...WOMEN EMPOWERMENT “Women empowered means mother India empowered”. - Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru WHAT IS WOMAN EMPOWERMENT? What does it really mean to empower women? Is it political empowerment? Economic empowerment? Social empowerment? In fact, these categories are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. Women’s political empowerment, usually envisioned as political participation in elections and government, is necessary to give women a voice in the policies that affect their lives. Women’s economic empowerment, which entails that women have the authority to make their own decisions regarding use of their resources, leads to prosperity for families and communities. Social empowerment, often achieved through public policy and education, liberates women from the mistreatment, exploitation, and oppression that inhibit women from reaching their full potential. HISTORY OF WOMAN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millenium. In early vedic period women enjoyed equal status with men. Rigveda & Upanishads mention several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi & Maitrey. However later the status of women began to deteriorate approximately from 500 b.c., the situation worsened with invasion of Mughals and later on by European invaders. Reformatory movements by Guru nanak, RajaramMmohan Rai, others did give some relief. It is not that Britishers didn’t do any thing for improving the condition of women...
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...Women’s Empowerment Principles www.unwomen.org /en/partnerships/businesses-and-foundations/womens-empowerment-principles Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities. The private sector is a key partner in efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. Current research demonstrating that gender diversity helps businesses perform better signals that self-interest and common interest can come together. Yet, ensuring the inclusion of women’s talents, skills and energies— from executive offices to the factory floor and the supply chain—requires intentional actions and deliberate policies. The Women’s Empowerment Principles offer practical guidance to business and the private sector on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Developed through a partnership between UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact, the Principles are designed to support companies in reviewing existing policies and practices—or establishing new ones—to realize women’s empowerment. In brief, the Principles are: 1. Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality 2. Treat all women and men fairly at work—respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination 3. Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers ...
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...RETHINKING POLICY ON CHILD SEx RATIOS Mary E John ......................................................................................5 NCW: TWENTY YEARS OF EMPOWERING WOMEN Mamta Sharma ..................................................................................9 STREE SHAKTI Rashmi Singh ..................................................................................13 NORTH EAST DIARY ...............................................................18 EMPOWERING WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE Amrit Patel ......................................................................................19 EMPOWERED WOMEN, EMPOWERED NATION Shahin Razi .....................................................................................24 WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT ACROSS INDIAN STATES Arundhati Chattopadhyay ...............................................................29 J&K wINDOw ..........................................................................56 AMENDING ARCHAIC LAWS TO EMPOWER WOMEN Moushumi Das Gupta .....................................................................52 WOMEN AND PANCHAYATI RAJ Nupur Tiwari ...................................................................................36 DO YOu KNOw? SOME FACTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005 ..................................................................41 WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS Kahnu Charan Dhir .........................................................................42 BEST PRACTICES PEARL IN THE SAND – TARA DEVI Dilip Bidawat...
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...2. Women Empowerment in Modern India Dr. Shruti Singh For centuries women were not treated equal to men in many ways. They were not allowed to own property, they did not have a Share in the property of their parents, they had no voting rights, and they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so on. Gender inequality has been part and parcel of an accepted male-dominated Indian society throughout history. Women were expected to be bound to the house, while men went out and worked. This division of labor was one of the major reasons why certain evils like 'Sati Pratha', ‘PardahSystem', 'Child Marriage', 'Dowry System', etc. took birth in our society. The traditional Indian mentality assumes that the place of women is mainly concentrated to the household activities like kitchen work and upbringing of the children. There is systematic discrimination against women economically, socially, politically and culturally more so, in India. These discriminations & disabilities are practiced at all levels day in & day out. Women Empowerment is the ability of women to exercise full control over their actions. This means control over material assets, intellectual resources and even over their ideologies. It involves, at the psychological level, women's ability to assert them which has, so far, been constricted by the 'gender roles' assigned to them especially in a culture like India which resists changes. This essay throws light upon the different challenges that are faced by Indian...
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...representation can be simply delineated: Women represent half of the population of a country and therefore have the right to half of the Seats, since decisions made in parliament have a direct impact on their lives. - Women have different social and biological experiences which should be represented in Institution of governance. - Women and men have partly conflicting interests. - Women in positions of power can inspire more women to place themselves in influential and decision-making roles. Providing reservations to a particular section of community in government jobs and other institutions is generally the highlight of any political party’s agenda these days. Now there have been discussions about providing reservations to women in government jobs and democratic institutions like legislative assemblies and Parliament also. Sometimes one feels that basically the reservation issue is nothing but a populist policy of a government, but still it is necessary to discuss the rationale behind such a policy. Can reservations for women be an effective measure and do the women really require such special treatment? These are the points which need to be addressed. It is nothing but a truism to say that the present status of women in the Indian society vis-à-vis the status of men is far from satisfactory. For centuries, Indian society like most of the other societies has been a male-dominated one. Perhaps the degradation of the status of women started in the later Vedic period, because...
