INDIA, a country with over 1.21 billion people as per records in 2011 census with more than a sixth of the world's population, is booming with all the multifaceted opportunities for one and all. We are living in the times, when the effects of Globalization has hit even the core portions of the third world countries. So what ? This is what our forefathers had been living and dreaming for, isn't it so ? This is the kind of Independence what our grandparents fought for. Still if we give a closer look onto the condition of our societies all over the country, does it seem to be perfect ? Does it seem to be the 'dream come true' which our forefathers thought of ? I hope all of you will answer with a big 'NO'.
I know there is a plethora of problems we are facing to actually move forward, thousands of people are working on these things day and night, doing research, keeping up marches, rallies, going against the political parties, fighting their life out, just for the 'betterment' of our country and the present plaque. Since everyone is busy finding and creating solutions for these things, i will nobly choose a single problem, which, i believe is the grass-root problem of all the other problems. That is, Women, still today, are treated as the "Second Grade Citizen" of this nation. This problem is not a new one, its an age old problem residing for the last hundreds of years or so,
Some
facts and figures -
The Indian women’s mortality rate is the second-highest in the world.
More than 60 per cent of Indian women are illiterate. For every 1000
men, there are only 933 women in India, while the world’s average is 990
women for every 1000 men. Every year, of 15 million baby girls in
India, almost 25 per cent do not live to celebrate their 15th birthday.
Adult women take in approximately 1,000 fewer calories for one day than
men in India. Every 34 minutes, a rape occurs.
These statistics are a reality faced by Indian women even today.
Although officially having the same legal status as men, they still have
to live with a very patriarchal system in place in modern India.
Confusion on the laws present in this country ? Okay, then let me share a rebuttal made by
Swami Vivekananda at
Cambridge.
Swami Vivekananda faced bigotry in America on several issues of Indian culture — one was the Indian woman. Here’s his rebuttal -
I have often heard that
there are other passages where women are condemned. I admit that in our
sacred books there are many passages which condemn women as offering
temptation. But there are also passages that glorify women as the power
of God. And there are other passages which state that in that house
where one drop of a woman’s tear falls, the gods are never pleased and
the house goes to ruin. Drinking wine, killing a woman and killing a
Brahmin are the highest crimes in Hinduism.
Next, I will come to our old dramas. Whatever the books say, the dramas
are the perfect representation of society as it then existed. In these,
which were written from 400 years before Christ onward, we find even
universities full of both boys and girls. We would not (now) find Hindu
women, as they have since become cut off from higher education. But (at
that time), they were everywhere pretty much the same as they are in
this country — going out to the gardens to take promenades.
There is another point which I bring before you and where the Hindu
woman is still superior to all other women in the world — her rights.
The right to possess property is as absolute for women in India as for
men — and has been for thousands and thousands of years.
If you have any lawyer friend and can take up commentaries on the Hindu
law, you will find it all for yourselves. A girl may bring a million
dollars to her husband, but every dollar of that is hers. Nobody has any
right to touch one dollar of that. If the husband dies without issue,
the whole property of the husband goes to her, even if his father or
mother is living. And that has been the law from the past to the present
time. That is something which the Hindu woman has had beyond that of
the women of other countries.
The older books — or even newer books — do not prohibit the Hindu
widows from being married; it is a mistake to think so. They give them
their choice, and that is given to both men and women. The idea in our
religion is that marriage is for the weak, and I don’t see any reason to
give up that idea today. They who find themselves complete — what is
the use of their marrying? And those that marry — they are given one
chance. When that chance is over, both men and women are looked down
upon if they marry again; but it is not that they are prohibited. It is
nowhere said that a widow is not to marry. The widow and widower who do
not marry are considered more spiritual. Men, of course, break through
this law and go and marry; whereas women — they being of a higher
spiritual nature — keep to the law. For instance, our books say that
eating meat is bad and sinful, but you may still eat such-and-such a
meat —mutton, for instance. I have seen thousands of men who eat mutton,
and never in my life have I seen a woman of higher caste who eats meat
of any kind. This shows that their nature is to keep the law — keeping
more towards religion. But do not judge too harshly of Hindu men. You
must try to look at the Hindu law from my position too, for I am a Hindu
man.
