Women's empowerment in India
Empowering women in India is a hard task. Gender discrimination is a deep-rooted social ill, practised in many forms for thousands of years. This article argues that laws alone have not changed it, and that real change must start at the grassroots.
The ill will not disappear in a few years, nor through half-hearted efforts. Laws and policies are not enough: most of the time they stay on paper, while the situation on the ground stays the same or even gets worse.
Tackling gender discrimination and empowering women in India is a long battle against powerful structures in society that work against women's growth and development.
The need for action on the ground
Things will not change overnight, but that is no reason to stop acting. The most important step now is to start action on the ground, however small it may seem.
This action should aim to change social attitudes and practices that are deeply biased against women. It can begin by working with women at the grassroots, increasing their access to and control over resources, and giving them more say in decisions.
Work to improve women's freedom of movement and their social interaction would also help their development and empowerment in every area.
A reality check
Much is being done today in the name of women's empowerment in India, and many resources are spent on it. That makes it vital to compare what is written on paper with what is actually happening.
India is among the worst countries in the world rankings of gender equality. Women are discriminated against and pushed to the margins at every level: social participation, economic opportunity and participation, political participation, education, nutrition and reproductive health care.
The author lists the situation as he sees it:
- A significant few still see women as sex objects.
- Gender inequality is high, crimes against women are increasing, and violence against women is at an all-time high, mostly unreported.
- Dowry-related problems and deaths are increasing, and are now very visible in cities.
- Harassment at work is rising fast as more women join the workforce.
- Early marriages still take place in large numbers, and very few girls go to school.
- Most girls who start school drop out by puberty to marry and live a life of drudgery.
- Female foeticide and infanticide are among the country's biggest social crises.
All this happens despite many programmes and policies run by the government and other bodies. In 2001, a National Policy for the Empowerment of Women was declared. So it is time to ask whether India is moving in the right direction, and how far the plans on paper are from reality.
Discrimination in every walk of life
A central part of empowering women is changing society's attitude towards them. In India, society has not been built on gender equality for a very long time. Cruelty and discrimination against women are part of daily life.
Many still believe women are fit only for housework and raising children. The veil system, child marriage and dowry show this. Women have never been part of the mainstream and are still seen as a great burden.
The figures show the situation:
- The sex ratio is the lowest, at around 933.
- Female literacy is just 54.16% (2001 Census).
- Women have never made up more than 10% of India's parliament and assemblies.
- Most women workers are outside the organised sector.
- Women make up just 2.3% of administrators, managers and professionals combined, and 20% of technical workers.
For the author, these figures reveal a mindset that has openly restricted, marginalised and discriminated against women. Can women be empowered with figures this alarming?
Women without control over their lives
The government declared 2001 the year of women's empowerment, but little has happened since. Even today, women cannot fully control their circumstances or their actions.
India began as a welfare state, then took up the development model, and now the latest trend is the empowerment model. However sincere these efforts, nothing substantial has changed on the ground.
Most women in India are poor, uneducated and poorly trained. They struggle every day to run an ill-equipped household and cannot escape oppressive social and economic conditions.
Female infanticide is one of the worst crimes against humanity committed in India. The patriarchal system favours the male child and treats a girl as property or a burden from the day she is born.
There is a large gap between the ideas behind empowerment policy and its practice. Everything happens on the surface. It is time to find a practical path on the ground towards real, measurable change.
Issues to tackle
Many issues must be addressed, both to improve existing programmes and to start real work on the ground. Women make up 52% of the population, yet their living conditions are very hard.
To start measurable action, women's education should come first, and female literacy programmes should be enforced across the country. To improve their social and economic conditions, women also need training to make informed decisions.
Real change will only come when social attitudes and norms change. Programmes that include men are urgently needed, so that tasks that now overburden women can be shared.
Unless women's daily living standards improve, their empowerment cannot be advanced in any other way. The issues to address include:
- affordable cooking fuel for rural women
- safe drinking water and sanitation
- a greater role for women in decision-making
- equal pay with men
- an end to exploitation
- more political participation by women
- ending poverty among women
- more security for women who work as daily-wage labourers in agriculture
- affordable health care and nutrition
- managing the risks of unwanted pregnancy, HIV and sexually transmitted infections
Ending gender inequality and bias
Little will be achieved unless the basic social attitude that breeds gender inequality and bias changes.
There are many laws and amendments to end discrimination and empower women in every area of life. Gender equality is written into the Indian Constitution, which empowers the state to end discrimination against women. Seats are reserved for women in local bodies and municipalities, and a law to reserve seats in parliament is planned.
But these laws and amendments have lost their force, because the basic problem lies in a social attitude that is deeply biased against women.
What, then, is the solution? For the author, the only solution is for women to unite and take steps to empower themselves at the grassroots. It may start slowly, and the first steps may look small, but it must happen.
Through many small actions of self-empowerment, women become aware of the reality on the ground. Then they can work to change the mindset that fosters gender inequality and bias.
Ending violence against women
Society's attitude to women is the heart of the matter. Women are still seen as a burden and a liability, and even as property. These attitudes give rise to violence against women.
Women cannot be empowered unless violence against them is removed from society. India's National Commission for Women was created in 1992, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was ratified in 1993.
Beyond laws and policies, violence against women can only be tackled by a change of attitude in families, in society and among women themselves. Only this change, and action against violence by every individual, will push the sleeping structures of government and society to take concrete steps.
Unless society accepts gender equality as a basic principle of human life, all efforts will bear only partial results. Gender awareness and training are an urgent need. The struggle for gender equality must be fought at every level and must overcome the barriers of caste, class, race and religion.
Women working together
Women's empowerment cannot happen unless women come together and decide to empower themselves, in every area of life. Then they can press for better health, nutrition and education for women on a large scale.
Self-empowerment can start with the daily problems of individual women, tackled with the aim of improving women's lives at every level of society.
A movement is needed that awakens every woman to creative, productive action. Progressive and resourceful women should come forward to help their less privileged sisters in every way they can. This will sow the seed of real women's empowerment in India.