Vinod Bala Sharma
God has created men and women; men as men and women as women with their own physiology, but above all, they are all humans and all humans have equal rights. Who amongst the humans wouldn’t aspire to live a life in which all their legitimate rights are secured? Right to life, liberty, security, education, thought, belief, religion, expression, home, correspondence, peaceful enjoyment of one’s property, marriage, starting a family, respect for family life, respect to private life, assembly and association, participation in free elections, fair trial, no punishment without law, protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms are ideally sought for in a civilized society. Besides, freedom from torture, inhuman degrading treatment, slavery, forced labour and death penalty are particularly aspired for. To secure these fundamental rights which confer a dignified, honourable and satisfying livelihood upon men and women, good education and remunerative jobs besides political power are the ideal tools.
Good education imparts upon the people the ability to know and discriminate between the good and the bad and also enables the educated to shun the bad thoughts, objects and actions and persist with the good. Such education doesn’t entail reading, writing, and arithmetic skills only, but also includes acquisition of moral and health education, scientific temper, physical and mental strength, skills for respectable earning, dignity of labour and management of human resources, other natural resources, and time. Acquisition of this capability leads to the real empowerment. People who are not empowered tend to lack control over what they do. They allow others to make decisions for them—whether spouse, partner, children, managers or colleagues. They often lack confidence in themselves and their decisions, and therefore rely on others.
Studies show that even in the modern times women are on the outside of the decision-making process although women’s empowerment is the most crucial point to be noted for the overall development of a country. This puts a strong emphasis on participation in political structures and formal decision-making and, in the economic sphere, on the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision-making. Empowerment is the process that creates power in individuals over their own lives, society, and in their communities. People are empowered if they have an access to opportunities without any limitations or restrictions in education, profession and in their way of life.
Economic empowerment increases women’s agency, access to formal Government programs, mobility outside the home, economical independence, and purchasing power. Policy makers are suggested to support job training to aid in entrance in the formal markets. More formal education opportunities for women would allow for higher bargaining power in the home. They would have more access to higher wages outside the home; and as a result, make it easier for women to get a job in the market.
Strengthening women’s access to property inheritance and land would allow them better means of asset accumulation, capital, and bargaining power to address gender inequalities.
Another popular methodology for women’s economic empowerment also includes microcredit. India is moving in that direction. Microfinance institutions aim to empower women in their community by giving them access to loans that have low interest rates without the requirement of collateral. Such a support empowers the women to be entrepreneurs. However, microcredit alone may not guarantee women have control over the way the loan is used. Microfinance institutions don’t address cultural barriers that allow men to still control household finances.
Political empowerment supports creating policies that would best support gender equality and agency for women in both the public and private spheres. Many believe that bargaining power and agency in the household must be achieved before one can move onto broader political participation.
Digital skills can facilitate women’s engagement with local Government and increase their decision-making power in their communities. The Women-government project in India, for instance, has helped women improve their understanding of and communication with local government via ICTs. The project worked with women’s collectives to establish women-run, internet-connected community information centres to facilitate applications for Government assistance (including welfare and entitlements), which in turn improved linkages between the collectives, local authorities and public institutions.
In India, the chauvinist attitude of society in some parts of the country, politicization of crimes and occasional poor implementation of gender laws has put the country to shame many a times. Abuse of girl child, child labor, trafficking, child marriage, sexual harassment, etc. are still observed. For the protection of women against sexual harassment and violence, there is therefore an urgent need for increased measures in the country to vigorously pursue implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). There is a greater need for social awakening and a structured social-legal action against these with better training and orientation of police. Training related to self defense is also very much important for empowerment of girls and women.
The growing access of the web in the late 20th century has allowed women to empower themselves by using various tools on the Internet. With the introduction of the World Wide Web, women have begun to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for online activism. Through online activism, women are able to empower themselves by organizing campaigns and voicing their opinions for equality rights without feeling oppressed by members of society.
In recent years, blogging has also become a powerful tool for the educational empowerment of women. By reading others’ experiences, patients can better educate themselves and apply strategies that their fellow bloggers suggest.
With the easy accessibility and affordability of e-learning (electronic learning), women can now study from the comfort of their homes. By empowering themselves educationally through new technologies like e-learning, women are also learning new skills that will come in handy in today’s advancing globalized world. Oftentimes, the internet is very useful as source of empowerment for women through its creation, dispersion, and utilization of hashtags on social media.
Good education increases women’s self-confidence and also enables them to find better jobs and they can work shoulder to shoulder with men. They engage in public debate and make demands on government for health care, social security and other entitlements. In particular, education empowers women to make choices that improve their children’s health, their well-being, and chances of acquiring survival skills.
Discussing education in the traditional Indian context at a spiritual and moralistic plank, an article in the kamakoti.org educates us with a latent appeal to reorient and redirect our mindset by saying that instead of working for our selfish ends, we ought to be engaged in such work as would bring benefits to the world as well as to our inward life. We must serve others, especially the poor with our body and circumambulate the Lord and prostrate ourselves before Him to earn merit. It is bad vasana (addiction) that drags us again and again into wrong-doing. When asked how to break a bad habit, almost everyone prescribes usage of will power, the other name for which is self control or self discipline. Moral education and Yoga are believed by many scholars to be the primary steps that build the capacity of a person for self control. Self control can sanitize the society of its various sins and disables the people with negative mindset, material and money to exploit and stop his or her progress on the path of a chosen goal. True personal empowerment requires one to set meaningful goals to identify what is wanted from life, and then take action to achieve those goals.
In the Indian tradition, Savitri can be cited as a perfect example of empowered womanhood. In an extremely tense discourse/test even for an extraordinary person, on the threshold between life and death of her beloved husband Satyawan, the courageous, highly learned, chaste and virtuous Savitri ends her speech to the God of Death Yama Raj by firmly maintaining, “Fate’s law may change, but not my spirit’s will.” And she doesn’t allow the Sun to rise till the God of Death feels helpless before her and compelled to surrender the soul of Satyawan to keep the honour of his own ‘blessing’ to Savitri. The soul returns and Satyawan returns to life with the body; the God of Death defeated!
(The author is former Director of Agriculture)
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