Chapter 1

Introduction

Since the “UN Declaration of the Decade of Women” in 1975, attention and action on women’s concerns
steadily increased and education, whether it is the form of consciousness-raising skill acquisition, was one of the
areas women’s organization, govt. Agencies and international donor agencies focused on. The underline
assumption was that if women understood their condition, know their rights and learns skills traditionally denied
to them, empowerment would follow. Thirty-nine years have passed and there are different views as to whether
such assumptions about increasing access to education and training have resulted in the titling of the power
balance in the favor of women.

Bases for women empowerment

Empowerment in its emancipator meaning, is a serious- one which bring up the question of
personal agency rather than reliance on intermediaries, one that links action to needs, and one that results in
making significant collective change. It also a concept that does not merely concern personal identity but bring
out a broader analysis of human rights and social justice. Empowerment begins with U.S. civil rights movement
in 1960 as resulted some blacks got power that called “black power”. Empowerment began to be applied within
the women’s movements in the mid 1970s. Now there was need to give them power in political sphere, both
private and public. Its international use probably began with the appearance of the book by Sen and Grown,
Development, crisis, and alternative vision: Third World Women’s Perspectives (1985), prepared for national
conference at the end of the U.N. decade for Women in 1985. In this book a section on “Empowering
Ourselves” clearly identifies the creation of women’s organizations as central to the design and implementation
of strategies for gender transformation.

Women in many societies, particularly in Latin America have relied on “networks of reciprocal
exchange” (Lomnitz 1977) that provides information and assistance from families, friends and neighbors to
obtain basic services such as health, child care, food and even services such as loans and job procurement.
These networks operate within all social classes, a poor and elite (Lomnitz 1977 and 1984). Empowerment has
many faceted. Empowerment is a sociopolitical concept that goes beyond” formal political participation” and
“consciousness rising”. A full definition of empowerment must include cognitive, psychological, political and
economic components. So in these days women are getting empowerment in all these domains.

Obstacles in the way of Women Empowerment

 There are some obstacles in the way women empowerment. Women are deprived of getting proper
empower mental facilities all over the world. In the study area, the researcher has tried to find out the main
obstacles of women empowerment. The following obstacles were found against women empowerment.

Family Restriction

Most of the families especially in the Muslim areas there is restriction for girls child to go to school.
Twenty four percentage of family having restriction for the girls to go to school. The rate of victim of family
restriction is not going down. So the higher education was threatened by the family restriction.

Religious Legislation

In the many area some girls are victim of religious legislation as well as social legislation. Some
guardians consider that girls do not need higher education. So, women were victimized of social and religious
legislation and their study had been stopped. The 17 to 30 percentage girls could not achieved higher education
for the religious legislation. Some guardians do not understand the real meaning of the religion. So, they
stopped the study of their girls.

Early Marriage

Early marriage is one of the major obstacles in the way of women empowerment and education.
Guardians think that girls are their burden. So, they always try to marry them. They are deprived of higher
education and it has been stopped their education forever for early marriage.

Illiterate Guardians

It has found that some guardian are illiterate as well as ignorant and for this reason some guardians are
not willing to send their female child to the educational institutions. Some studies depicted the painful picture of
the situation of illiteracy of the guardians in the study area. They have no knowledge about the importance of
education and no knowledge about the development of women empowerment. So, most of the women remain
uneducated in the study area.

Lack of Social Awareness

Though some NGOs are arranging awareness programs among the guardians, they, in fact, are not
getting aware of sending their female children to the educational institutions. They think that women education
is not essential. So, for their lack of awareness some women still remain uneducated in the study area. Its shows
the lack of awareness of the guardians in the study area. Some guardians have no knowledge about the
importance of education and empowerment in the study area. They are not aware about the role of their female
child in building up the nation or making the country develop. So, for the lack of awareness about the
importance of education women in the study area have been deprived of getting higher education.

Poor women are Busy Women

Poor women are Busy Women. Not only do they spend much time and energy responding to family
needs, but they also face condition such as rigid authoritarian spouse control, violence at home, social
expectation regarding motherhood and unsafe community environment that limit the physical mobility. Under
these conditions participation is fraught with obstacles and only a few will find it possible to become available
for participation.
 Chapter 2

