Empowerment

It is largely held that women all over the world have been made to suffer discrimination and deprivation of variouskinds since the beginning of time, that they have all along been denied even such basic rights as access to literacy and property. This global concern has steadily grown through the past few decades and has resulted in efforts to bring women into the mainstream of life, mainly through socio-economic activities aimed at empowering them and thus restoring equality between the sexes. Though the concept of women’s empowerment, as it is now understood, and the movement to achieve it are fairly recent Western phenomena, India has not escaped their influence. Women’s empowerment was one of the primary objectives of the Ninth Five Year Plan, and the Government of India even declared the year 2001 ‘Women’s Empowerment Year’. Backed by the government, policy planners and implementers are now concentrating on the task of removing gender disparities. The Tenth Five Year Plan reflects this endeavour in a big way. The challenge of making education and legal and property rights accessible to women is being met, and steps are being taken to ensure their financial security. Besides these fundamental rights, reservation of jobs and seats for women in Parliament, Legislative Assemblies and gram panchayats have become the burning issues of the day.

The Indian Woman: Decline in Her Status

In ancient India, however, woman was never an object of pity - neglected, weak and needing help. The pages of our cultural history are aglow with ideals like the scholarly Gargi and Maitreyi, the chaste Sita and Savitri, the devoted Parvati and that paragon of mothers, Madalasa. Far from being treated as a ‘commodity’, woman enjoyed the highest respect in society - that accorded to a ‘mother’. As a matter of fact, she was looked upon as the veritable representation of Shakti, the source of all power, while today we are reduced to talking about empowering her. How strange! Even medieval Indian history is full of stories of heroic and learned women, not to speak of women saints. The decline of Indian women’s social status began with the arrival of foreign invaders. The purdah system that came into being then was devised with the best of intentions, that of keeping them from vulgar gaze. But alas, the road to hell is paved with good intentions! Stopped from stepping out of their houses, women had to go without education - and that gave birth to disparity. Illiterate and uneducated, women gradually came to be looked down upon by men. So great was their suffering that they began to believe that they were born to suffer. And things came to such a sorry pass that when a daughter was born the parents grieved! This was the position of women in nineteenth-century India.

The Indian Woman: Her Rise

At a time when some social reformers were still thinking of reintroducing education for women, Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated the greatness of women and thus sowed the seeds of women’s empowerment. He worshipped God as Shakti, accepted a woman as his guru, devotedly served his mother until her last day and worshipped his own wife as the Mother Goddess. Not only that, he left her behind to complete his mission of liberating humanity from bondage of every kind. Where else will we find a better example of women’s empowerment? The relationship that existed between Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi was ideal in all respects. But it also shows that gender disparities are well and truly removed only when both men and women are ‘educated’ in the real sense of the word, when both have a sound understanding of inter-human relationships, and when both strive for spiritual unfoldment. Women’s empowerment aims at equal partnership and joint responsibility, with family duties distributed equally between man and wife. However, for the experiment to be successful, at least in the Indian context, one more vital element needs to be kept in focus: the entire experiment should be based on an awareness of the culture and spiritual values of the land. And mothers being the architects of their children’s lives, their education has to be given priority. Women are teachers as well as mothers. As the proverb goes, ‘If you educate a man, you educate only one person; but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole family.’ This was just the conclusion Swami Vivekananda came to after his travels in the West. There he saw women educated and free, and he dreamed of bringing education to the women of India. But his idea of women’s education was slightly different from the ‘modern’ approach that we see today. Practical that he was, India’s spiritual traditions formed the basis of his scheme of education. It was his firm belief that any programme of education that ignored national ideals was doomed to failure. Said he: ‘Ideal characters must always be presented before the view of the girls to imbue them with a devotion to lofty principles of selflessness. The noble examples of Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Lilavati, Khana, and Mira should be brought home to their minds, and they should be inspired to mould their own lives in the light of these.’ Obviously, Swamiji’s feet were firmly planted on the cultural soil of India.