This non-marriage of widows gradually grew into a custom. And whenever
in India a custom becomes rigid, it is almost impossible to break
through it — just as in your country, you will find how hard it is to
break through a five-day custom of fashion. In the lower castes, except
two, the widows remarry.
Excerpts from Vivekananda’s lecture Cambridge on December 17, 1894.
[Taken from the "Daily Pioneer" news website]
I am not saying Swami Ji was wrong in any ways, but trying to show even within the legal system, there are some laws that greatly
disadvantage women – Hindu law gives women limited rights to inheritance
while under Muslim law, polygamy is allowed. Laws are not enough to safeguard women and empower them in all the ways of life. Hence, there are many researches done on WHY women are treated as secondary in this country, be it a city or a village, one of them is as follows -
"Sons are called upon to provide the income; they are the ones who do
most of the work in the fields. In this way sons are looked to as a type
of insurance. With this perspective, it becomes clearer that the high
value given to males decreases the value given to females." (Marina
Porras, "Female Infanticide and Foeticide".)
Since the independence of India, there has been much progress for gender
equality as many laws are passed to ensure the protection of women’s
rights. This includes laws related to dowry, rape, prostitution and
obscenity. While we acknowledge that activists have made some changes in
the constitution, traditions are not something that can be altered
easily by law. On the one hand, while women are getting their legal
rights, crime against women are actually on the rise. Women get raped
even by their brothers, fathers or father-in-laws. In fact, female
infanticide still occurs today.
Some of the
basic problems still persisting in this country are -
1) Dowry - This process of possession of material and money by the husband from the wife's family is illegal but is still prevalent, even if it can be complained to the police but the families of the daughter and the wives are forced not to complain in place of life and many other important things. Even the laws persisting today are slightly incorrect since dowry is still taken in the other way round, though it has been successful to reduce the dowry rates all over the country by many folds. DOWRY was primarily a farewell gift, given out of love. These days its
outrageous to see, this dowry is more SNATCHED from the bride's parents
who shed their blood and sweat to marry their daughter. The dowry abuse may even be one of the reasons resulting in female
infanticide as couples want to avoid the burden of paying a dowry. Dowry is prevalent in all sectors of society.
The reasons for offering dowry may vary.
LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE :-
1. Give it out of Compulsion.
2. To get (buy?) a groom in better status than
that of theirs.
3. Gossips of having unmarried girl at home is
torturing.
4. Fear of 3rd parties unnecessary comments and
comparisons (uncles aunts neighbours).
UPPER MIDDLE CLASS AND HIGH CLASS PEOPLE :-
1. Offer dowry willingly to SHOW OFF THEIR
STATUS.
2. False prestige. (ESP among upper middle class)
3. Find unique, creative and new ways to spend
money in name of dowry. (Decorative attires,
cakes, wedding arrangements, kitchen
utilities, tickets for honeymoon, etc are some
which may come under this category).
So long as its done willingly its acceptable, but these upper middle
class and higher class people should realize, that they are indirectly
responsible for dowry. The usage and practice of any system determine
the demand for the same in an increasing way.
The dowry problem wears a serious face, when its been forced upon or
coerced. The results of this horrid side may vary from bad to worse.
1. Divorce
2. Torture
3. Suicide
4. Murder
Probable Solution - It is to motivate the new generation with correct ideologies and thinking process, which includes the men(groom), women(bride), the bride's family and the future prospective bride grooms.
FOR MEN :
1) Are u happy to be looked upon like items sold in market? Did u realize u are priced and traded as per the cost determined, by the
society for your social background and education?
2) Please feel ASHAMED TO BE BRANDED AS PRODUCTS SOLD, to be bought by affordable girls and their parents.
3) You are inviting a partner to share your life and love. She is equal
to you in every-way. Neither have u done a sacrifice by marrying her nor
has she, so where is the question of money involved? Love her for her
character, not for her money.
4) The aspirations and aims, should be achieved by one's own hard
efforts. The pride of touching your dreams, with your own dedication is
unique. TRY FOR IT.
