Women Empowerment & India

21st century!! Quite a familiar word Women Empowerment. Nowadays we could find women
stepping out and giving a hand to each profession. Let it be a technical hand or a management
one or something else. Days are gone when only physical competency was taken into concern.
Today women are rated on an equal footing with the men when performance is concerned. Lets
not be specific but women are finding their way in almost all fields such as in IT firm like TCS
& others, banking Institutions, jobs in manufacturing sector, agriculture and the most favored
once - BPOs. Still I think there are some disabilities which exist in this so called modernized
phase of the human civilization. Well deal with those later and for the time being lets start with
the positives & the history behind the ideology of woman empowerment.

Lets move in the early 19th century and well find women strangling behind the doors and
making their way out of the major challenges like the practice of sati, the purdah system and
in the worst case reaching to the religious gurus or priests for some remedy who would instead
fool them with some conservative myths and exploit them physically. It was to the credit of
personalities like Raja Rammohan Roy who reformed the life of the masses to a certain extent.
Later on it was the Gandhian Strategy which came into the scene and renovated the minds of the
Indian masses which then began to feel that the role of women in the society and the anti
imperialistic struggle is essential. This led to the mass involvement of women in the national
struggle and hence in the later decades we found many women like Kasturba and Miraben
worked hand in hand with personalities like Annie Besant and presented a fair play in the Indian
National movement. It was then we could also find out that Sarojini Naidu was made the
president of the Indian National Congress in the 1920s.

Now, let us figure out a basic idea about woman empowerment which is mostly misinterpreted in
todays scenario. To truly understand what women empowerment is, there needs to be a sea-
change in the mind-set of the people in the country. Not just the women themselves, but the men
have to wake up to a world that is moving towards equality and equity. It is better that this is
embraced earlier rather than later, for our own good.

Let me make it clear that women empowerment is mainly participation and not segregation.
Today we could find out that whenever any discrimination against women is being done at public
places or at work; we would find out that the government creates a separate space for women
with some special entitlements. This is basic reason behind the participation of women in some
limited fields like the banking sector and at most the IT firms. Again it is also creating a social
gap which may have diverging consequences. But in reality woman empowerment does not
evolves confinement of women but equal participation in all fields which may lead to a much
better India having a bulk of human resource in every sectors of the economy.

Looking at the current scenario, it is very sad to see the drastic condition as we hear of many
molestation & rape cases, assault in public, etc in the every next hour. How could we forget the
16th December night when a medical student was brutally gang raped in a bus in Delhi. And a
more recent one when a women police constable was gang raped by a group of Maoists. So there
a big question, are the women really empowered in India?

Ill agree that government has taken various steps but I think those are not yet up to the mark and
needs to be more comprehensive. A good work was done by the government appointing the
Justice Verma Committee but unfortunately most of the recommendations of the committee were
not approved. Some of the reformatory measures & schemes taken by union government are
listed below as follow:

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which is a program providing

Anganwadi (crche) services, health & nutritional supplements and pre and post-natal
care for pregnant and lactating mothers.
Kishori Balika Yojana (scheme for adolescent girls) providing training to girls
belonging to BPL category for their overall development.
Again, the Self Help Groups (SHGs) are also playing a very good role in empowering
rural women by enabling micro financing in rural areas.
The recent Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme is also going to play a big role for
those women involved in agriculture.
The union government played a key role by circulating emergency helpline numbers for
immediate escort of an individual.

Some negative aspect of the entire story has been that governments regulations are not so
stringent and the entire procedure of the immediate action to be taken by the victims is not hassle
free. Many people dont know the next point of action to be taken and hence justice is not
ensured to them and in the worst case they feel like committing suicide as the only option left.
There is no authority to take care of the immediate redressal of the grievances of the masses.
Government formulates or streamlines a system only after some mishap occurs. Is it not they feel
it obligatory while formulating a particular policy?

Again gender inequality is a major cause of concern for the future prospect of Indian economy.
We mainly find out numerous cases of Female Foeticide in rural areas which is leading to the
declining sex ratio.

I think Information Technology (I.T) along with Telecommunication could play a big role
in enhancing the security systems by providing automation. Closed circuit TV (CCTV) must be
more comprehensive in suspected areas.

Grievance redressal mechanism can be streamlined using I.T and strict rules to be formulated
for its compliance.

Cases of Female Foeticide can be reduced in rural areas by carrying many social awareness
campaigns. A woman is considered a financial obligation, as money spent on bringing her up,
educating her, marrying her will not be repaid as she will go to her husbands house after
marriage, and the benefits of all that investment shall go to his family. This entire concept can
be only dismantled by renovating the mind of the rural people through motivational and
inspirational campaigns.

In the simplest of words it is basically the creation of an environment where women can make
independent decisions on their personal development as well as shine as equals in society.
Women want to be treated as equals so much so that if a woman rises to the top of her field it
should be a commonplace occurrence that draws nothing more than a raised eyebrow at the
gender. This can only happen if there is a channelized route for the empowerment of women.
Thus it is no real surprise that women empowerment in India is a hotly discussed topic with no
real solution looming in the horizon except to doubly redouble our efforts and continue to target
the sources of all the violence and ill-will towards women.

The time needs the serious concern of the legislatures coupled with commitments of the
bureaucrats and the accountability of the Union government along with the common people.
With this I end up with the same question 21st century!! Are woman really empowered?

Name RAJIV SHAW

Purely Home made with a rare blend of The Hindu & Kurukshetra Magazine (August, 2013).