Ramakrishna Mission in Women’s Welfare

Women really do not need to be empowered by men. In one of Swami Vivekananda’s conversations we come across his strong views on the issue. He did not think it was possible for men to solve women’s problems. Their duty lay in providing education and opportunity to women, and once that was done women would automatically become capable of looking after themselves. This has been the Ramakrishna Mission’s basic attitude to women’s welfare and the philosophy underlying all its activities in this sphere. Let us now look at the work done by Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Morabadi, Ranchi, one of the Mission’s model institutions, which has, of late, been giving more attention to gender sensitization in order to fight rural poverty. The centre was started in 1927 and for the first four decades of its existence confined itself to some basic public-welfare work on a humble scale. But severe spells of drought in the 1960s galvanized its monks, who, not remaining contented with relief work, engaged themselves in serious attempts at evolving a lasting solution to the problem. It became clear to them that unless the resource-poor farmers of the area were empowered with need-based technology supported by group action, they would never be able to counter similar adverse conditions. It was by way of fulfilling this requirement that Divyayan (‘the divine way’), an integrated rural development institute, was established in 1969. In this story, we shall see how Divyayan’s integrated approach has been central to its success in securing economic security and self-respect for the weaker sections of society, how the formation of its women’s self-help groups, with their knowledge, effort and skills, have been basic to strengthening the wider community.

Education among Women

In the villages the monks observed that a large number of children, especially girls, were compelled by circumstances to remain at home to help their parents, either with domestic chores or out in the fields. In order that such children may avail themselves of basic education, the Ashrama started a chain of night schools and nutrition centers with the help of ex-trainees of Divyayan. On completion of their course at the night school the girls were encouraged to join regular schools. Today the centre runs 70 such rural night schools. The year 2000 brought government recognition. The National Institute of Open Schooling accredited the Ashrama for its work in providing Open Basic Education(classes 1 to 8), Academic Education (secondary and senior secondary levels) andVocational Education (secondary and higher secondary levels). By this time the centre was already running study centres and conducting examinations for students of classes 1 to 8 in the candidates’ own villages. Till date, 333 students have benefited from these schools, with 500 more due to appear for the class 8 examination this year. Numbers aside, it is the penetration of the Ashrama’s educational programmes that is noteworthy. A six-year-old girl who was obliged to be with her jailed mother took the class 3 examination in the jail itself - and passed! - thanks to the programme’s commitment. The Sarvashiksha Abhiyan (‘mass education drive’) is another important project. The Ashrama now has 340 Sarvashiksha centres spread over three blocks of Ranchi district. It is their aim to ensure that no girl between ages 6 and 14 remains illiterate.

Capacity Building for Women

The Ashrama had launched its rural development programmes at a time when basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and health care, not to speak of education, were difficult of access to people of the surrounding areas. The condition of women was appalling, as they were quite neglected. Ideas like providing women opportunities for skill transformation, and such other services - indispensible necessities in the development process of a community - were still undreamt of. Though the centre saw that the quality of life of the womenfolk needed to be improved on a priority basis, it was difficult to address the problem forthwith. Since it had adopted an agriculture-oriented development approach, emphasis was placed on disseminating technology mostly among the menfolk. However, it soon made up for lost time. Sometime in 1998, I visited Obar village to have an interaction with the farmers. That day a few young women met me and expressed their grievances. Why were all the activities in the villages being done only for men? Women wanted something to be done for them too - so that they too could do something for the community in turn! Impressed by their enthusiasm and eagerness, I agreed to do something to mobilize the women through formation of self-help groups. In course of time, arrangements were also made to train womenfolk in bee-keeping, incense-stick making, towel weaving, tailoring, mushroom cultivation, poultry-farming and floriculture.