Women and the economy

Women empowerment and economic development are closely related: in one direction, development
alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction,
empowering women may benefit development. Development policies and programs tend not to view women as
integral to the economic development process. This is reflected in the higher investments in women’s
reproductive rather than their productive roles, mainly in population programs. Yet women throughout the
developing world engage in economically productive work and earn incomes. They work primarily in
agriculture and in the informal sector and increasingly, in formal wage employment. Their earnings, however,
are generally low. Since the 1950s, development agencies have responded to the need for poor women to earn
incomes by making relatively small investments in income-generating projects. Often such projects fail because
they are motivated by welfare and not development concerns, offering women temporary and part-time
employment in traditionally feminine skills such as knitting and sewing that have limited markets. By contrast,
over the past twenty years, some non-governmental organizations, such as the Self-Employed Women’s
Association in India, have been effective in improving women’s economic status because they have started with
the premise that women are fundamental to the process of economic development.
 Women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality help society ensure the sustainable development
of a country. Many world leaders and scholars have argued that sustainable development is impossible without
gender equality and women’s empowerment. Sustainable development accepts environmental protection, social
and economic development, including women’s empowerment. In the context of women and development,
empowerment must include more choices for women to make on their own.

Race has an integral impact on women’s empowerment in areas such as employment. Employment can
help create empowerment for women. Many scholars suggest that when we discuss women’s empowerment,
discussing the different barriers that underprivileged women face, which make it more difficult for them to
obtain empowerment in society, is important when examining the impact of race in connection to employment.
Significantly examining how opportunities are structured by gender, race, and class can transpire social change.
Work opportunities and the work environment can create empowerment for women. Empowerment in the
workplace can positively affect job satisfaction and performance, having equality in the workplace can greatly
increase the sense of empowerment.

In the case women have the opportunity to settle for stable jobs, women of color encounter a lack of
equal accessibility and privileges in work settings. They are faced with more disadvantages in the workplace.
Patricia Parker argues that African American women’s empowerment is their resistance to control, standing up
for themselves and not conforming to societal norms and expectations. In connection to power, feminist
perspectives look at empowerment as a form of resistance within systems of unequal power relations. Within the
societal setting of race, gender, and class politics, African American women’s empowerment in the work
environment “can be seen as resistance to attempts to fix meanings of appropriate identity and behavior, where
such meanings are interpreted as controlling, exploitative, and otherwise oppressive to African American
women.” When talking about women’s empowerment, many scholars suggest examining the social injustices on
women in everyday organizational life that are influenced by race, class, and gender.

“The best measure of a nation’s progress is the way it treats its women.” The prosperity of a nation
cannot be imagined without women’s empowerment. A society cannot develop sustainably without transforming
and amplifying the distribution of opportunities, resources, and choices for men and women so that they have
equal power to shape their own lives and contribute to their families, communities, and countries. The equitable
participation of women in public life is essential for building and sustaining a strong, vibrant society.

Empowering women is an indispensable tool for advancing development and economic gains. The
importance of gender equality is evident by its inclusion as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5 –
Gender Equality).

The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic,
and health status is extremely important. Women are important contributors to the economy, both as employees
and entrepreneurs. They bring diverse perspectives and skills to the workforce, and drive innovation and growth
in various industries.

In the new India, the modern identity of women’s power is becoming visible to the world. Female
entrepreneurs are at the forefront of transforming India into a global powerhouse. At present, there are 432
million women of working-age in India, out of which 343 million are employed in the unorganized sector. A
report by McKinsey Global Institute has estimated that just by offering equal opportunities to women, India
could add US$ 770 billion to its GDP by 2025.

Yet, the present contribution of women to the GDP remains at 18%. From small businesses to startups,
women are driving innovation and growth in their respective industries. Women have demonstrated through
their life and work, and through their leadership and governance that Women make a Difference – not just a
small difference but a significant and critical one.

Women have played a crucial role in shaping and contributing to society in various ways. From battling
for their rights to pursuing education and career opportunities, women have made significant contributions to
the growth and development of communities, nations, and the world at large. Women’s contribution to the
society has been invaluable, and their leadership, resilience, and creativity continue to shape the world we live
in today.
 With India now presiding over the world’s most powerful economic group, the G20, the country has
taken the initiative to give the world a new direction by putting development, led by women, on the global
agenda. The representation of women in India is a shining example of the path to social justice and economic
empowerment.

Rural women are said to be the torchbearers for social, economic, and environmental transformation for
the ‘New India’. India is an Agrarian Economy, 80% of the rural women are employed in the agriculture sector.
Simply empowering and mainstreaming the rural women workforce in the agriculture sector can bring a
paradigm shift toward the economic growth of the nation. It would enhance food and nutrition security and
alleviate poverty and hunger, which would further be a win-win strategy for achieving Sustainable Development
Goals by 2030.

