Women Empowerment in India

The independence of India has brought women, legally and constitutionally, to an equal tooling with men. The Constitution clearly provides equal rights for all, irrespective of caste, creed or sex. It lays down that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of sex and states clearly that it is the duty of every citizen to renounce any practice derogatory to the dignity of women. Consequently, many Indian women have distinguished themselves in different spheres of life. Many women now hold position of responsibility and can be found in many professions where their presence was unthinkable before. However, politics and legislatmes the real source of power me still are dominated by men. and the resentation of women there is miniscule. There is no legal bar in this respect, but practice matters more than theory, and equality in law is not often translated into practice.

However. the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments have given a new impetus to women empowerment by providing for eompulsory participation of women in local self-government and their involvement in development activities. The amendments provide for reservation of net less than one-third of the total seats in panchayats and municipalities for Women. This has led to the election of about one million women members to panchayats and municipalities throughout the country out of three million elected members.

The passing of Conformity Acts subseQuently by the different states and working out of modalities for their implementation have provided scope for women to participate in managing local bodies and in their development. This has also provided them with hitherto unattained opportunity to carve out a political space for women to radically change their lives. The question naturally arises whether this space is being . properly utilised to articulate and integrate the collective actions of women against the patriar. chal power with a view to achieving the long-term . goal of social transformation, to'ensure women’s rights and their emancipation from age-old subjugation, superstition. degradation and injustice.

However; the stark reality is that political empowerment of women at the grass-root level is more theoretical than practical till now. Most of the elected women are either illiterate or semi. literate..They are not aware of their rights and duties, and are not yet convinced that they are empowered to act, and, therefore, lack the confidenccto assen themselves. Moreover, the community has often a poor opinion about the elected womentand does not consider them it for leadership. The result is that the elected women. with minor exceptions. are guided and manipulated by the male members of the family, whom the women have replaced. or by the existing male functionaries at the elected bodies. The electedwomen have become only rubber-stamps to put their signature on the dotted line.

Real political empowerment of women will remain elusive untill and unless they are made aware of their rights and duties and their awareness level can be increased only through the spread of female literacy. The last census has re vealed that only about 40 per cent of women are literate and this literacy rate is much higher among urban than rural women. The census rcv ports have also highlighted a low fcmalc-male ratio and this low sex ratio is the result of low status of women. Girls are discriminated against even before their birth. Prebirth sex determination test is motivated by the preference for a male child. The gender discrimination leads to illiteracy, exploitation, economic dependence. early marriage lack of access to productive education and gainful employment, and crimes against women. Inspite of constitutional provisions and other supportive measmes to make the society gender equal. the real picture is totally different. it is regrettable that women’s representation in Parliament and State, legislatures has been pathetically low. The percentage. of women contesting in all the Lok Sabha elections held between 1952 and 1999 has been very low and the women who have won the elections represent between two and eight per cent. Thus politics in India continues to be a male-dominated affair. This is clearly evident from the dilly-dallying with the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. The Bill was first mooted'by the United Front Govt. in 1996, providing for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and State legislatures. But repeated attempts to get the Bill passed were frustrated by the chauvinistic attitude and strong opposition of the politicians of the Hindi belt, who fear the loss of their powers and prerogatives.

However, mere legislative reservation will not be 'a panacea for all the evils that women are still subjected to. Women play a vital role in the country’s development, but their needs are not adequately addressed. They are still victims of ill-health, ill-treatment, injustic and inhuman exploitation. Such a situation calls for sustained and‘planned efforts to eradicate all the evils that cause subjugation and exploitation of women and hinder their deVelopment. The need is to generate social awareness and mobilisation of the community to attain womens development. Fortunately, a wind of change has began to blow across the country and a consciousness is growing ' that women should be made an equal partner in development. This change in mindset will definitely result in social, political and economic empowerment of women. The key to women empowerment is the rapid spread of female education and their economic independence. What the country needs is greater participation of women in economic activities as well as in the management of the affairs of the state to attain the goal of social equality. .