Self-Help Groups (SHG)

In 2001, the Swashakti Project, assisted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank through the Jharkhand Women’s Development Society and later through the Project for Formation of Self-Help Groups assisted by the Council for Advancement of People's Action in Rural Technology (CAPART), was launched. It was committed to empowering women in the area adopted by the Ashrama. SHGs were formed to strengthen entrepreneurial skills among marginalized women and empower them in order to sustain group ventures for micro enterprises. The idea was to eventually improve their economic and social status. Under this plan, like-minded women living below the poverty line come together to discuss their common problems and try to solve them by forming an SHG. Despite their low-income/low-saving capacity, they make voluntary contributions to a common fund on a regular basis. This has enabled them to free themselves from dependence on and exploitation by private finance agencies; for them, life in perpetual debt is over. Not only that, these groups now use their pooled resources to make small interest-bearing loans to their members to meet their emergent needs, or to other income-generating programmes. Linkages are also set up with banks to give loans to SHGs in certain multiples at market interest rates. All this demands a good deal of training (called ‘capacity building’) for members. Between January and September 2002, 691 members in 24 batches were trained by the Ashrama in leadership, conduct of group proceedings, panchayati raj, record-keeping and bookkeeping. The number of these SHGs has now reached 285.

The Impact of SHGs

More than helping develop micro-saving, micro-credit and micro-enterprise habits, the SHG methodology has proved to be a holistic approach. Its success has brought about tremendous change in women’s outlook at grass-roots level. After undergoing the above-described training in capacity building, their awareness of social issues has increased, they have grown in self-confidence and decision-making ability, and they are also conscious of their social responsibilities. In just five years these women, mostly tribals, have outgrown their earlier attitudes. They are now bold enough to speak for themselves and to place their rightful demands before the concerned government officials. They are conscious of their strength and dignity. In short, they are now a voice to reckon with. Here is the proof. In a recent interactive meeting, an SHG member revealed: ‘Before joining the group we used to feel very lonely and distressed, but now we are many and united. We can rely on the group in times of emotional or financial crises. It steps in like a family to help us out. My husband used to beat me after consuming alcohol. One day I told him I would disclose it to our group. He has given up drinking since then and behaves well with me now. We have gained self-dignity within the family as well as in society.’

Promotion of Self-reliance

After their course in capacity building, SHG members are given income-generation training in various skills. Different SHGs are engaged in different activities. As of now, 70 groups are engaged in diverse self-reliance projects like incense-stick rolling (5), pisciculture (7), mushroom cultivation (11), cattle breeding (14), poultry and dairy farming (8), vermi-compost making (8), soap making (3), weaving (3), tailoring (3), seed multiplication (2) and food processing (6). The Ashrama has plans for teaching some more skills in the near future. These include cane-work, health work, integrated pest management, rice milling, spice grinding, lac production and silk production.

Achievements/Highlights

• Incense-stick rolling: A 10-member SHG that began as a small production unit overcame marketing problems by manufacturing according to demand and has itself become a training centre now. • Pisciculture: Divyayan has constructed over 20 tanks in its adopted villages in order to introduce fish breeding based on scientifically proven techniques. The venture has been so problem-free and lucrative that four SHGs have even taken tanks on lease from the government. • Poultry farming: What began on an individual basis has now grown into a common phenomenon. Four SHGs, each member of the groups owning 10 birds of the special Divyayan Red breed, have earned a net profit of Rs 20,295. • Food processing: An abundance of fruits and vegetables in Jharkhand encourages members of Mahila Swayam Sahayata Samuh to receive training in horticultural food processing. They have now started producing a variety of pickles, sauces and jellies. • Weaving: On passing a six-week intensive course at Divyayan, 15 women linked up with Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) and obtained Rs 25,000 as running capital for opening a weaving centre. District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Ranchi, sanctioned Rs 3,77,400 towards installation of looms and a workshed. • Non-conventional-energy appliance repairing: A recent training programme for repairing solar lanterns, driers and cookers drew enthusiastic response.

