According to UN Human Development report the human development paradigm contains four main components-productivity equity sustainability and empowerment. Through enhanced capabilities, the creativity and productivity of people must be increased so that they become effective agents of growth. Economic growth must be combined with equitable distribution its benefits. Equitable opportunities must be available both too present and too future generations. And all people, women and men, must be empowered to participate in design and implementation of key decisions that shaped their lives. Human Development is impossible without gender equality. As long as women are excluded from the development process, development will remain weak and lopsided. To understand how a group of individuals might engage in different processes of empowerment, such as utilizing the flexibility of expression offered on the Internet, we must first understand how individuals and groups are marginalized and disempowered by social institutions in real life. Author has attempted to trace a brief history of empowerment and its implications for Indian women. I have shown that the instruments for empowerment have to contend with entrenched prejudices and patriarchal modes of oppression. At the same time, there are indications the with conscientization programmers and concerted efforts at changing world-views, women will garner confidence and men will learn to accept that power is not a male prerogative. For, while empowerment may be at the cost of a growing sense of disempowerment among the once powerful, to be meaningful and effective, capacity building has also to inculcate the skills of role-sharing and participatory behavior among the new elite.
According to UN Human Development report the human development paradigm contains four main components-productivity equity sustainability and empowerment. Through enhanced capabilities, the creativity and productivity of people must be increased so that they become effective agents of growth. Economic growth must be combined with equitable distribution its benefits. Equitable opportunities must be available both too present and too future generations. And all people, women and men, must be empowered to participate in design and implementation of key decisions that shaped their lives. Human Development is impossible without gender equality. As long as women are excluded from the development process, development will remain weak and lopsided [1].
Empowerment is widely used word but seldom defined. Long before it became popular, women were discussing about gaining control over their lives & participate in decision-making. The word empowerment captures this sense of gaining control, of participation, of decision-making. More recently the word empowerment has entered the vocabulary of government NGOs international development agencies and United Nations.
Empowerment is a process aimed at changing the nature and direction of systematic forces, which marginalize women and other disadvantaged section in a given context. Empowerment is also visualized as enabling process. It implies fundamental redistribution of power within and between families/societies and an externally induced process or mechanism of change to words women's equality and development [5].
Empowerment is a process and is not, therefore something that can be given to people. The process of empowerment is both individual self-assertion to collective resistance, protest and mobilization that challenge basic power relations. For individuals and groups where class, caste ethnicity and gender determine their access to resources and power, their empowerment begins when they not only recognize the systematic forces that oppress them but act to change existing power relationships. Women's empowerment can be viewed as a continuum of several interrelated and mutually reinforcing components:
In short empowerment is process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation, greater decision-making power and control and to Tran formative action.
In changing the unequal balance of decision-making power and control in the relations of men and women- in the household, in work place, in communities, in government, and in the international area- it will lead to women's empowerment.
The process of women's empowerment is multidimensional. It enables women to realize their full potential and empowers them in all spheres of life. Women's empowerment, in fact, begins with the awareness about their rights and capabilities and the understanding as to how the socio-economic and political forces affect them. Empowerment as a concept, therefore, encompasses their political empowerment, economic independence and social upliftment.
With the realization that real development cannot take roots if it bypasses women who not only represent nearly half of the country's total population but represent the very kernel around which societal re-orientation must take place, the Government has directed all its efforts towards removing various gender-biases and thus guarantee women equal status in the real sense as is enshrined in the Constitution of India.
