Empowerment of Women

Introduction:

?Nature gave women too much power. The law gives them too little?. - William Henry

Introduction:

India is a democratic and political country with a well streamlined administrative structure, and an already existing mixed economy, with a rich contact of inexpressive sector operations. Also available in India is a vast stock of skilled manpower and entrepreneurial class, a reasonably good basic infrastructure and a good track article of fulfilling past international obligations.

In this extremely competitive world the improvement of a community is extremely influenced by sufficient offering from each member. Contributions from women in dissimilar walks of life can?t be neglected. But the experiences show that the benefits of improvement are not equally shared by all sections of the people.

The status of women in the Indian society:

From time immemorial women faced the challenges of coping with a male chauvinistic society. Even after any years of planned improvement in India, the status of women in our country is low and their socio-economic conditions are much more depressed than that of men. The most important factor that have affected non-participation of women in decision manufacture and governance is the inexpressive ? collective divide linked with men and women. Women?s place is in the inexpressive domain is linked with household. Whereas, the collective domain is linked with political authority, collective decision making, sufficient work and masculinity .Such assumptions have always hindered women to negotiate in the collective domain and they find themselves whether being criticized for their inadequacies or patronized by men. The new contact of structured adjustment reveals that the women are the most marginalized sections. They are destined to a disproportionately larger share of the burden,iiliteracy and unemployment.

Challenges faced by women:

o Gender disparity in school enrolment and literacy rates

o Gender disparity in wage rates

o Women?s employment and livelihood opportunities

o Causes of gender-based poverty

o Infant and maternal mortality rates

o Restrictive fertility control practices

o Violence against women

o Vulnerability of women in urgency situations

o Depiction of women in the media

Grave frustration in some areas:

Marginalization of women as a singular species has put women on a footing with inherited handicaps. It is now commonly suitable that unless women constitute a ?Critical Mass?of at least one third of those in decision manufacture their nearnessy makes diminutive unlikeness to the outcomes of governance. Experiences from dissimilar countries characterize that the struggle is on, but mainstreaming gender as an custom and cultural transformation process should continue to eliminate gender biases in improvement and governance frameworks.

Impact of schooling and technology:

The challenge of improvement in the broadest sense is to improve the capability of life which commonly calls for good education, higher standards of condition and nutrition, a cleaner environment, more equality of opportunity, greater private freedom and a richer cultural life. Development, being a human centered process is unavoidable but until women reach the same footing as men, extra attention for empowerment is called for. Empowerment is a multi dimensional process which enables an private to realize his or her potential. In the light of the above background it is clear that empowering women will convert the destinies of nations.

Education is the most important instrument through which human resources can be developed. schooling enables population to derive basic skills and inculcate abilities which are helpful in raising the collective and economic status of women. schooling helps to enlarge the economic opportunities for women. Higher female literacy is linked with good hygiene, lower child mortality, good house nutrition, reduced fertility and lower population growth rates. schooling has been included in the successive five year plans as a major program for the improvement of women.

Today women are and integral part of the new economic order and play an important part in the economy. In India, women in lower income groups were the first to enter into the labor shop to earn their livelihood who were followed by middle class women. Due to the improvement of schooling and technology, the middle class women have greater preference for white collar jobs. The economic and collective empowerment of women in any community is influenced by the extent of their involvement in income generating activities surface the household. An important role is played by the Self Help Groups to uplift the economic as well as the collective status of women in the society.

Self Help Group is a homogenous group of rural poor voluntarily formed to save anyone whole they can save conveniently out of their income and mutually agree to lead to a common fund, to be lent to the members for meeting their sufficient and urgency needs. The basic ideas on which self help groups functions are group approach, mutual trust, assosication of poor, manageable small groups, group cohesiveness, spirit of thrift, request based lending and women friendly loans. Shg have been fast emerging as a qualified and alternate banking structure to cater to the needs of its members mostly women.

Altogether the self image of the women as respectable source of compel improves significantly within and surface the family, their improved income is spent by them for the schooling and improved nourishment of their children, thus paving the way for human resource improvement in villages.

*Impact of participation of women in Shgs

( after two to three years )?..(Results from some independent studies)

oAverage value of assets (livestock, consumer durables, etc.) per household increased by 72.3 % from Rs. 6,843 (pre-Shg) to Rs. 11,793

o59 per cent of the sample households reported growth in assets.

oHousing conditions improved

oAll members developed recovery habit as against only 23% of households earlier

oAverage annual savings per household registered over threefold growth from Rs. 460 to Rs. 1,444

oAverage borrowings per year per household increased from Rs. 4,282 to Rs. 8,341.

oShare of consumption loans declined from 50% to 25%.

o70% of loans taken in post-Shg situation were for income generating purposes.

oAverage net income per household increased by 33% from Rs. 20,177 to Rs. 26,88

Impact on Empowerment

Related to Economic Issues

% members

ocontributing to house income

65

o% share of offering to house income

40

ofeeling correction in financial status

89

ofeel enhanced offering to household income after joining the group

74

ofeeling consulted in finance linked decisions

60

Related to Self Development

o(of those) earlier unable to but now able to write

their names (after joining the group

100

onot formally educated, now read forms in banks

42

oread newspapers ordinarily or occasionally

41

omore unavoidable in taking decisions on their own

66

ofeel recognised in family

59

ofeel being increasingly consulted by other women

44

ofeel more unavoidable in dealing with people

75

ofeel more unavoidable in dealing with various

institutions with which they interact regularly

59

oregularly attend community Meetings

41

ocast their votes in last local elections and 96

Interactions with Others and Local Level Decision Making

*Source: Shg ? Bank linkage program status as on 31st march 2004, Nabard.

Recommendations:

oEnable women to overcome barriers and constraints to their economic productivity.

oAddressing gender gaps in governance

oEngendering dissimilar institutions for good governance

oTo form and enlarge women?s groups to play an active role in the collective change.

oRemove illiteracy through women participation in education

oEnable women to use contemporary science and technology

oFlooding the rural areas with capability Shg

oEncourage Ngo?s

Empowerment of Women

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Source: http://handicapfreedom.com/empowerment-of-women/

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