SHGs in Health Care

The activities of the SHGs are not restricted to the economic aspect of welfare. Regular health camps are organized exclusively for women where treatment and medicines are given free of charge. The Ashrama has also formed village health committees and trained health workers to conduct health programmes for tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy control. A six-month accupressure course was organized at Divyayan, as a result of which 146 girls received training in this science. Village women are quite taken with this novel, low-cost therapy.

The Basis of Empowerment

Real empowerment of women, however, lies in helping them unfold the spiritual aspect of their personality, build up their character and manifest their purity and motherhood. It is these that make up the character of the ideal Indian woman; earning capacity and public status are secondary. All women are parts of the same infinite divine Power, and hence divine. Fully realizing the importance and urgency of the uplift of women, if we are to save our cultural traditions and spiritual values and counter the negative trends that are now affecting our body politic, Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Morabadi, Ranchi, has been putting in much effort to promote spiritual values in rural women’s lives. It conducts regular conventions for them to make them aware of their true power. SHGs too organize cultural and value-orientation programmes and other meetings on their own for their all-round development. Recently, one such conference was attended by 1700 members. Empowerment is complete only when a given community takes full control of its own development and the implementing agency, much like a catalytic agent, remains in the background after initiating the process of change. This is exactly what the Ashrama does: once the machinery it has set up is in working order, it hands over the management of affairs to the grass-root organization or SHG, and itself remains in the background to provide motivation and guidance from time to time. As Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Our duty is to put the chemicals together, the crystallisation will come through God's laws. Let us put ideas into their heads, and they will do the rest.’

