Power
is a relational dynamic between individuals or between groups of people and is
often unequally distributed. This inequality results in control or domination.
The pattern in which power is distributed in a society or the power structure
of society is strengthened by the force of tradition, values, history and by
the prevalent ways of thinking and behaving. Any effort to change the balance
of power entails change in the existing power structure.
Women's
empowerment is the process by which women negotiate a more equitable
distribution of power , a greater space in the critical decision making
processes in the home ,in the community and in the economic and political life.
The aim of empowerment of women is the fuller and wholesome development of both
men and women. Empowerment of women is anti-men. It is against patriarchy.
Changes in law pertaining to marriage ,property, sexual harassment ,dowry, rape
and other forms of violence, so as to bring in laws favoring or supporting
women's empowerment are necessary but not enough. Enabling women to actually
access to the benefits of appropriate laws is the key task of the empowerment
process.
The process
of empowerment which seeks an equitable and active share for women has to deal
with the burden of ideas and values which are passed on to women as part of
their socialization process from their very childhood. This social conditioning
becomes part of her person and mindset and influences her behaviour. The
empowerment process must begin with women changing their own ways of thinking
and behaving .They must try to appreciate themselves more and to recognize and
value their knowledge and skills and their contribution of the sustainability
of the households and the community.
Women then,
must wage a multi-prolonged battle at many levels and this battle has
necessarily to begin with the women themselves at a personal and individual
level .As the empowerment process advances ,men loose their traditional power
and control over women and this process must begin within the family. Women
setting out to empower themselves must be aware and also prepared for the
backlash they might have to face from the men who suddenly find themselves
losing their traditional power and control. The road to empowerment is long,
lonely and often frightening. In fact ,the struggle is the process of empowerment.
In recent decades, while individual women have been waging a very personal struggle,
they have not been alone. Women within communities, within countries and across
the globe have been linking within one another to expand and to sharpen their
efforts for their own empowerment.
Economic Empowerment of
women:
Poverty Eradication:
Since women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line and
are very often in situations of extreme poverty, given the harsh realities of
intra-household and social discrimination, macro economic policies and poverty
eradication programmes will specifically address the needs and problems of such
women. There will be improved implementation of programmes which are already
women oriented with special targets for women. Steps will be taken for
mobilization of poor women and convergence of services, by offering them a
range of economic and social options, along with necessary support measures to
enhance their capabilities
Micro Credit:
In order to enhance women’s access to credit for consumption and production,
the establishment of new, and strengthening of existing micro-credit mechanisms
and micro-finance institution will be undertaken so that the outreach of credit
is enhanced. Other supportive measures would be taken to ensure adequate flow
of credit through extant financial institutions and banks, so that all women
below poverty line have easy access to credit.
Women and
Economy: Women’s perspectives will be included in designing and implementing
macro-economic and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in
such processes. Their contribution to socio-economic development as producers
and workers will be recognized in the formal and informal sectors (including
home based workers) and appropriate policies relating to employment and to her
working conditions will be drawn up. Such measures could include:
Women and
Agriculture: In view of the critical role of women in the agriculture and
allied sectors, as producers, concentrated efforts will be made to ensure that
benefits of training, extension and various programmes will reach them in
proportion to their numbers. The programmes for training women in soil
conservation, social forestry, dairy development and other occupations allied
to agriculture like horticulture, livestock including small animal husbandry,
poultry, fisheries etc. will be expanded to benefit women workers in the
agriculture sector.
Women and
Industry: The important role played by women in electronics, information
technology and food processing and agro industry and textiles has been crucial
to the development of these sectors. They would be given comprehensive support
in terms of labour legislation, social security and other support services to
participate in various industrial sectors.
Women at
present cannot work in night shift in factories even if they wish to. Suitable
measures will be taken to enable women to work on the night shift in factories.
This will be accompanied with support services for security, transportation
etc.
Social Empowerment of Women:
Education:
Equal access to education for women and girls will be ensured. Special measures
will be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate
illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment
and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate
life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical
skills by women. Reducing the gender gap in secondary and higher education
would be a focus area.
Sectoral time
targets in existing policies will be achieved, with a special focus on girls
and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including the
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities. Gender
sensitive curricula would be developed at all levels of educational system in
order to address sex stereotyping as one of the causes of gender
discrimination.
Health: A
holistic approach to women’s health which includes both nutrition and health
services will be adopted and special attention will be given to the needs of
women and the girl at all stages of the life cycle. The reduction of infant
mortality and maternal mortality, which are sensitive indicators of human
development, is a priority concern. This policy reiterates the national
demographic goals for Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate
(MMR) set out in the National Population Policy 2000. Women should have access
to comprehensive, affordable and quality health care. Measures will be adopted
that take into account the reproductive rights of women to enable them to
exercise informed choices, their vulnerability to sexual and health problems
together with endemic, infectious and communicable diseases such as malaria,
TB, and water borne diseases as well as hypertension and cardio-pulmonary
diseases. The social, developmental and health consequences of HIV/AIDS and
other sexually transmitted diseases will be tackled from a gender perspective.
Nutrition:
Intra-household discrimination in nutritional matters vis-à-vis girls and women
will be sought to be ended through appropriate strategies. Widespread use of
nutrition education would be made to address the issues of intra-household
imbalances in nutrition and the special needs of pregnant and lactating women.
Women’s participation will also be ensured in the planning, superintendence and
delivery of the system.
Violence
against women: All forms of violence against women, physical and mental,
whether at domestic or societal levels, including those arising from customs,
traditions or accepted practices shall be dealt with effectively with a view to
eliminate its incidence. Institutions and mechanisms/schemes for assistance
will be created and strengthened for prevention of such violence , including
sexual harassment at work place and customs like dowry; for the rehabilitation
of the victims of violence and for taking effective action against the
perpetrators of such violence. A special emphasis will also be laid on
programmes and measures to deal with trafficking in women and girls.