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...Bangladesh’s foreign exchange earnings, keeps many associated service businesses going and provides employment to millions of workers, approximately 80 per cent of whom are women, who otherwise would be hard pressed to find wage labour. Looking into many scientific studies and popular discourses, it is an undeniable fact that the Bangladeshi women workers in the RMG industries in the era of globalisation are absolutely deprived of their labour rights, vividly manifested in the country’s labour law. It is equally significant that a large number of industrial reserve army entered in the formal labour force, who otherwise would have lived unemployed or underemployed. This is why one important debate among the policymakers, academics and the experts is whether the rural, migrant workers who enter the new manufacturing factories in ‘Majority World’ countries experience significant changes in their lives. From the economic point of view there is no doubt that now women workers are earning cash from a formal sector, which is undoubtedly new in their lives. It is because most women workers came from rural areas, and in those areas almost all of them did not have any formal employment. In terms of earning cash, the status of most workers is now better compared to their previous non-wage earner status. In addition, many women workers readily...
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...How to promote women empowerment? First let us define women empowerment. United Nations population information network (POPIN) defined Women empowerment as “women's sense of self-worth; their right to have and to determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities and resources; their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally.” Looking in to the state of affairs of women empowerment in the Philippines, we could say that we have come far using, education, Employment, Social and Political influence and freedom to decide home and health choices, as the measuring stick. According to the National Statistics Office survey as of 2008, 41.1% women while only 36.4% of men have finished high school or higher. Another NSO survey as of 2010 reported 78.4% men and 50.4% women are employed. In the fields of social and mass media we can see a lot of successful female icons such as Jessica Soho, Mel Tiangco and Kris Aquino. Also, the term house husband has now been coined, accepted and even practiced by a lot of Filipino families. In the Political scene we see Jambi Madrigal, Meriam Defensor Santiago and Former President Cory Aquino as beacons of female competency. And we now have laws which promote and protects women’s personal, professional and health choices such as RA9262 Anti-Violence...
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...You might be listening to news, reading newspaper or magazine, you would have gone through incidents and accidents with women in India. While any other article on women’s empowerment in India will take a look at our rich heritage and enlightened societies of the past where women were treated as equals, the concept of “India” itself evolved quite recently, relative to the sum of its parts’ histories. But the TRUTH is that in the modern India, the woman has always been a second grade citizen, no matter what its esteemed leaders have said or done. It is hard to fathom how slow moving the cultural exchange of the world is when you find out that there are several places across the country where harmful customs of the ancient world coexist with modern appliances and thought. However that may come as hardly any surprise to anyone who has lived in India – the dichotomy of society is something that can only be explained by a refrain from an old Bollywood song: “It happens only in India!” Yes, it is only in India that glaring and brutal gang rapes occur frequently in a state that is headed by a woman Chief Minister. Gender discrimination is the least of worries for women in India, known otherwise as the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women. Other instances of violence against women has an astonishing and grim variety to it – with acid throwing, domestic violence stemming out of dowry, rape, harassment and an assortment of...
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...Women Empowerment: Since the older times, women have been treated as second rate citizens of all across the globe. The situation is almost the same everywhere-irrespective of the developed country or the developing country-caste, community, colour or creed a position which is comparable in many ways, with that of racial minorities. Women have been relegated to secondary position despite the fact that they numerically constitute about half the world population today. This situation has caused immense loss to their self-dignity as human beings and also their independent entities, associated with men, apart from other matter, in context with intellectual and professional capability. In the very beginning of civilization, women enjoyed a respectable position in society-at par with men. They actively participated in social, religious affairs as well as in warfare. The social, religious ceremonies were considered incomplete unless women participated in them. However, it was their physical constitution which acted as hurdles on the way to doing their various different difficult tasks. Gradually, they became dependent on men for food, protection for their other necessities. It was due to the strong built-up of men they risked their lives in course of hunting and food collection. It is really ironical that superiority is not accorded to the fair sex who are responsible for carrying forward lives on this planet but to men who have muscle power with the help of which they can subjugate...
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...While the impact of globalisation maybe hotly contested, with its proponents claiming extraordinary benefits for mankind and its opponents stressing disproportionate benefits for the rich, and marginalisation and disempowerment of the poor, for countries such as Bangladesh with low income, smaller capacities and even lesser bargaining turf, globalisation has thrown up a host of challenges with great rapidity. And yet we continually strive to integrate into a globalised world whilst balancing our national agenda of democracy, development and trade. While speaking on Bangladesh, since coming here as Bangladesh’s High Commissioner I have come to realize, increasingly and sadly as time has gone by, that Bangladesh is often bypassed and when discussed or referred to in the South Asian context, the emphasis more often than not is on negative elements. Overcoming certain misperceptions about my country and bringing it out of the ugly shadows generated by misinformation, sometimes seem in itself the biggest challenge to me. However, whatever we as a nation have achieved since our independence have come as part of our victories in our persistent struggle on numerous fronts in an increasingly globalized world. As it traversed the oceans of fire and blood during its long struggle for national independence, across the barren desert of autocratic rule and overcoming the horrendous calamities wrought by nature’s wrath, Bangladesh has manifested, if nothing else, its indomitable...