Women Empowerment : A Challenge of 21 st Century Concept Paper
For centuries women were not treated equal to men in many ways. They were not allowed to own property, they did not have a Share in the property of their parents, they had no voting rights, they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so on. Now that we have come out of those dark days of oppression of women there is a need for strong movement to fight for the rights of women and to ensure that they get all the rights which men have or in other words a movement for the Empowerment of Women. The present seminar has been planned with a view to discuss the various issues related to the Empowerment of Women and to suggest measures for achieving this end. Empowerment –Conceptual Framework
The origins of the concept of empowerment go back to the civil rights movement in the USA in the 1960. It has since then been interpreted differently and filled with new meanings and is today used in such different sectors as business, social work, development discourse and by advocates of very different political agendas. The different definitions of empowerment range between defining it as a largely individual process of taking control of and responsibility for one’s life and situation, and defining it as a political process of granting human rights and social justice to disadvantaged groups of people. At the former end of the continuum, where empowerment is defined largely as an individual process, empowerment can be used in the conservative political rhetoric of freeing the government of responsibility for injustices and for granting social security. Instead, the argument makes individuals and communities responsible for their own social security and welfare, without providing the necessary support and resources.
The empowerment of women is located within the discourse and agenda of gender equality and is increasingly being taken in the agendas of international development organizations, perhaps more as a means to achieve gender equality than as an end in itself.
At the Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1993 and the International Conference on Population and
Development in Cairo 1994 Governments committed themselves to the empowerment of women. This commitment was operationalised and formulated into a clear action plan at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995 where Governments committed themselves to the “empowerment and advancement of women, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, thus contributing to the moral, ethical, spiritual and intellectual needs of women and men, individually or in community with others and thereby guaranteeing them the possibility of realizing their full potential in society and shaping their lives in accordance with their own aspirations.” Different Levels of Empowerment
In line with most theorists on empowerment the one has to view empowerment as taking place on different levels and that change on all levels is necessary if the empowerment of women is really to occur.
We have to relate empowerment at three levels: empowerment on the individual, group, and societal/ community- level and the interaction between these. The individual level deals with individual women’s abilities to take control over their lives, their perceptions about their own value and abilities, their abilities to identify a goal and work towards this goal. The group level deals with the collective action and sense of agency that woman experience together, in a group.
The societal level deals with the permissiveness of the political and social climate, the societal norms and the public discourse on what is possible and impossible for women to do, how women should behave etc.
The different levels are seen as interconnected and mutually reinforcing, e.g. when empowerment on individual level occurs, this will have effect on the group and societal level. Women who are empowered on an individual level will most likely go on and affect the other levels. Empowerment on a group level e.g. women organizing around a particular need is likely to have effect on the individual empowerment of the women in the form of increased self esteem and sense of agency.
Historical Background of Women Empowerment in India
The status of Women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millenium. In early Vedic period Women enjoyed equal status with men. Rigved & upnishads mention several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi & Maitrey. However later the status of women began to deteriorate approximately from 500 B.C., the situation worsened with invasion of Mughals and later on by European invaders. Some reformatory movements by Guru Nanak, Jainism, Rajaram mohan Rai, Ishwarchandra
Vidya Sagar, Pandita Rama Bai and others did give some relief. It is not that Britishers didn’t do any thing for improving the condition of women. Some laws were enacted such an “Abolition of practice of
Sati”, Widow Remarriage Act 1856 etc. The real change came after independence. Constitution of India guarantees equality to women
(Article 14). There are other articles too which ensure rights of women e.g. no discrimination by the state
[article15(1)] equality of opportunity (Article16) etc. Feminist activism picked up momentum in India during later 1970’s. Later on Many groups and NGO’s have been working for the Empowerment of women. We are proud that in India Women got voting right much before USA and some other European countries. Steps Undertaken in India for Women Empowerment
The Constitution Framers were very much Conscious of the problem of women empowerment hence they ensured that the Principle of Gender Equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its
Preamble, Fundamental duties and Directive Principles. The various articles mentioned in the earlier paragraph are meant for ensuring gender equality. Moreover the Constitution also empowers the states to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. The real impetus for this movement was gained when under the Priministership of Mrs. Indira
Gandhi, a scheme known as Indira Mahila Yojana was launched, UNDP also incorporated issues of women upliftment as Primary objective. Various Schemes were later on launched for the empowerment of women such as Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, Mahila Samridhi Yojana, Self help groups at Panchayat level and many more. The establishment of National Women’s Commission and State Women’s Commissions were important milestones in the direction of Women Empowerment in India. The National Policy for the Empowerment of women (2001) was an important step taken by the
Government of the time for accelerating the pace of women empowerment. The policy was aimed at ensuring women empowerment through positive economic and social policies for the full development of women. So that they could realize their full potential. The policy assured equal access to women to health care, quality education, participation and decision making in Social, Political and Economical life of the nation. The National Policy also aims at Strengthening legal system for eliminating discrimination against Women. It also visualizes strengthening partnership with Civil Society, particularly Women’s organizations. States have also taken various measures for empowerment of women.