The Constitution of India guarantee certain rights and privileges to women through Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. Article 14 confers on men and women equal rights and opportunities in the political, economic and social spheres. While Article 15 prohibits discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex etc. Article 15(3) makes a special provision enabling the State to make affirmative discriminations in favor of women. Similarly, Article 16 provides for equality of opportunities in matter of public appointments for all citizens. Article (39) (a) further mentions that the State shall direct its policy towards securing all citizens, men and women; equally, the right to a means of livelihood, while Article 39 (c) ensures equal pay for equal work. Article 42 directs the State to make provision for ensuring just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. Above all, the Constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen through Article 19 (A) (e) to renounce the practices derogatory to the dignity of women. Post-independent efforts to improve the situation of women begin with the community development in first five-year plan (1951-56). The central social welfare board was setup in 1953. In the second five-year plan (1956-61) women were organized into 'Mahila Mandals' to act as focal point at the grass-roots level for the development of women. The third, fourth and other interim plans (1961-74) accorded high priority to education of women. Measures to improve maternal and child health services were also introduced. In fifth five-year plan (1974-78) there was shift in the approach from ‘welfare’ to "development as the scope of social welfare was enclosed with development services. The sixth five-year plan (1980-85) was landmark as women's development. A separate chapter was included in the plan document. The plan adopted multi-disciplinary approach with three-pronged thrust on health, education and employment. In the seventh five-year plan (1985-90) development programmes for women were continued with the objectives of raining their economic and social status and bringing them into the main stream of national development. The eighth five tan (1992-97) promised to ensure that benefits of development from different sectors do no bypass women. Special programmes were implemented to supplement the general development programmes. In ninth five-year plan (1998-2002) emphasis is given on empowering the women by strengthening economic activities and providing support services to them.
In addition to be women specific and women related programmes and important policy guiding documents include:
The Government continuously strikes to provide institutional support to the nation’s efforts for the advancement of women with special focus on girl child [6]. At the national level development of women and child development acts as the machinery with in govt. to guide, co-ordinate and review the efforts of both govt. and NOGs. The NIPCCD through its women's development division department in the areas of research and training. The national commission for women (NCW) was setup as a high-level statutory body to oversee the implementation of constitutional and legal safe guards and protection of women's rights and privileges. In 1993 Rashtriya Mahila Kosh was introduced.
Entrepreneurship is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Since economic reforms there has been lots of restructuring in the Indian Labour markets in terms of employee’s qualifications, nature of work contents and work contracts. These changes have raised the profile and importance of entrepreneurship in the Indian economy. Despite growth of women in professional and managerial jobs, the gender gap in entrepreneurship remains significant.
In India, women entrepreneurship can be considered as “necessity entrepreneurship” rather than “opportunity entrepreneurship”.
Women usually have smaller networks and les geographical mobility than men, more so in the case of young, married women who need to take care of their families. These women can use their skills and available local resources to start their own enterprise. However, the location of the enterprise and the strength of the relationship with contacts are very important as it determines the entrepreneur’s ability to acquire and employ the resources available in her community.
In 2001-02, though the gross enrollment of girls in classes I – XII was 50.29 per cent, it was only 6.71 per cent in higher education including polytechnic. This indicates that in India there exists a vast pool of literate but untrained women work force. These women are unlikely to find employment in large well-established business or industrial houses whose work practices may be difficult for them to comprehend and follow.
However, these women workforce may be possessing skills in making handicraft/handloom items of food-processing like making pickles etc. which can be used profitably by creating small enterprise. These women entrepreneurs can employ women with personal approach to manage work efficiently.
Finally, the population growth along with intense competition in the job market is likely to push more and more women into Entrepreneurship. Self-employment could be used as a way to circumvent institutional and cultural constraints with respect to female employment. Empowerment of Women through Education
India is a country where traditionally, conventionally, woman occupied a significant status. According to the Indian concept godhead is not a male construct, but women also have an equal status. We Indians worship divine couples - Shiva and Parvati. We are living in an era of profound and widespread social and cultural changes. Rapid changes are taking place in social, political, industrial and cultural institutions. There occur massive restructuring of work, employment and industry. Identity and aspirations shift swiftly. The knowledge revolution is taking place. Technologies change in an unimaginable speed. Globalization fragmentation and division are also taking place. New forms and expressions of citizenship emerge. Proper management of varied systems in these contexts is a real challenge. The very purpose of education and particularly higher education is the enhancement of the quality of life and life-management systems. All human operations lie within this large framework.