Growth also comes from changing the regressive social structure of a nation and challenging prejudices.
In that aspect, the contribution of women to India’s economic growth has played a major role in changing the
outlook of the country. Some of the renowned foundations engaged in ground-breaking work are women-led.
Many Indian women have represented the nation on a global platform and their innovations have further helped
in growth. Research suggests that ventures started by women end up being more sustainable. The growth
trajectory of India shows that there has been a significant rise in the number of women entrepreneurs and if the
figures keep going up, their contribution to the economy would be noteworthy.

However, there exist large gender gaps in economic opportunities and outcomes in almost all countries.
Women earn less, have fewer assets, and bear the burden of unpaid and care work, they are largely concentrated
in vulnerable and low-paying activities. Gaps in economic opportunities and outcomes are one such universal
problem that led to the establishment of a High-Level Panel (HLP) by the UN Secretary-General in 2015 so as
to tackle the biggest challenges acting as roadblocks in women’s economic development.

Experts came together from different parts of the world to review gender gaps in economic
empowerment and come up with solutions to realize women’s full and equal participation in the economy

The High-Level Panel (HLP) submitted its final report to the Secretary-General in 2017 which
recognized four key areas of work that women engage in:
 Formal Sector

Informal Sector

Women-owned enterprises

Agriculture

Moreover, the report identified seven drivers for women’s economic empowerment and laid out concrete
actions to accelerate progress toward women’s full and equal economic participation, these include:

1.Tracking adverse norms and promoting positive role models

2.Ensuring legal protection and reforming discriminatory laws and regulations

3.Recognizing, Reducing, and Redistributing unpaid work and care

4.Building assets–Digital, Financial, and Property

5.Changing business culture and practice

6.Improving public sector practices in employment and procurement

7.Strengthening visibility, collective voice, and representation

 Chapter 3

SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT

In the words of the current Prime Minister “empowering women means empowering the entire family.” In a
country like India, a girl child faces challenges right from the time of her birth or one can say a girl child has to
fight even for her birth. Hence the Government of India has given a big focus on empowering women through
various government-sponsored schemes. Some of the important schemes are mentioned below.

Social Justice is a very important topic from the GS-I (Indian Society) and GS-II (Welfare Schemes for
Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States) perspectives. Candidates can fetch all previous
years’ Social Justice Questions for UPSC Mains GS 2 practice.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign was launched on 22 January 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. It aims to address the issue of the declining child sex ratio image (CSR) and is a national initiative jointly
run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the
Ministry of Human Resource Development. It initially focused on multi-sector action in 100 districts throughout
the country where there was a low CSR.

Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana

It is a maternity benefit program run by the Government of India. It was introduced in 2016 and is implemented
by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and
lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth. It provides partial wage compensation to
women for wage-loss during childbirth and childcare and to provide conditions for safe delivery and good
nutrition and feeding practices.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

It is a Government of India backed saving scheme targeted at the parents of girl children. The scheme
encourages parents to build a fund for future education and marriage expenses for their female child. The
scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 January 2015 as a part of the Beti Bachao, Beti
Padhao campaign. The scheme currently provides high-interest rates and tax benefits. The account can be
opened at any India Post office or branch of authorized commercial banks.

One-Stop Centre Scheme

An initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the scheme intends to cater to women affected
by violence in a public or private space or within a family or at the workplace. At the centre, the beneficiaries
are given access to specialized services.
 Chapter 3

Women law in India and World

India

Some specific laws which were enacted by the Parliament in order to fulfill Constitutional obligation of women
empowerment are ,

The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.

The Medical termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

The Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Protection and) Act, 2013.
Above mentioned and several other laws are there which not only provide specific legal rights to women but
also gives them a sense of security and empowerment.

International Commitments of India as to Women Empowerment

India is a part to various International conventions and treaties which are committed to secure equal rights of
women.

One of the most important among them is the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), ratified by India in 1993.

Other important International instruments for women empowerment are: The Mexico Plan of Action (1975), the
Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (1985), the Beijing Declaration as well as the Platform for Action (1995)
and the Outcome Document adopted by the UNGA Session on Gender Equality and Development & Peace for
the 21st century, titled “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for
Action”. All these have been whole-heartedly endorsed by India for appropriate follow up.

These various national and International commitments, laws and policies notwithstanding women’s situation on
the ground have still not improved satisfactorily. Varied problems related to women are still subsisting; female
infanticide is growing, dowry is still prevalent, domestic violence against women is practiced; sexual
harassment at workplace and other heinous sex crimes against women are on the rise.

Though, economic and social condition of women has improved in a significant way but the change is
especially visible only in metro cities or in urban areas; the situation is not much improved in semi-urban areas
and villages. This disparity is due to lack of education and job opportunities and negative mind set of the society
which does not approve education for girl children.
World