Source:
E-mail dt. 17.11.2012
Rural Women Empowerment in India
C. Arul Venkadesh
Faculty – Department of
Management Sciences,
CIET
College, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India.
Introduction
Empowerment
of women that will have lasting impacts must involve consciousness raising
before the social construction of gender, which subordinates women in the
family, class, caste, religion, or society, can be changed. The economic
empowerment approach has relied on improving women's control over economic
resources and strengthening women's economic security. The results also suggest
that policies to rise women’s age at marriage, enhance
their educations and open greater employment opportunities will also help to
empower them, at least in some respects. Our goal is to cause policy,
institutional and individual change that will improve the lives of women and
girls everywhere.
India
has also ratified various international conventions and human rights
instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. The Constitution not
only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of
positive discrimination in favor of women. Women’s empowerment is an important
agenda in the development efforts. There has been significant shift in approach
of the district administration towards the development of women, especially the
poor & the illiterate. When you train a woman, you help the entire family,
the village and the nation.
The
current paper focuses on women’s empowerment in the domestic sphere — that is,
their freedom from control by other family members and ability to effect desired outcomes within the house hold.
Empowerment
of Women
Empowerment is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional
and multi-layered concept. Women’s empowerment is a process in which women gain
greater share of control over resources - material, human and intellectual like
knowledge, information, ideas and financial resources like money - and access
to money and control over decision-making in the home, community, society and
nation, and to gain `power'.
According to the Country Report of Government
of India, "Empowerment means moving from a position of enforced
powerlessness to one of power".The process by which people,
organisations or groups who are powerless a) become
aware of the power dynamics at work in their life context, b) develop the
skills and capacity for gaining some reasonable control over their lives and c)
exercise this control without infringing on the rights of others and d) support
the empowerment of others in the community
Education of Women
Education
to women is the most powerful instrument of changing their position the
society. Education also brings about reduction in inequalities and also acts as
a means to improve their status within the family. In order to encourage
education of women at all levels and to dilute gender bias in the provision and
acquaintance of education, schools, colleges and even universities were
established exclusively for women in the State. To bring more girl children,
especially from marginalized BPL families, into the main stream of education,
Government has been providing a package of concessions in the form of free
supply of books, uniform, boarding and lodging, clothing for hostilities,
mid-day meals, scholarships, free by-cycles and so on. As a result women's
literacy rate has grown over the three decades and the growth of female
literacy has in fact been higher than that of male literacy rate.
Health and Well-Being
Health and well-being is a concept
related to the substantial differences between women and men in their
access to sufficient nutrition, healthcare and reproductive facilities, and to
issues of fundamental safety and integrity of person. According to the World
Health Organization, 585,000 women die every year, over 1,600 every day, from
causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. The complexity of the social and
cultural issues, combined with the stigma and fear of disclosure lead to a
situation where only a small proportion of the crimes of sexual assault, child
abuse, wife battering and gun related violence are ever reported, making
accurate data extremely difficult to obtain.
Major handicaps in
overall development of women and suggestions to overcome
Access
to assets is the single most urgent need for the upliftment
of women in general and farm women in particular. Though the Indian legislation
permits equal right of man & women in property yet the condition in actual
sense is not so. Rural women still do not have ownership on land and the pattas are allotted in the name of their husband. Due to
this the cannot take independent decision on various
agricultural aspects. Therefore, concerted efforts are needed to promote women
access to resources.For promoting women’s access to
land, the measures can be-
Though
women make substantial contributors to agriculture development, their access to
the most crucial input credit is limited. Since they are not land owners, the
credit flow generally goes in the name of male members (i.e. owners). For
promoting women’s access to farm input & credit, following measures may be taken:
·
Credit
flow to rural women could be channeled through credit & thrift societies.
·
Voluntary
agencies in each district may be identified which could help in developing
women organizations.
·
Credit
organizations should simplify the procedures & modalities to suit the
educational level of rural women & also organize credit camps in village
exclusively for women.
·
Farm
women should also be recipient of credit for which possession of assets may not
be insisted upon.
·
Existing
loaning policies of NABARD need orientation towards women credit eligibility by
granting them the status of a producer.
Though
women are involved in almost all agricultural operations, yet, they have
inadequate technical competency due to their limited exposure to outside world.
This has compelled them to follow the age old practices which in turn result in
poor work efficiency and drudgery.Training is an
important component of HRD which enhances knowledge, skill and attitude. For
building technical competency among farm women, specialized need based and
skill oriented training should be organized preferably at village level. Some
of the priority areas in which women need training
are:
·
Conservation
and management of natural resources
·
IPM
and INM
·
Renewable
energy sources
·
Seed
production technology
·
Use
of fertilizer
·
Post-harvest
management
For effective
training programmes, following points should be
considered.
i) Extension agencies should
pursue the family approach to training
ii)
Training should be organized at appropriate time specially the pre- seasonal
training.
iii)
There should be proper followed-up of the programmes
and there should be synchronization in time between knowledge and skill
transfer and the supply credit and other inputs needed to apply the knowledge.
iv) During training, the training institute
should identify the active participants and intensive training should be
imparted to them so that they can be used as a Opara-extension workers for dissemination of technical
information.
Generally,
decision regarding the activities requiring technical competency and money
related matters were taken by male members. Since knowledge and economic
independence are the parameters of women empowerment enhancing the technical
knowledge, skills and building greater involvement in various farm activities.
Though
several technological breakthrough have been observed
in the recent past the technologies by the researchers are not tailored to the
specific needs of the farm women. With the result, most of the agricultural
operations are performed manually and in an unskilled manner which results into
greater drudgery on the part of farm women. In order to cater to the
technological needs of the farm women, there is need to re-orient the entire
research system for which following
measures may be taken.