The precept and practice of education in any field depend on what is happening to the world of work. Major structural changes in industries and occupations are taking place. There is a demand for new specific and generic skills in relation to human resource development. Challenges of greater competitiveness, technological change and globalization need to be faced by everybody. New sorts of workplace emerge. They are characterized by task and project management oriented fuzzy boundaries. There are no more jobs for life. Al needs to switch occupation and career several times in a working life. There is a need for workers to be flexible, responsive and creative. There is stress everywhere and getting the work-life balance right is a real task of intelligent information systems, new ways and skills of information handling have to be resorted to. We have to delineate the characteristics fo the fluid and changing communities. There is greater emphasis on culture, leisure and creativity. Tapping of the new sources of information and knowledge is absolutely necessary for timely management of systems.
The learning citizens for the 21st century need to be comfortable with own identity, with confidence and self-esteem. High Levels of technical skills and competencies need to be developed. They have to be curious, inquisitive and eager to explore. Creative, inventive and innovative aptitudes need to be nurtured. The learning citizen for the 21st century has to be tolerant of ‘difference’. open and accommodative to the experiences of others. A sense of both self and society, independent and cooperative, has to be imbibed. Skills to shuffle back and forth between ideas and concepts and data. evidence and experience are necessary. Critical and analytical thinking including auto-critique is necessary for effective management development and growth. Having learned to learn, it is imperative to develop the culture of knowing how to know. One should have the confidence to sift, evaluate, review and synthesize. You have to be a learner, teacher and practitioner at the same time.
The tradition is already rooted in our culture where great men like Sri Ramakrishna or Swami Vivekananda had encouragement and initiation from their mothers. Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother was Sri Ramakrishna’s chief associate. Sri Aurobindo also had the Holy Mother with him. Swami Vivekananda’s chief disciple was a lrish woman of intellect called Sister Nivedita. So, an Indian woman, endowed with this traditional culture and values, becomes a polished diamond, on getting modern education and professional skill. Of course, we have a number of successful women role models - starting from an efficient Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to Kalpana Chawla, who with her determination became an astronaut exploring outer space. Services rendered by Annie Besant, founder of the Theosophical Society and Rukmani Arundale’s contributions to arts are well-known. Women should enrich themselves by retaining the traditional values and adding on the best of the Western tradition and progress. Our rich cultural heritage has thus given to our women virtues and graces that other women miss. An educated, employed woman with her natural traditional goodness and grace is the ideal ‘New Woman’, whom poets like Bharathiar envisioned for the independent India [4].
Bharathiar’s New woman does not walk, with her head bent with downcast looks. She is brave, straightforward and proud of her knowledge and skills. He has already predicted that women will acquire skills and knowledge and put an end to superstitions.
Even though he was an advocate of women’s emancipation” he doesn’t want you to become a free radical woman. He wants you to balance tradition and modernity.
Along with Gandhi, Bernard Shaw and Vivekananda and so many great thinkers, Tamil Poet Bharathiar also emphasized the importance of women’s education. He puts a very relevant question.
That is by denying education to half of the world population - women you are pushing the world into darkness.
Gandhi said, educate one woman and you are educating the whole world. Bharathiar, as we know, is the one who could dream about and prophesy the emancipation of women.
He already foresaw such days of convocation where a number of women graduates received their degrees and awards.
In his poems he explodes the myth that women are inferior to men in intellectual caliber.
He has a very good advice to the young graduates. He not only wants us to build up our home, he also wants us to excel outside the home. He reminds us that we have a duty to our motherland. We get educated, learn all aspects of life and go abroad and gather the modern thoughts and strive for the betterment of our country.
In the period when education for women was unthinkable and unacceptable an educated girl was considered to be a misfit for family life. Even in the British Raj, women’s total economic and cultural dependency was accepted not only as necessary but also as something desirable. The post - independent India has witnessed a change in the perspective in the field of women’s education, thanks to institutions of higher learning like this college & Universities. Indian constitution repeatedly emphasized the relevance of female literacy. The national policy on education has stated: “The education; system must produce young men and women of character and ability committed to national service and development. Only then will education be able to play its vital role in promoting natural progress, creating a sense for common citizenship, culture and strengthening national integration”. Mahatma Gandhi also believed in the fact that educating a single woman is equal to educating the entire family. There has to be enhanced stress on improvement of the status of Indian women through education and employment. Education plays an active role in elevating women’s positions and promoting their rights in society. With the spread of education among women, exploitation and oppression of women will be considerably reduced. This will in turn lead to the acceptance of social values that encourage economic independence and social justice for women paving the way for mutual respect and recognition of sexes. Such a value is being actively encouraged and forcefully canvassed by the modern system of education. Education is expected to bring in all round personality development in women, providing them with a new vision and worldview, helping her to adjust herself to the needs of her family and the community.
