Author : admin Date : 05:46 AM

Women Empowerment

Empowering women in India was something that I had been thinking a lot about after getting  inspired from one of the Television  show  titled “satyamev  jayate ” ….based on political ,economic, social   issues of our  country,  and I thought to myself , What can I DO? The answer was to create awareness about   “Women Empowerment” around.

Women Empowerment also called as Gender Empowerment… Refers to increasing spiritual, political, social, educational, gender or economic strength of women.

For centuries, women were not treated equally to men in many ways…today we are coming out of those dark days, well still trying to come out, but there is still a good deal to go to empower women in India and the whole world. A brief glance into why women empowerment is needed.

  • Different phases   India took in Women Empowerment:
    • Ancient time  : Primary duty of woman was husband’s service
    • Medieval India  : If her husband dies, she should die too (Sati system).
    • Modern India Pre-Independence   : Let her stay inside the house forever, after her husband dies!
    • 1950’s  : Let’s send women, children to schools and colleges.
    • 1960’s  : Dowry Prohibition Act
    • 2001    : Women Empowerment year
    • 2010    : 1/3rd seats should be reserved for women in parliament.
  • In the developing country like “INDIA”, problems faced by women are:
    • Malnutrition: Due to poverty, intake of food with less nutritional value.
    •  Poor Health: Malnutrition in turn leads to poor health.
    •  Maternal Mortality Rate: Marriages at an early age, leads to pregnancies, which in turn leads to death.
    • Lack of education: Primary duty of girls is domestic services. Education is secondary for them.
    • Mistreatment: Includes mental as well as physical violence. Example: Rape, Dowry deaths.
    • Lack of power: Women are not included in decision making process.
    • Female Foeticide:  Girls are killed as soon as they born…may be through abortions.
    • Overworked: The working hours of woman are never counted.
    • Dowry:  If dowry is not up to groom’s expectation, then bride leads to dowry death.
    • Divorce: If woman is divorced, society treats her like, she has done any crime.
  • Pathways for Women Empowerment :
    •  Education: Send girl child to school and colleges.
    • Awareness: Government as well as non government offices can involve in awareness.
    • Encouragement: One educated woman can encourage other s.
    • Unity and Faith: Unity and faith between women can help in development.
    • Reservation      : Reservation for the women like in the parliament can also help.
    • Legislative efforts:  The main thing that really can work out is Legislative efforts.
  • Some of the  Women Empowerment programmes  launched in India  includes  :
    • Swayamsidha project   through Self Help Groups.
    • Swa-shakti project called as rural women empowerment project
    • STEP (Support for training and empowerment program) benefiting 16,300 women
    • Swalamban benefiting 71,240 women
    • Day care centers  for  poor and ailing women
    • Hostels for women
    • Rashtriya Mahila kosh:  called as National credit fund…Benefiting 32,765 women.

The sex ratio in India is a concern, some states has male female ratio as low as  877 girls for 1000 boys while the overall sex ration in India is 940 girls for 1000 boys.So there is need to respect and save girl child. Only by doing the little things can big differences be made.

“Wherever woman is respected, god resides there”