5) Woman fulfills your needs as regards food, laundry,
house-maintenance, sex, bear your children, guard the house, earn for
you. All those people who ask dowry, with your clever mathematical skill,
if u calculate monetarily, YOU OWE A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT TO YOUR WIFE.
6) In olden days, there used to be Contests in various forms, to test
the skills of men in the fields of intelligence, strength, character and
appeal. Guess you fall into the lucky era where YOU assess the girl in
multiple aspects.
FOR WOMEN :
1) Take an oath not to marry any person who demands dowry.
2) Be brave when you face situations of adverse effects. Fully believe
that you are in noway inferior to men. Don’t be a coward and a victim of
torture.
3) If they harass u beyond any particular limit, GET A DIVORCE.
Committing Suicide is NOT the solution. Life does NOT become futile, for
one worthless human being or a family.
4) Divorcees can earn a good living, through any decent job. If u don’t
have children, spend the money for good cause. Do social service. If u
succeed in meeting any man, who can live up to your expectation, marry
him.
5) The society does not look down upon divorcees anymore. If u
accidentally happen to hear any wounding words, DON'T CARE A PENNY FOR
IT. It is better than tolerating wounding words against your parents by
some unworthy in-laws.
6) Sit and talk with your parents. Explain them your desires. Do not be forced into any marriage.
7) Sit and talk with your future in-laws and fiance as to yours
expectations. Do not just pose before them, for their acceptance of your
appearance alone. You are much more than just your physical appearance.
Ask them their demands, dreams, aims, expectations. This would surely
lead to happy marriage from both sides.
8) Be a part of planning your marriage. Know the reasons, causes, and
sources of expenses. Do not be ignorant of your parents’ hardships. If
they spend on any unwanted item, which is either not demanded upon or is
unnecessary, then, CUT THOSE EXPENSES.
9) Ladies should understand and think about this problem as a curse to
womanhood. Forget that u are a groom’s mother or sister or relative. YOU
ARE A WOMAN. Rules don’t change because you accidentally happen to be
groom’s relatives. IT IS A SHAME, TO FIND THAT THE PRESSURE ON DOWRY,
AND DEATH DUE TO DOWRY, IS PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF WOMEN WHO STAND ON THE
OTHER SIDE AND DEMAND THE SAME.
FOR BRIDE'S PARENTS :
1) Parents should stop feeling burdened or sad to
have an unmarried daughter at home. The purpose of female birth is NOT ONLY marriage and re-production.
2) The parents of the bride should take primary action in abolishing
dowry. Do not accept to give dowry beyond ur monetary capacity. ( Still
better, SAY NO TO DOWRY)
3) Sending the unmarried daughter or divorcee for higher studies or a
good job, would increase her confidence and your happiness.
4) When the bride faces inhuman tortures in her in-laws place, DO NOT
SEND HER BACK, at the cost of her life. Re-marriage is not at all a
weird idea to consider.
FOR FUTURE PROSPECTIVE BRIDE GROOMS :
1)Nowadays the trend is to settle thro ur hard-earned money, not ur parents, not ur in-laws.
2)Buy necessary items for basic living, even before u invite ur life
partner to share ur life. That’s the best gift u can give her, rather
than roses and cards on valentine's day.
3)If she is also an earning member, sit with ur fiancée, plan out the necessary items, and share the cost equally.
4)Talk to ur parents, and make them agree, to share the marriage cost equally! (food, choultry and other extravaganzas)
5) If possible try to settle for simple marriage, and a small party afterwards.
6) Do not allow your life to be ruled, by third parties comments or
demands as to your fiancée’s status, looks or her economic background.
They are people who sadistically comment and contribute NOTHING towards
your welfare during the times of distress. (I hear by mean 3rd parties,
and NOT bride groom's parents).
[Partly taken from the very interesting thread by Shakthi from mayyam.com]
2) Female Infanticide - Female infanticide is also a major problem in India accelerated by the
invention of tools such as the ultrasound scan as couples can now abort
their babies selectively. Although sex-selective abortion has been
banned since 1994, it has not been enforced. The imbalanced sex ratio is
a clear indicator of the female infanticide that still occurs in modern
day India. Such selective infanticide is most probably due to cultural
practices and norms. Boys are favoured due to socio-economic factors
such as needing extra labour on the farms, especially when India was
mostly agriculture-based. A girl has been considered a liability for
centuries, according to tradition as well as the demand for dowry, which
is known to be able to cripple a family financially. According to an
article on BBC NEWS in 2006 “India ‘loses 10m female births’”,
“Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal
selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a
year.”