The report of the committee on the status of women in India (“Towards Equality”, December 1974) finds that the disabilities and constraints on women, which stem from social - cultural institutions, indicates that the majority of women are still very far from enjoying the rights and opportunities guaranteed to them by the Constitution. Society has not yet succeeded in framing the required norms or institutions to enable women to fulfill the multiple roles that are expected to play in India today.
Smt. Indira Gandhi, Former Prime Minister of India said in the Rajya Sabha on 13th May 1975, “I believe in the liberation of women in the same way as I believe in the liberation of men, that is, liberation from all kinds of obscurantism and superstition, from the narrow confines of outdated thoughts and habits. Men and women together can help to create a better society and a better world. In this, there should be no question of class, creed, sex or party”.
Gender disparity manifests itself in various forms, the most obvious being the continuously declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social stereotyping and violence at the domestic and societal levels are some other manifestations. Discrimination against the girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in parts of the country. This has to be taken note of by all policies and actions intended to bring about the advancement development and empowerment of women.
Our educated women’s responsibility is tremendous. Women have a significant role in shaping the behavior and mental makeup of the younger generation. She has the primary duty of nurturing and shaping the children, the leaders of tomorrow. Woman who was given a prominent role in the family set up, by our heritage and culture, today in the modern age, has an important part to play in the national development at large. Swami Vivekananda said, “If you want the nation to prosper include women in every aspect of our life.”
We have to focus on education and empowerment of women in rural areas particularly those from socially and economically marginalized groups. It is necessary to bring about a change in women’s perceptions about themselves and that of the society in regard to women’s traditional roles. It is necessary to create an environment for women to seek knowledge and information in order to make informed choices at their own pace. It deals exclusively with the quality improvement of women’s lives emphasizing on processes and interventions responding to the needs of women and girls.
Empowering women indirectly leads to a growing demand for education for girls and enhancing their participation in informal and alternative education system. We have to evolve educational institutions, which cater exclusively to marginalized girls, particularly in socially backward and underprivileged groups, which address the educational needs of adolescent girls, working girls and dropouts. Gender specific pedagogy and teaching – learning materials have to be developed in such cases. Impressive achievements and innovative approaches and efforts by both governmental and non-governmental agencies have led to progress in education in terms of access, enrolment, retention and quality in women education. However, providing access to girl children in schools in difficult circumstances poses a challenge of planning and providing quality education for all. Our colleges, particularly women colleges have to be part of such activities.
India recognizes the empowerment of women as the most critical precondition for participation of girls and women in education. Central and State Governments have to implement policies on empowerment of women to effectively address gender disparities, particularly in education. Proactive initiatives have to be launched to bring about gender party in basic education. The basic education programmes in India need to be ensured for participation in basic education. The Early childhood Care and Education Proramme needs further strengthening to enable girls to attend schools. Women’s empowerment programmes are to be supported to raise the awareness about education of girls and women. The higher educated girls can play proactive roles in such significant activities.
The integral development of the national naturally includes modernization, urbanization, and industrialization. Technical knowledge, cultural development and economic progress all are associated with these. Educated women graduates are really empowered to contribute significantly in these fields.
In the agricultural field, women participate to a greater extent – but they remain as invisible contributors. An educated woman who has specialized in this area can render a great service. There are several things to be done by women in the health and hygiene. By nature, women have the ability to care to smoothen the suffering. With a professional knowledge of hygiene and contagious diseases, they can certainly go a long way in building up a healthy community. Women can easily save the younger generation from the deadly practices for smoking, drinking and drug abuse. All these activities are now taken by women staying behind the curtain – as a silent catalyst, this is not enough. More proactive steps from individuals and institutions are necessary.
