0Women Empowerment
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per their social status women are not treated as equal to men in many places especially in the east, though in the western countries women are treated at par with men in most of the fields. The disabilities on the one hand and the inequalities between men and women on the other have given rise to what is known as ‘gender problem’. All over the world and particularly in South and East Asia and Africa the gender problem has assumed importance; during the recent years gender issue has become virtually a crucial point of argument. It is now widely believed that women empowerment that is providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images, in the context of lineage, the rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, should be taken into consideration.
The principle of gender equality was recognized in the United Nations Charter in 1945 and the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the majority of development planners did not fully address the role of women in the development process. In 1975, the first UN Conference of Women and Development was held at Mexico city under the motto, “Equality, Development and peace”. The need to integrate women into development was internationally proclaimed in the 1995 Bejing Conference. The Economic Survey (1999-2000) used an entire section on gender inequality. It began with a reminder of the commitment made in the ninth plan document of allocating 30 per cent of resources for women’s development schemes through “Women’s Component Plans” According to Menon and Probhu (2001), there was a strong plea for investing in women’s equality on the ground that this made economic sense and spoke of “the social rate of return on investment in women” being greater that the corresponding rate for men. According to Paten (2002), women’s development can be attained by improving her status and bargaining power in the economy.
The Global Conference on women Empowerment (1988) highlighted women empowerment as the best way of making women partners in development. The Development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) program was initiated as a sub-scheme of the nationwide poverty alleviation program that is the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP). It aims at imparting self-reliance to rural areas through income generating schemes along with group organisation skills and keeping this in view the year 2001 was celebrated as “The Women’s Empowerment Year”. Human resource development and women empowerment unlock the door for modernization of society. Instead of remaining passive beneficiaries, women must become active partners. Participation and control over resources of power are considered as critical indicators in the process of development discharged towards women. Women in the rural areas possess the least proportion of these resources and, as a result, they are powerless and dependent on the powerful and wealthy.
Women empowerment should focus on the holistic the manifestation of womanhood and the feminine with a goal to bring about a perfect balance between the masculine and feminine forces of nature, irrespective of gender. Thus, women empowerment should transcend gender and reach the whole of humanity to establish a matriarchal society based on creative and generative action. Such a social order should be based on the maples of love, compassion, nurturing and with a purpose of unifying the forces of nature. For this to happen in reality the primary requirement is the social economic, religious and political women empowerment. Women have to come out of their homes and actively participate in reshaping the society. When women are empowered in spheres of life with an equal opportunity and when she has the choice and opportunity to lead a publicly active life only then we can talk about a foundation being created for a collective change in the society.
We need to understand that the more economically, socially, religiously, and politically empowered the women become the most confident she becomes in articulating her thoughts and more productive she becomes in her actions. This involves in her getting involved in taking decisions for her family, society, country and the world along with her counterparts that is men.