According to a recent report by the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are
missing from India's population as a result of systematic gender
discrimination in India. In most countries in the world, there are
approximately 105 female births for every 100 males.
In India,
there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The
accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female
infanticide in India, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which
requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child
is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the
beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.
However this
anti-female bias is by no means limited to poor families. Much of the
discrimination is to do with cultural beliefs and social norms. These
norms themselves must be challenged if this practice is to stop.
Diagnostic
teams with ultrasound scanners which detect the sex of a child
advertise with catchlines such as spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000
rupees later.
The implication is that by avoiding a girl, a family
will avoid paying a large dowry on the marriage of her daughter.
According to UNICEF, the problem is getting worse as scientific methods
of detecting the sex of a baby and of performing abortions are
improving.
These methods are becoming increasing available in
rural areas of India, fuelling fears that the trend towards the abortion
of female foetuses is on the increase.
[Taken from an article published by UNICEF, online source : www.causes.com
]
When asked about some of the reasons of female infanticide in India on a public forum by BBC, people from different segments of the world answered -
1) The real problem in India is the appallingly low status of women. ~ Caroline,
UK
2) I feel the root of the problem lies in certain sections of the people and their mindset. ~ Kamal, USA
3) Enlightenment will only come through the spread of education and improved economic conditions~ Arni Narain, UK
4) Other problems along with this, like the caste system, religious
intolerance, abject poverty and rampant corruption have eaten into the
moral structure of the society. ~ Ashok,
USA
5) The Indian government to its credit has attempted to improve the lot of
girls by providing them with free education, meals during school hours,
vaccination. ~ Ken Bhandary,
USA
6) There is a strong belief that having a female child is expensive when it come to marriage and dowry. ~ MAK,
USA/India
7) We have imposed our values and morality on other cultures for too long. ~ Phil Saum,
UK
8) Female infanticide is due to parents wishing their children to survive and - most important - provide for them when they are old. ~ Andrej, Russia
9) The answer is obvious, education is everything. ~ Abs,
UK
Probable Solution -
Already working -
- Govt launched Cradle Baby Scheme, to convince parents not to kill, but
surrender unwanted baby girls to the state. So far more than 500 baby
girls have been handed over to state officials, who claim every baby surrendered is a life saved. Law enforcement are
treating every suspicious infant death as a homicide. You know how the
enforcement works!
- Too many couples - aided by medical technology, unethical doctors, and
weak enforcement of laws banning abortion on the basis of gender - are
electing to end a pregnancy if the fetus is female. Govt now banned sex
determination during ultra-sound check up!
Plans to work in near future -
-Adoption should be openly welcome and Govt should help families (with incentives) to encourage bold decision.
- Govt can't do this alone! Local charities, teachers, students should
volunteer and report such things to local law enforcement. Take all
un-registered nurses (maruthuvachi) into custody! Every town/village in
rural India should have health office (first thing they should have
current). This will take few years to accomplish, together we can all
make a difference.
- Free education for women upto college and even post graduate education
in government run institutions (Similar plans are being implemented in
many states in India)
- Indian males should stand up to their own moms and dads when they start chirping about unwanted female children.
-
Come down hard on eve teasing and harassment activities in states that
practice infanticide. The harassment arises out of the same attitude
that causes infanticide down the line. A few "good boys" will end up
behind bars, but it will be a better lesson than reminding them that
their sisters and mothers are women too. That carrot approach does not
seem to be working well anyway.
- Create a feminine movement so that
women feel a sisterhood towards each other and stand up for a woman in a
neighboring house rather than turn a blind eye.
- Refuse marriage of
women into households or be very careful of families that have only
male children or a very high percentage of males. Chances are high that
they did you know what. Again, a few innocents will be in needless
trouble, but sometimes poisonous and normal snakes look alike and it is
better to get out a stick and protect your own daughters and sisters.