Rights of the
Girl Child: All forms of discrimination against the girl child and violation of
her rights shall be eliminated by undertaking strong measures both preventive
and punitive within and outside the family. These would relate specifically to
strict enforcement of laws against prenatal sex selection and the practices of
female foeticide, female infanticide, child marriage, child abuse and child
prostitution etc. Removal of discrimination in the treatment of the girl child
within the family and outside and projection of a positive image of the girl
child will be actively fostered. There will be special emphasis on the needs of
the girl child and earmarking of substantial investments in the areas relating
to food and nutrition, health and education, and in vocational education. In
implementing programmes for eliminating child labour, there will be a special
focus on girl children.
Mass Media:
Media will be used to portray images consistent with human dignity of girls and
women. The Policy will specifically strive to remove demeaning, degrading and
negative conventional stereotypical images of women and violence against women.
Private sector partners and media networks will be involved at all levels to
ensure equal access for women particularly in the area of information and
communication technologies. The media would be encouraged to develop codes of
conduct, professional guidelines and other self regulatory mechanisms to remove
gender stereotypes and promote balanced portrayals of women and men.
Operational Strategies:
Institutional
Mechanisms: National and State Resource Centres on women will be established
with mandates for collection and dissemination of information, undertaking
research work, conducting surveys, implementing training and awareness generation
programmes, etc. These Centers will link up with Women’s Studies Centres and
other research and academic institutions through suitable information
networking systems.While institutions at the district level will be
strengthened, at the grass-roots, women will be helped by Government through
its programmes to organize and strengthen into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) at the
Anganwadi/Village/Town level.
The women’s
groups will be helped to institutionalize themselves into registered societies
and to federate at the Panchyat/Municipal level. These societies will bring
about synergistic implementation of all the social and economic development
programmes by drawing resources made available through Government and
Non-Government channels, including banks and financial institutions and by
establishing a close Interface with the Panchayats/ Municipalities.
Resource
Management:
a.
Assessment of
benefits flowing to women and resource allocation to the programmes relating to
them through an exercise of gender budgeting. Appropriate changes in policies
will be made to optimize benefits to women under these schemes;
b.
Adequate
resource allocation to develop and promote the policy outlined earlier based on
(a) above by concerned Departments.
c.
Developing
synergy between personnel of Health, Rural Development, Education and Women
& Child Development Department at field level and other village level
functionaries’
d.
Meeting
credit needs by banks and financial credit institutions through suitable policy
initiatives and development of new institutions in coordination with the
Department of Women & Child Development.
Women’s
Component Plan: The strategy of Women’s Component Plan adopted in the Ninth
Plan of ensuring that not less than 30% of benefits/funds flow to women from
all Ministries and Departments will be implemented effectively so that the
needs and interests of women and girls are addressed by all concerned sectors.
The Department of Women and Child Development being the nodal Ministry will
monitor and review the progress of the implementation of the Component Plan
from time to time, in terms of both quality and quantity in collaboration with
the Planning Commission.
Legislation
a.
Strict
enforcement of all relevant legal provisions and speedy redressal of grievances
will be ensured, with a special focus on violence and gender related
atrocities.
b.
Measures to
prevent and punish sexual harassment at the place of work, protection for women
workers in the organized/ unorganized sector and strict enforcement of relevant
laws such as Equal Remuneration Act and Minimum Wages Act will be undertaken,
c.
Crimes
against women, their incidence, prevention, investigation, detection and
prosecution will be regularly reviewed at all Crime Review fora and Conferences
at the Central, State and District levels. Recognised, local, voluntary
organizations will be authorized to lodge Complaints and facilitate
registration, investigations and legal proceedings related to violence and
atrocities against girls and women.
d.
Women’s Cells
in Police Stations, Encourage Women Police Stations Family Courts, Mahila
Courts, Counselling Centers, Legal Aid Centers and Nyaya Panchayats will be
strengthened and expanded to eliminate violence and atrocities against women.
e.
Widespread
dissemination of information on all aspects of legal rights, human rights and
other entitlements of women, through specially designed legal literacy
programmes and rights information programmes will be done.
Gender
Sensitization:
a.
Promoting
societal awareness to gender issues and women’s human rights.
b.
Review of
curriculum and educational materials to include gender education and human
rights issues
c.
Removal of
all references derogatory to the dignity of women from all public documents and
legal instruments.
d.
Use of
different forms of mass media to communicate social messages relating to
women’s equality and empowerment.
Partnership
with the voluntary sector organizations: The involvement of voluntary
organizations, associations, federations, trade unions, non-governmental
organizations, women’s organizations, as well as institutions dealing with
education, training and research will be ensured in the formulation,
implementation, monitoring and review of all policies and programmes affecting
women. Towards this end, they will be provided with appropriate support related
to resources and capacity building and facilitated to participate actively in
the process of the empowerment of women.
Women
Reservation Bill: Reservation for women at each level of legislative
decision-making, starting with the Lok Sabha, down to state and local
legislatures.If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats
would be reserved for women in national, state, or local governments.In
continuation of the existing provisions already mandating reservations for
scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, one-third of such SC and ST candidates
must be women. Political pundits, sociologists, political scientists, feminists
and historians and almost everybody has said that if the bill becomes an act
then it will be the biggest socio-political news since independence.
The central government cleared the Bill on February 25, 2010. For such a bill to pass, the Constitution has laid out an elaborate procedure. So, even if the Rajya Sabha passes the bill its real impact will be felt only when it passes through the Lok Sabha.On March 8, it's difficult to say how the government will manage order in the Upper House so that members favouring the bill can vote without disruption or chaos created by opposing members.