There are ever so many openings for young graduates to serve the nation. Besides contributing to the academic, scientific and technological development, a number of other areas are open and friendly to educated women. Forestation, food processing, creating an eco-friendly environment, in this age of acute unemployment – entrepreneurship – all these form important components of national development. In olden days women had a walk miles and miles to bring drinking water and firewood. But the educated woman of today is blessed with LPG Gas and microwave oven. Yet we have to bear in mind that even now in rural remote villages there are lakhs of women struggling for basic amenties like this. The literate woman should be quite conscious of energy conservation and eco-friendly practices. Besides contributing to increased production, women can help extensively in preserving food and energy. Above all as in entrepreneur, she can start her own industry with the technical know how she has earned, thus contributing to the family income and national income. Fashion designing, tailoring, food processing poultry farming, flower production, preparing spices and so on. We have multifarious activities pertaining to the women’s world. When the power and skill of our women are directed to such creative activities, the would-be active partners in national building. In a fast-developing country like India, progress and development do not confine to increase in production, health and social welfare alone. We cannot have any major development by marginalizing the majority of educated women with professional skills. The first step in national development is to recognized their merit and their contribution. Women should really feel proud of their accomplishments and status in the society. That will strengthen themselves to fight against the social evils and all types of violence against women.
The entire success of the family and nation depends on the women of the house and at the working place. To understand how a group of individuals might engage in different processes of empowerment, such as utilizing the flexibility of expression offered on the Internet, we must first understand how individuals and groups are marginalized and disempowered by social institutions in real life. It is appropriate to consider marginality, development and empowerment in conjunction since the concept of development participation has largely been equated with the betterment of the poor and oppressed. Essentially, all of these concepts compromise part of a world-view whose terms have largely been defined by wide range of scholars (cultural analysis, sociologists, political scientists, etc..). This world-view posits that individuals and groups can be oppressed and disempowered by other individuals, groups, social institutions and cultural contexts, and that individuals and groups do have the potential to empower themselves, to be liberated from these limiting factors. My principal reference in researching this knowledge base has been Lucia Vargas' book Social Uses & Practices: The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico. This work looks at how indigenous ethnic groups utilized and participated in INI (Instituto Nacional Inigenista) public radio stations in central Mexico. Thus, the literature that informed her research on the cultural and development implications of grassroots participation in mass communication projects, as well as her methodology in reception studies and ethnography, have guided my understanding of these vital themes.
The writings of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, Vargas explains, are principle to the understanding of how participation in developmental communication can lead to empowerment. Gramsci's concept of hegemony has shaped how cultural studies scholars have viewed the perpetuation of marginality of subordinate groups within societies. According to Vargas this theory, "proposes that the ruling class governs not just by grounding its superiority in economic matters, but also by establishing a widespread belief in its moral and intellectual leadership; it rules by molding, through the church, the school and the media, the attitudes and convictions of the members of subordinate classes." For scholars in the communications sector of cultural studies, Gramsci's focus on the ideological sphere as the site of indoctrination highlights the need of marginalized groups to form oppositional readings of dominate texts and the need for these groups and individuals to be able to communicate these readings as well as creating their own cultural texts to be distributed within the group or community [2].
Another link between cultural/communication studies and development participation is Paulo Freire's concept of conscientizacao. Freire's ideas were shaped by existentialist philosophy, liberation theology and his experiences as a missionary in Brazil. The concept of consientizacao is that, "by substituting a naive (in existentialist jargon, romantic) or magic (fatalistic) perception of reality with a critical awareness, people who were treated as mere objects become subjects of their own social destiny." For Freire, peoples' relationships with their environment hold many possibilities for adapting things to their own needs. Personal relationships can encompass possibilities for collaboration, solidarity, communication, love and friendship. He observed that for the powerless, the potential for communication has been replaced by a "culture of silence." Thus, he proposes development based on horizontal relationships between individuals and groups. In summation Vargas posits that, "development for Freire means liberation from all forms of oppression, freedom from social and economic domination and emancipation from the culture of silence."