-
Do not provide any government incentives to families that have only
males. Again the bad snake good snake logic applies. But that is OK.
Consider it payback for all the dead female children.
- Provide extra
incentives for families that have more than one girl child. This will
help correct the gender balance in a few years.
- If you have a
female child, rub it in other peoples faces by educating her and
providing her the same opportunities as a male child. This is the one
thing that makes female killing folks look foolish and dumb.
-
Encourage marriage of males to educated women. A lot of mother-in-laws
are scared of educated women as they cannot practice infanticide in
those cases.
3) Sati - Prohibited in 1920, this practice may still have an impact of women’s
mindsets today. Sati is the voluntary or forced killing of a widow once
her husband has passed away. Widows were considered unholy and impure.
This greatly defines women in relation to her husband and reinforces the
mindset that women must submit to men and cannot have a life without
their husbands. Although prohibited a long time ago, this tradition has
taken many decades to be eradicated. Even now in rural areas of India,
Sati is not unheard of.
When it is abolished nearly 100 years ago, why is it still a burning issue ?
This is well covered by the famous newspaper "The Times Of India " on their
Aug 16, 2009 issue, which describes everything in a well fashioned way.
"Last week, 60-year-old Sharbati Bai attempted to commit sati on her husband's
pyre in Rajasthan's Sikar district. She couldn't because the village
and the police stopped her just in time.
Roop Kanwar, India's
last known sati, was not so lucky 20 years ago. Has Rajasthan finally
won the war against the practice of sati?
When Roop Kanwar was
burnt to death in 1987, it was said her act was abetted by her
husband's family and the whole village, though this was never
established in a court of law. Fast forward 22 years and just a few km
from the spot in Deorala where the bride of eight months was publicly
burnt, a whole village prevented an old widow from burning herself at
the altar of custom!
What does this mean, if anything? Has
India finally been able to stamp out sati, almost 21 years after it
brought in anti-Sati legislation? Yes, say sociologists who work against
sati in the area. But they add that even though the custom has been
dying a slow death since the law came about, the myth remains, which is
why a Sharbati Bai still tries to do a Roop Kanwar.
Kavita
Srivastava, general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties,
Rajasthan, has been actively working to discourage the practice since
1987. She says "the law has very effective in preventing the making of a
sati" but adds that "it has not been equally successful in preventing
the glorification of sati even though it has been rendered a crime."
Srivastava says Roop Kanwar was independent India's 40th sati but the
law has done what it should have - made the practice too dangerous to
abet. "Most reported cases have taken place in the Shekhawati belt of
Rajasthan or in Madhya Pradesh.
"And most of these areas are
where the Sati is glorified, where there are sati temples and pujas are
still conducted," she says.
But even though sati may be simply
falling out fashion, but women's activists and legal experts are
worried it may be revived for commercial reasons. India has at least 250
sati temples and the ruling on pujas is too ambiguous to be preventive,
they say. Srivastava describes the industry that thrived around Roop
Kanwar's horrific public death. "It was followed by congregations and
festivals, and attempts were made to collect funds for the construction
of a temple at the site, although the efforts were thwarted after
widespread protests and legal intervention."
A sati temple has
always been a big draw. Some temples are thought to be as old as the
custom itself, which is believed to have originated 700 years ago among
Rajasthan's ruling warrior community. It was first declared illegal in
India as far back as 1829 by Lord William Bentinck, then
Governor-General of the East India Company, largely because of Raja Ram
Mohan Roy's activist efforts.
Dr Sarvesh Dhillon, former
history professor at Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University, says: "As per
the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India
Company, the known occurrences in 1813-1828 were 8,135. Raja Ram Mohan
Roy estimated 10 times as many cases of sati in Bengal compared to the
rest of the country. In modern times, sati has been largely confined to
Rajasthan, with a few instances in the Gangetic plain."
Dhillon says many Muslim such as Akbar, Jahangir and Aurangzeb, and some Christian rulers have attempted to stop the practice.