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...Culture and Society Culture is the reflection of our lifestyle and society. It is culture which makes one society different from another. Society is the largest form of human group who shares a common culture. Members of the society learn the culture and transmit it from one generation to the next. So culture and society is linked with each other. Culture is basically the summation of social customs and traditions which are carried from one generation to other, knowledge, material objects, values, belief, language, behavior and many more. So culture is a vast topic. In our daily life the term culture is used to complement any fine art or refined intellectual taste or any socially praised behavior. But in sociological term culture includes all elements and ideas of a society. A group of people who cultivates soil by hand has just as much culture as the group of people who relies on computer operated machinery has. But their cultures are different from each other. A particular society has a particular culture. The major theoretical perspectives on culture and society: Sociologists view culture and society from different perspectives. They are given below - • If we analyze culture and society from the functionalist perspective “Culture reflects a society’s strong central values”. • If we analyze culture and society from the conflict perspective “Culture reflects a society’s dominant ideology”. • If we analyze culture and society from the interactionist perspective...
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...o r g a n i z at i o n september 2008 A business case for women The gender gap isn’t just an image problem: our research suggests that it can have real implications for company performance. Some companies have taken effective steps to achieve greater parity. Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Mary C. Meaney Article at a glance Companies that hire and retain more women not only are doing the right thing but can also gain a competitive edge. They can take several basic steps to achieve even greater parity. These companies will be able to draw from a broader pool of talent in an era of talent shortages. What’s more, research shows a correlation between high numbers of female senior executives and stronger financial performance. Women in developed economies have made substantial gains in the workplace during recent decades. Nevertheless, it’s still true that the higher up in a company you look, the lower the percentage of women. But some companies have moved successfully to increase the hiring, retention, and promotion of female executives. Their initiatives have included efforts to ensure that HR policies aren’t inadvertently biased against women or part-time workers, to encourage mentoring and networking, to establish (and consistently monitor at a senior level) targets for diversity, and to find ways of creating a better work–life balance. Changes like these have a price, but there are business advantages to making them—above and beyond the...
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...Economic Times | 'We must make our women safe and secure' - The Times of India More | Log In | Sign Up | Like 6.7m Follow Pune The Times of India Advanced Search » Home City Pune Crime Civic Issues Politics Schools & Colleges More Cities You are here: Home » City » Pune RELATED KEYWORDS: Women 'We must make our women safe and secure' TNN | Dec 24, 2012, 05.32AM IST Like Share 1 Tweet 0 0 Share It is not a matter of rape alone, but about respect that is given to women in public places, homes or at work. That women not being recognized as equals is a matter of deep concern. What is also disturbing is the fact that it is not only in the capital city where women are accorded scant respect, but that it is widespread across the country in varying degrees. Our city Pune, once known for social reformers, freedom fighters and people with bold ideas who engaged women in performing religious rituals, has witnessed many incidents of rape and harm to women. As a vibrant city that is home to thousands of students from across the country and the world and thousands of professionals in the IT/ITES industry of whom over 40% are women, it is critical that we make our women safe and secure and enable them to lead their lives with dignity they so richly deserve. As an independent nation, even if our country cannot provide basic roti, kapda aur makan to all, it must ensure respect and security of women and we cannot deny them this basic...
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...Empowerment Status of Women Presidents of Village Panchayats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala: A Comparative Study The 73rd constitutional amendment act is open an alleyway for a growth model with inclusive democracy in Indian political development. Therefore people are participated in the political affairs regardless of gender, race and other identities, because the seventy- third constitutional amendments act providing the devolution of power to the people. The basic indent includes thirty three per cent seats for adult females, similar reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, statutory requirement to hold periodic elections under the supervision of State Election Commissions, transfer of funds...
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...The Empowerment of the Future of Women “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult”, Charlotte Whitton (The Soul Sisters). Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Oprah Winfrey are just a few names who have taken women leadership to the next level. But why does progress still seem to be a struggle for other women? Men seem to be dominating the political world in the U.S., and females seem to be striving to be the next powerhouses, but their professional image seems to be standing in the way of their future. Although women have made significant progress in obtaining low level leadership positions, their professional image continues to prevent them from receiving these same positions in higher forms. Political standards for future female candidates have become increasingly difficult to fulfill. The claim made for women not obtaining these higher level positions is simply because women are “less hierarchical, more cooperative and collaborative, and more oriented increasing other’s self-worth” (Eagly, pg. 2). Candidates for the job must be “likeable and tough” (Braude), which is seemingly become more and more difficult for female leaders these days when men are strong participants with these characteristics. When one wants to put a female and a male in a rink together, who would come out on top? The obvious choice would be the male, but it is not time to give a female the chance? The opportunity for women leaders...
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