It is Freire's emphasis on the individual's role in establishing horizontal communication, seeking critical awareness and supportive relationships that offers the most salience to the importance of participation in development. His ideas have been very influential in the rhetoric of development communications, whose political heyday evolved with the emerging UNESCO debate in the 70s, concerning the New World Information and Economic Order. This debate has been described as a conflict between two development paradigms, the modernization or orthodox paradigm (linear growth model) and the political-economy paradigm. Generally speaking, the modernization paradigm describes the models of economic stimulation and subsequent growth that industrialized nations and the Third World envisioned would propel developing nations to more equal status with their wealthier and more stable counterparts. The political-economy paradigm has emerged from dependency and Marxist theories. Basically, it observes that the international economy is based on western dependence on raw materials from developing nations. Developing nations serve a subordinate role in this equation due to their dependence on the industrialized nations for finished products, especially technologies and capital from selling off cheap labor and raw materials. Thus, this paradigm predicts that western development schemes based only on injection of capital for economic growth in developing countries, do little to stimulate political and economic self-sufficiently or increased empowerment and quality of life for the large populations of impoverished communities in these nations.
Arising out of UNESCO solidarity, politicians and scholars alike began to seek consensus on an alternative development that could draw from the strengths of developing countries, while recognizing their limitations within oppressive international and intranational political economies. "Development communications," is one arena where consensus emerged. The definitions of marginality and participatory development proposed at the First Seminar on Participatory Communication in 1978, are noted by Vargas as being excellent examples of pinnacle concepts within this intellectual movement. Marginality refers to situations where groups within a society do not participate in most economic, social, cultural or political activities. Vargas recounts that: "[i]n this seminar, participation was equated with liberation, and participatory communication was seen as both a means and as an end." For her own research, Vargas expanded this dual view of participation, originally by Freire, into two working concepts of participation:
The UNESCO meeting at Belgrade in 1977, also contributed to the growing development terminology by attempting to define access, participation and self-management as they pertain to participatory communication. From Vargas' summery, access can be viewed as: peoples' opportunities and abilities to use communication systems; to receive messages of their choice and to have a range of selections; and to be able to interact with programs' producers by giving feedback, such as criticisms. Participation means the audience's direct participation in production of messages/programs/texts and involvement in the management of communication systems. The last term, self-management was viewed as the "highest level of participation, " implying complete control of production and management.
The advent of increasingly widespread use of the Internet in many parts of the "developed" world has added a new outlook to the definitions of access and participation. As opposed to having access to a television or a radio, access to the Internet truly begins to fulfill these definitions. While being able to allow everyone in a community to create their own programming for local TV and radio stations is technically problematic due to time, revenue, space and technical limitations, access to a wide range of Internet technologies implies that users can receive email from all over the world; can send messages to government officials, web sites authors, friends, strangers, etc. can publish their own creative expressions and thoughts on personal or group web pages (self-management); and can access more information than from anywhere else in the world. When you consider the potential benefits of individuals and groups having access to the Internet, the implications are that this form of participation might not only imply psychological empowerment (participation as a goal) and the potential for group empowerment as a means, but also liberation from marginality.
Thus, use of the Internet implies the type of integral participation through access and self-management that many development and cultural scholars insist are vital to individual and group empowerment.
John Wesleyarticulated this ethic as:
The IT Empowerment Initiative will focus on building awareness, skill matching, and opportunities for women and girls in high growth IT careers. The Initiative will also work to identify and remove obstacles that prevent women and girls from entering or staying on such a path Sources.
Barro, Robert J., and Jong-Wha Lee. “Sources of Economic Growth.” Carnegie-Rochester Conference on Public Policy, vol. 40, 1994, pp. 1–46.
Berta-Esteve-Volast. Gender Discrimination and Growth: Theory and Evidence from India. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2007.
“Census of India 1991.” Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, Government of India, 1991. Accessed 6 July 2003. http://www.censusindia.net/.
Devi, S.U. “Visions for the 21st Century.” Women and Development, edited by K. Ahooja-Patel, S. U. Devi, and G. A. Tadas, Har-Anand Publications, 1999, pp. 21–43.
Dhagamwar, V. “A Tool for Equality in Employment?” Women's Education, 1995, pp. 3–9.
Kabeer, Naila. “From Feminist Insights to an Analytical Framework: An Institutional Perspective on Gender Inequality.” 1999.
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