But almost two centuries after Bentinck's law and two decades after the
anti-sati Act, activists say it is significant that there are discreet
congregations at the Rani Sati temple complex in Jhunjhunu, which is
called the fountainhead of sati. "Sometimes, the glorification may be
difficult to prove as the rituals are conducted in the name of
individual pujas," says Srivastava.
The National Commission
for Women recently suggested amendments to the law to prohibit worship
at ancient shrines. Kirti Singh, legal convener of the All India
Democratic Women's Association, says the glorification continues "but it
is a battle that we can wage because we have the Act, which defines
glorification and criminalizes it."
The war on sati is not over then."
Since it is nearly negligible as of the present times, that is why we can nearly place it in the category of "Already eradicated in India."
This is the table which will show the major type of crimes in our country and their yearly rise/decline(mostly rise, sadly).
| Sl No. |
Crime Head |
Year
2006 |
Year
2007 |
Year
2008 |
Year
2009 |
Year
2010 |
Year
2011 |
Year
2012 |
Percentage
Variation
in
2012
over
2011 |
|---|
| 1 |
Rape
(Sec. 376 IPC) |
19,348 |
20,737 |
21,467 |
21,397 |
22,172 |
24,206 |
24,923 |
3.0 |
| 2 |
Kidnapping & Abduction
(Sec. 363 to 373 IPC) |
17,414 |
20,416 |
22,939 |
25,741 |
29,795 |
35,565 |
38,262 |
7.6 |
| 3 |
Dowry Death
(Sec 302/304 IPC) |
7,618 |
8,093 |
8,172 |
8,383 |
8,391 |
8,618 |
8,233 |
-4.5 |
| 4 |
Torture
(Sec. 498-A IPC) |
63,128 |
75,930 |
81,344 |
89,546 |
94,041 |
99,135 |
1,06,527 |
7.5 |
| 5 |
Molestation
(Sec. 354 IPC) |
36,617 |
38,734 |
40,413 |
38,711 |
40,613 |
42,968 |
45,351 |
5.5 |
| 6 |
Sexual Harassment
(Sec. 509 IPC) |
9,966 |
10,950 |
12,214 |
11,009 |
9,961 |
8,570 |
9,173 |
7.0 |
| 7 |
Importation of Girls
(Sec. 366-B IPC) |
67 |
61 |
67 |
48 |
36 |
80 |
59 |
-26.3 |
| 8 |
Sati Prevention Act, 1987 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
-100.0 |
| 9 |
Immoral Traffic
(Prevention) Act, 1956 |
4,541 |
3,568 |
2,659 |
2,474 |
2,499 |
2,435 |
2,563 |
5.3 |
| 10 |
Indecent Representation of Women
(Prohibition) Act, 1986 |
1,562 |
1,200 |
1,025 |
845 |
895 |
453 |
141 |
-68.9 |
| 11 |
Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 |
4,504 |
5,623 |
5,555 |
5,650 |
5,182 |
6,619 |
9,038 |
36.5 |
|
Total |
1,64,765 |
1,85,312 |
1,95,856 |
2,03,804 |
2,13,585 |
2,28,650 |
2,44,270 |
6.8 |
[Taken from women empowerment in india's data-base]
A total of 2,44,270
incidents of crime against women (both under IPC and SLL) were reported
in the country during the year 2012 as compared to 2,28,650 in the year
2011 recording an increase of 6.4% during the year 2012. These crimes
have continuously increased during 2008 – 2012 with 1,95,856 cases in
the year 2008, 2,03,804 cases in 2009 and 2,13,585 cases in 2010 and
2,28,650 cases in 2011 and 2,44,270 cases in the year 2012. West Bengal
with 7.5% share of country’s female population has accounted for nearly
12.7% of total crime against women by reporting 30,942 cases during the
year 2012.
Employment and Education - The women in India are not represented in the workforce either. They
mostly work as farmers or other occupations that are not recorded in the
Census counts. Only about 3 or 4 per cent of women’s labour is recorded
and acknowledged.
