Women empowerment

Ram Rattan Sharma
Women empowerment as a concept was introduced at the third International women’s conference at Nairobi in 1985. The conference defined ‘Women empowerment as a redistribution of social power and control of resources in favour of women’. In our country the discriminatory practices in the form of differential socialization of boys and girls very often deny this access to girls.  Such discrimination is practised knowingly or unknowingly even by educated parents because of a complex pattern of biased and belief systems existing in the society. Empowering women as a process demand a life cycle approach. It has different dimensions at different levels. It is long drawn conscious and continuous process comprising enhancement of skills, capacity building gaining self confidence and meaningful participation in decision making.
An important means of womens empowerment is economic independence through information, knowledge and necessary skills. If a woman is economically a versatile parasite, she can never claim an equal status with men. As long as she is dependent on others, she is treated as a slave at service of the provider and this very often aggrevates her subjectivity to exploitation by the ‘super sex.’ Jawahar Lal Nehru once said, “Freedom depends on economic conditions even more than political and if the women are not economically free and self earning, she will have to depend on her husband or some one else and dependents are never free. Therefore, economic independence is an essential aspect of women empowerment.”
There is continued inequality an vulnerability of women in all sectors. Women should be empowered so that they are able to take decisions for themselves and for others socially and politically. Women participation from Panchayati Raj to the Parliament is highly essential to enable the critical mass take critical actions and play an active role in National  development. Empowerment should be at all levels i.e. Psychological economic, social and political. Education has always been considered as the most powerful instrument for social change. The efforts made by the Govt. have served to improve the educational qualifications of women but not their actual conditions. The highest literacy rate and higher standards of education of Keralite women and the alarming rise in violence against then is a true testimony to the inadequacy of present system of education. The amounting rape, domestic violence, dowry deaths, sexual harassment of women and increasing number of suicidal rates of women is  a matter of great concern.
Our system of education, which is British oriented is based on the ideals of liberal education. The reforms suggested by the various reforms commissions on education have made only marginal changes with respect to cultural and social harmony. In fact the present system of education has served to worsen the condition of women. Our curriculum while responding to the demand for technology must also respond to social concerns. Admitting the cruel fact that we are living in an over poweringly male dominated society, we cannot wait for a positive change in the male chauvinist attitudes in favour of women. On one side we have to try for social consciousness and awareness creation aimed at gender equality, on the other side we have to empower our women to face the challenges of the patriarchal society in a bolder way, enabling them to live a life of respect and happiness. We should equip our girls and women with the strategies against violence and discrimination. It may take the shape of an awareness programme for the illiterate and grown up women who are out of the educational system. The curricular intervention in this regard can be termed as life skill inevitable for a successful life in the  modern society to cut one’s safe path amidst violences and atrocities. It makes a holistic attempt to enable women search for their true identity and discover their own place-physical intellectual psychological and work space.
Every girl has an equal right to live a life of dignity on this planet. From the time a girl child is born, what ever is said and done in the name of socialization, knowingly or unknowingly encourages the girls to be in active, passive and dependent. Programmes to boost up the self esteem and self confidence of girls must be started from the beginning. Our young girls very often ask whether they can have an identity of their own before knowing whom they are going to  marry. Each and every girl must be taught that her life is not something that is to be sacrificed for wife and other wifehood and mother hood  should be equated with husband hood and father hood. Our girls must be encouraged to find out their workspace and reach self actualization levels where by one could become what one can with the maximization of one’s potentials. The accountable potentials of millions of women have been wasted on this earth with out being visible. Self dependence through economic independence is essential for women empowerment as long as women are economically dependent on others. She is a slave to the provider. Such a condition should be prevented at any cost.
Girls need help in the building up and maintenance of effective interpersonal relations with family members, peers teachers and all elders. Communication and social skills are essential factors  of this component. Girls who in general are constantly devoid of a say in decision making at home and school are unaware of their freedom for expression. Shyness and silence on the other hand are rated as essential value of nobility by the patriarchal society. Our girls and other responsible persons fail to realise that this shyness and passivity very often invite troubles from the offenders. Effective communication is one of the most important requisites for success in modern life. In an age of materialism and consumerism value education forms an essential component of life skills. The violence and atrocities against women, must be discussed in detail so as to help the girls take adequate precautions and techniques.
Instances of atrocities against women at home and work place which are reported in newspaper and television should be made use for active discussion in women’s groups with a view to develop timely alternative ways and means of self help at the face of problematic situations. There are good number of laws and provisions for safety and security of girls and women in the society. Girls must be made aware of their legal rights and the way to make use of legal provisions for their safety. We have realized the defects of our education system in attaining social development through gender justice, with increasing violence against women as it’s solid proof. It is time we think about including appropriate curricular components to develop coping strategies in our girls, a collective attempt by the centre for women’s studies connsellors and NGOs will be required to develop the notion of ‘No more silence about violence’ in our girls and women.
(The author  is former Dy. Librarian University of Jammu)

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