In
order to make scientific information in agriculture and skill areas more
useful, it should be tested and refined keeping in view the different farming
situations in socio-cultural milieu. It would lead to women specific
technologies.
Some
of the tasks and operations which women are specifically involved and which are
drudgery prone include transplanting, weeding, harvesting, threshing, winnowing
etc. Therefore, these require special attention of the farm scientist for
evolving relevant technologies or modifying the existing ones.
The
design, development and testing of agricultural implements and machinery should
be undertaken with the active participation of rural women. In this regard with
local artisans will be helpful. In essence machinery should be a blessing
rather than become a curse.
While
evolving agricultural technologies; indigenous practices used by women should
be paid due attention for blending with the frontier ones for greater adoption.
The transfer of
technology approach which mainly includes mass media are also not paying due
attention towards dissemination of adequate and timely agricultural information
to the farm women.
Women Development Programmes
Against the background of the patriarchal system of society,
the women need special attention to ensure their development and participation
in the decision making process at home, in the community and governance.
With the objective of bringing about economic and social development of
women and improving their status in the community the programme
for Women Development was being implemented by CSR in and around Tiruchendur
of Tuticorin district and Thovalai
blocks of Kanyakumari District.
The
various activities planned and carried out are:
These activities had made impressive impacts in
empowering women and improving their economic and social status in their
families and communities.
The thrust of the programme
is organising women and federating them at different
level to enhance their social status. Due to the entrepreneur development
skills promoted, the women took up various income generating activities as
individuals and as a group such as mat weaving, dairy farms, palm crystal candy
making, flour rice, fancy shops, petty shops, soap manufacturing, textile
business and paper cup. So far 58 groups are involved in income generating
activities and 3173 individuals have taken up income generating programmes.
The federation of women SHGs called 'Sangamam' was formed by the members themselves based on
their own experience and the exposure they received. It decided to start a
supermarket and a building was constructed. As a share of Rs.10,000 was collected from each SHGs by the federation. All the
SHG members buy the provisionary items from their own Sangamam
store and steps are taken to distribute the items at their door steps through
vans. The federation has assumed maximum responsibilities and there is ample
scope that soon it will become fully self sustaining entity.
Tejaswini Rural Women's
Empowerment Programme
Tejaswini means radiance
or one who gives light, and reflects the objective of the project in moving
women to a higher level through their collective efforts and mutual assistance.
This would up-scale and further develops the concepts tested in the Maharashtra
Rural Credit Programme, which IFAD supported from
1994 to 2002
Programme Target Group
The programme will use lessons drawn from previous IFAD
implementation experience, which suggests targeting in terms of poverty should
be flexible and responsive to local conditions. In Maharashtra the programme would support existing groups and groups that
will be formed by other programmes (in particular
TSP, SCP). In Madhya Pradesh (MP) it is planned that at least 10% of groups
being formed of women from the poorest households defined in terms of relying
on casual labour and without any agricultural land.Programme Area.
In supporting
the overall development of MAVIM, the programme will
cover all 33 rural districts of Maharashtra, and about 10,000 villages out of
the total of 43,000. However the activities to be funded by the programme will tend to concentrate on the 16 tribal
districts and other backward areas.
The
programme would be implemented in six districts of
MP. These include the three districts in the tribal-dominated south-east of the
state (Balaghat, Dindori, Mandla) and three other districts (Panna, Chhattarpur and Tikangarh) in the north-east of the state. Although these
districts are not as poor, gender indicators show women are worse off.
Conclusion
Though they make
half of the world population, women have remained as an oppressed group from
the beginning of the history. Though some societies regard women as superior in
the family and community, most of societies of the world have been treating
women as second class citizens. Because of religious and cultural values and
physical structure, women are forced to remain as dominated group around the
globe, especially in the least developed nations. There is a solid evidence of
discrimination of women worldwide. Even in the most developed nations which
boast the best human rights situation in their country, women’s participation
in almost fields has been minimized because of male dominance. In many
countries, women are kept as ‘prisoners’ as they are not allowed to participate
many social and political activities.
In a stratified society like ours, access and empowerment of different section
of the societies are becoming serious concerns and to address it planners,
managers, social scientist all over the world have started deliberating and
devising way out like anything. In this direction genders issues are dominating
over other vulnerable issues like poverty, class conflicts, communities, ethnic
issues etc. In ensuring an egalitarian development gender equity still remains
as a pertinent question as it has been for the thousands of years of human
civilization.
Gender
issues beyond its epistemological certainly imbibe other components like
production relation, access to education, geographical distribution,
occupational imperatives, marital system and even physical & physiological
weaknesses.
The
present deliberation will go contextual with the realm of women’s empowerment
in sustainable agriculture development. The sustainability of agriculture
development has become a prerogative to the women’s participation moving across
the caste. Our need is to ascertain and assure the areas where women are still
far from enjoying the minimum privileges and question of empowerment has been
thrown to a very complex, integrated situation the access to resources,
institution, decision making process and information etc. are the pertinent
question in making the women empowered, confident, and accorded to the main
stream social processes.
References
1.
Adick (1995) : Basic Education for Women and girls in rural areas;
Agriculture and Rural Development.
2.
Awasthi, O. N. (1993) : Education Development in India, Journal of Education and
Social Change.
3.
Gopalan, S. (1992).
Monitoring and Evaluation of the training programmes
for women, function areas in rural Development.
4.
Hernader (1993) : Cultural contributions as a complement to economic
incentives for people involve in sustainable development project un rural
areas; Landscape and Urban Planning.