This outrageous oppression by males is a vicious cycle. Majority of
women are not educated. Although many movements have been targeted to
increase the literacy of Indian women, they focus mainly on the enrollment but not the retention of girls in school. More than half of
the girls who are enrolled into a school drop out of it while most of
the boys stay on. This lack of education will therefore lead to the fact
that women are not empowered to break out of their suppressed spheres
of life. While male domination is the cause of such inequality, the
females have a part of play in consenting to the perpetuation of such a
practice. Without education, women will not be able to contribute
significantly to the country’s economy and that reinforces how women can
only work in the domestic arena.
Actions Taken to Empower Women on the whole :
Millennium Development Goal
The United Nations Development Programme constituted eight
Millennium Development Goals
(MDG) for ensuring equity and peace across the world. The third MDG is
directly related to the empowerment of women in India. The MDGs are
agreed-upon goals to reduce certain indicators of disparity across the
world by the year 2015.
The third MDG is centred towards promoting gender equality and
empowering women: “Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education by no
later than 2015”
While India’s progress in this front has been brave, there are quite a
few corners that it needs to cut before it can be called as being truly
revolutionary in its quest for understanding what is women empowerment.
As UNDP says:-
India missed the 2005 deadline of eliminating gender disparity in
primary and secondary education. However, the country has hastened
progress and the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for Gross Enrolment Ratios
(GER) in primary and secondary education has risen. Given current
trends, India is moderately or almost nearly on track. However, as the
Government of India MDG Report 2009 notes, “participation of women in
employment and decision-making remains far less than that of men, and
the disparity is not likely to be eliminated by 2015.” Achieving GPI in
tertiary education also remains a challenge. In addition, the labour
market openness to women in industry and services has only marginally
increased from 13-18 percent between 1990-91 and 2004-05.
Ministry for Women & Child Development
The Ministry for Women & Child Development was established as a
department of the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the year
1985 to drive the holistic development of women and children in the
country. In 2006 this department was given the status of a Ministry,
with the powers to:-
Formulate plans, policies and programmes; enacts/ amends legislation,
guiding and coordinating the efforts of both governmental and
non-governmental organisations working in the field of Women and Child
Development.
It delivers such initiatives such as the Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS) which is a package of services such as supplementary
nutrition, health check-ups and immunisation. As mentioned earlier, the
empowerment of women begins with their safety and health and this
Ministry is committed to providing them.
Swayamsidha Programme
Additionally, the Ministry is also implementing the
Swayamsidha programme
– an integrated scheme for the empowerment of women at a total cost of
Rs. 116.30 Crores. Core to this programme will be the establishment of
women’s self-help groups which will empower women to have increased
access to all kinds of resources that they are denied, in addition to
increasing their awareness and skills. This programme will benefit about
9,30,000 women with the setting up of 53,000 self-help groups, 26,500
village societies and 650 block societies.
National Commission for Women
The National Commission for Women is a Department within the Ministry
of Women and Child Development. It was set up exclusively to help women
via the Constitution – by reviewing Legal and Constitutional safeguards
for women, recommending remedial legislative measures, by facilitating
quick redressal of grievances and by advising the Government of India on
all policy matters affecting women.
The website allows for online submission of complaints and fast
redressal exclusively for women. Additionally it is also a good resource
of information for women and the Commission is committed to helping out
women in need.
[The actions are wholly taken from women empowerment in india]
The Journey Ahead -
India as a country is still recovering from years of abuse in the
time of the Raj and more years of economic suffering at the hands of the
License Raj. It is only now that globalization, liberalization and
other socio-economic forces have given some respite to a large
proportion of the population. However, there are still quite a few areas
where women empowerment in India is largely lacking.
To truly understand what is women empowerment, there needs to be a
sea-change in the mind-set of the people in the country. Not just the
women themselves, but the men have to wake up to a world that is moving
towards equality and equity. It is better that this is embraced earlier
rather than later, for our own good.
Swami Vivekananda once said “arise away and stop not until the goal
is reached”. Thus our country should thus be catapulted into the horizon
of empowerment of women and revel in its glory.
We have a long way to go, but we will get there someday. We shall overcome.
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This is the first blog i worked on for such a long time, many of it is constructed by me and many of the data, facts and figures, some of the writings has been taken from the mentioned sources. Please bear with the mistakes, and correct me in every possible ways. Suggestions are surely getting a warm welcome from all the doors.
Thank You.