Why is there still a Need For Women Empowerment ?
Inspite of the various measures taken up by the government after Independence and even during
British rule the Women haven’t been fully empowered. We may be proud of women in India occupying highest offices of President, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Leader of the Opposition or women like
Ms. Chandra Kochar occupying highest positions in the Corporate Sector but the fact remains that we still witness dowry deaths, domestic violence and exploitation of women. The female foeticide is not an uncommon phenomenon. The male female ratio though improved over last few years is still far from satisfactory. It is 940 women per 1000 men for India in some states it is as much lower as 877. These are the states where female foeticide is maximum. The female literacy rate is also lower than the male literacy rate. The ground reality is deprivation, degration and exploitation of women specially women from rural areas and those belonging to deprived sectors of the society. The Urban elite class women have no doubt been benifitted by the efforts of women empowerment. Dr. Dashrath Bhuyan in his article titled
“Empowerment of Indian Women : A challenge of 21 st century” writes “Women are being brutalized,
Commodified, materialized and subjected to inhuman exploitation and discrimination” Inspite of reservation being granted to women in Panchayat elections after 73 rd and 74 th Constitution amendment, in many Panchayats the male Chavinism does not allow them to function independently. Globalization
Globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. However, from the micro-level studies that were commissioned by the Department of Women & Child Development, it is evident that there is a need for re-framing policies for access to employment and quality of employment. Benefits of the growing global economy have been unevenly distributed leading to wider economic disparities, the feminization of poverty, increased gender inequality through often deteriorating working conditions and unsafe working environment especially in the informal economy and rural areas. Strategies will be designed to enhance the capacity of women and empower them to meet the negative social and economic impacts, which may flow from the globalization process.
Social Empowerment of Women
Under the social empowerment of women steps needs to be taken to improve the health status of women, reduce maternal mortality especially in the areas which do not have good medical facilities. A programme for checking the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like
HIV / AIDS and infections / communicable diseases like T.B. need to be launched. Women face high risk of malnutrition hence focussed attention would have to be given to meet the nutritional needs of women at all stages of their life cycle. The problem in the country is serious about the women belonging to disadvantaged groups. They are the most exploited lot. The Social activist should keep a vigile on the atrocities committed on women belonging to weaker sections and help them to fight the legal battle for obtaining justice. Schemes need to be introduced for helping women who are victims of marital violence, who are deserted and those engaged in sex professions. Awareness programmes need to be organised for creating awareness among women especially belonging to weaker sections about their rights. Government has to be vigilant for ensuring that there is no discrimination against the girl child and her rights are protected. The social stigma like child marriage. Female foeticide, child abuse and child prostitution must be eradicated immediately.
Education and Women Empowerment Education is a powerful tool of social transformation. Hence, education for Women has to be paid special attention. Greater access for women to education must be ensured in the educational system. Gender sensitivity must be developed. A watch has to be kept on drop out rate of girls and corrective measures should be taken to check the drop out rates. Role of NGO’s in Women Empowerment
Governmental Organizations are formal agencies working for the empowerment of women. But this work requires multidimensional approach and hence a large number of voluntary organizations / NGO’s have gained increased attention in the field from grass – root level to national & international level. Their role is so impressive because they work with missionary zeal and commitment. The working style of NGO’s is open, transparent and personal.
So, they are more effective in this direction. They organize seminars, conferences and workshops for the awakening of the masses. Their mass appeal – style contributes to a better understanding of women’s rights and of the means to ensures the enjoyment of those rights and the elimination of discrimination. They prepare urban and rural uneducated women for self – employment, which is vital for the economic empowerment of the women. In short, all these programs and functions of NGO’s contribute towards the realization of sustainable community development and hence women empowerment.
Role of International Agencies : for Women Empowerment
Promotion of equality between women & men and the empowerment of women is central to the work of United Nations. The UN actively promotes women’s human rights and works to eradicate, discourage of violence against women, including in armed conflict and through trafficking. There are various UN agencies working for the empowerment of women like The
Commission on the Status of women, The Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women, The Division for the advancement of women, The United Nations Development
Fund for women, and recently, the UN Women association is formed which co-ordinates the activities of all the former UN agencies. These international agencies work to ensure that women have a real voice in all governance institutions, from the judiciary to the civil service, as well as in the private sector and civil society. So they can participate equally with men in public dialogue and decision- making and influence the decisions that will determine the future of their families and countries.
Conclusion
The Empowerment of women has become one of the most important Concerns of 21 st century not only at national level but also at the international level. Efforts by the Govt. are on to ensure Gender equality but Government initiatives alone would not be sufficient to achieve this goal. Society must take initiative to create a climate in which there is no gender discrimination and Women have full opportunities of Self decision making and participating in the Social,
Political and Economic life of the Country with a sense of equality. Then only the Vedic verse
;= ukjh iwT;Urs jeUr s r= n sork (Wherever Women is respected, God resides there) would come true. Sub Themes for The Seminar
1. Concept of women empowerment
2. Historical & Sociological dimensions of the issue of Women Empowerment
3. Role of education in Women Empowerment
4. Need for Women Empowerment in modern context
5. Measures for ensuring women empowerment
6. Hurdles in achieving women empowermen