend on them even for their very personal
expenses such as buying gifts for their near and dear ones or for self
indulgence, have no say regarding the spending, saving or investment
of their income or have no say regarding their personal matters (such as health
care, pregnancy related matters), carrier matters, children’s education, job or
marriage.. Even the so called politically empowered women act as the agents of
their politically powerful fathers and husbands, without taking independent
political decisions. Most of the employed women have no economic, legal and
political awareness and are not even aware of the fact that there are 24 women
oriented laws in India
to protect them from crimes. If women prefer to live with such indifference
towards their empowerment process there will be zero benefit to the
government’s and parent’s efforts towards empowering them and they will
continue to exist with 18th century tag of “inferior sex”
‘Empowerment”,
is not a product of a revolution but of evolution . It is
process which has to be initiated and nurtured carefully. To think that
all the educated and employed women are empowered is a fallacy. We witness
incidents of highly educated and economically powerful women like film
stars, lawyers, scientists etc, attempt and commit suicide, when , the
rural, uneducated , illiterate and poor women face the challenges
of life courageously even after the suicide of their husbands
(farmers) due to indebt ness.
What
is the moral of this narration? Tools alone can not empower a woman. If
the parents are under the impression that ,the modern girls are highly
educated , have high profile jobs , economically independent and
hence they would be safe from dangers of life , they are mistaken . They should
also mould them with certain other qualities of life such as , positive
attitude towards life, strength of character, courage and confidence in facing
crisis, definite goal in life and the aspirations and efforts to reach
that goals.. Money alone can not assure dignified life. Women should realise
that they should strive for gender equity and that would become a reality only
if they understand their self worth. Others can not fight their battle and self
help is the best help.
(The
author is a Chennai based academic and a retired Professor of Economics with
specialization in gender and Indian economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment