2nd Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact Stockholm, 8-12 July, 2012, Sweden

Empowerment of Women in India: A Brief Review on Actions Taken and Goals Achieved

Bhola Nath Ghosh Premananda Bharati

Manoranjan Pal

Indian Statistical Institute203, B.T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India

Objectives

• The present paper briefly discusses the programmes that have been taken by Government of India for empowerment of women.

• The role of Government of India towards promoting the empowerment of women is also discussed.

Some Quotations

“Women empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society including participation in the decision making process and access to power are fundamental for the advancement of equality, development and pace”.

• ---Swami Vivekananda

• “Everyone has right to standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services...........everyone has the right.....to educate...to work....and to social security”

• Universal declaration of human rights (1948).

What do we mean by Empowerment of Women?

The word women empowerment essentially means that the women have the power or capacity to regulate their day-to-day life in the social, political and economic activities.

Commitments by Government of India

1. Constitutional ProvisionsWomen Specific LawsLaws affecting Women

2. Policies

3. Gender Budgeting

Materials and Methods

The present study is based on Secondary information collected from:

a.Census reports of India

b.Human development reports

c.UNDP reports

d.Ministry of Child and Women Development report

e.Wikipedia and different websites

Women related legislations

41 laws covering various spheres.

• Legal ProtectionRelevant provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; Special

provisions under IPC, The Legal Practitioners (Women) Act, 1923, The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse ) Act, 1994.

• EconomicFactories Act 1948, Minimum Wages Act 1948, Equal Remuneration

Act 1976, The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, The Plantation Labour Act, 1951, The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976.

Women related legislations (Cont.)

Social Family Courts Act, 1984, The Indian Succession

Act, 1925, The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (& amended in 2005), The Indian Divorce Act, 1969

Women related legislations (Cont.)

• Others:

– Immoral Traffic (prevention) Act, 1956

– The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (730 days up to 18 years of the child).

– The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961

– The commission of Sati (prevention) Act, 1987

– Prevention of women from domestic violence Act, 2005

National Policy of Government of India for Empowerment of Women

• Objective – advancement, development and empowerment, elimination of discrimination

• Achieved through – Judicial legal system, economic empowerment, social empowerment and enhancing decision making power of women, protecting from violence etc.

Institutional Empowering Mechanisms

• Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women.

• National Commission for Women.

Seventh Five Year Plan

• 1985- Ministry of Human Resource Development set up for Women and Child Development constituted in Human Resource Development Ministry.

Eighth Five Year Plan

• 1992-97 - for the first time highlighted the need to ensure a definite flow of funds from general developmental sectors to women

Ninth Five Year Plan

30% of funds were sought to be ear-marked in all women related sectors – inter-sectoral review and multi-sector approach.

Tenth Five Year Plan

Reinforces commitment to gender budgeting to establish its gender-differential impact and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments.

• Aims at initiating immediate action in tying up the two effective concepts of Women Component Plan (WCP) and Gender Budgeting

In the 11th five year plan same policies were followed for the

promotion of girl child in the sphere of education, health care etc to

bring more gender equality

11th Five Year Plan

Action by the Department for Women & Child Development:

• Adoption of Strategic Framework for Gender Budgeting

• Ministry of Finance and Planning Commission to engender the Annual Plan and Budget exercise for 2005-2006

• Four priority areas– Food and Nutrition Security & Employment guarantee– Water and Sanitation– Adequate Health facilities– Asset base for women– Reservation in the PRI– Joint Patta distribution

Action by the Department for Women & Child Development (Cont.):

• Capacity Building- Departments in GOI and State Governments

• Mainstreaming Gender Concerns- Watchdog approach– Interest Subsidy– Micro Credit– Health Insurance– Reservation in the PRI– Joint Patta distribution

The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM):

• The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) measures the relative empowerment of women and men in political and economic spheres of activity. It is a composite index having three components. – The first component represents political participation and decision

making power, – the second component represents economic participation and

decision making power and – the last components reflect power over economic resources.

Symbolically we can write

GEM = (PRI + CAMPTI + PCGDPIede)/3.

GEM is the simple average of the three components.

What are needed for “Women’s Development”?:

• Women as a beneficiary segment – Need for Gender mainstreaming

• Need to Change Programme formulations and implementation processes– More gender friendly – Optimize Participation of Voluntary Sector

• Gender budgeting – not an end in itself

Rationale of Alternative Strategy:

• Empowerment has to be–Holistic (Political, Social and

Economic)–Universal (equal opportunity and

level playing field)–Participative and Inclusive

Women may be Empowerment through the following process:

Health

& Nutrition.

Education

Change male attitude

Economic Participation

Social Mobility.

Social Participation

PoliticalParticipation

Decision making

Asset

Gender Analysis of State Budgets:Decadal trend

Expenditure on Women's Development (Rs in cr.)

YEAR CENTRE STATES TOTALAMOUNT % AMOUNT % AMOUNT

1993-94 440.32 41 643.25 59 1083.57

1994-95 643.48 48 700.17 52 1343.65

1995-96 558.22 37 960.88 63 1519.09

1996-97 811.40 44 1050.35 56 1861.75

1997-98 893.60 43 1169.21 57 2062.81

1998-99 1178.17 47 1348.47 53 2526.64

1999-00 1382.04 50 1398.29 50 2780.33

2000-01 1550.80 48 1709.84 52 3260.63

2001-02 (RE) 1838.64 48 2031.73 52 3870.37

2002-03 (BE) 1507.59 41 2211.57 59 3719.16

Concluding remark:

• The approach taken by Government of India of addressing issues related to empowerment of women from a holistic and micro-point view acknowledging the cross cutting linkages between economic, social and political identity of women presents a new hope. We believe that the women will be empowered as the men are and the empowerment of women will bring down atrocities against women as the women will have the strength and knowledge to stand up for their rights.

Thank You all