As there is continued inequality and vulnerability of women in all section-social, political, health, education, legal, nutrition and oppressed in all sphere of life, so there s need to empowered women in all walk of life. The National Perspective Plan for Women 1988-2000 A.D. which has impact of development plan and programme of Indian women.
Earth Summit pledged their commitment to empowerment of women which is the central and powerful force in the search for safe environment, economic and social justice, reallocation of resources, survival of all species and common goal of healthy planet in which future generation can flourish. It raising the social, economic, political and health status of women, there is need for policies and action to assure equal access to education information, fair wages, safe work, environment friendly consumers product, health care and appropriate technology. There should be not deprivation of rights of women and empowering them.
Empowerment of women means recognizing women contribution, women’s knowledge and they enhancing their self respect and self-dignity. The women controlling their own bodies and becoming economically self reliant and independent. This empowerment of women reducing women burden of work and creating the women’s group and organization.
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Women empowerment strengthening and enhancement of life, equal opportunity of development, human potential at individual and social level of expression. It contributes substantially toward women active and active participation in overall development process of society and brings women development by changing social, economic and political structure.
The empowerment is essential starting and continuous process for realizing the ideals of freedom and human liberalization for all. It makes awareness building about women situation, discrimination and rights as it step toward gender equality.
Collective awareness building provides a sense of group identify and power of working as group. It also make capacity building and skill development to make decision, organize, manage and carry out activities, to deal with people and institution in world around them.
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This empowerment of women brings greater equality between men and women and makes greater control and decision making power in home, community and society. It makes greater awareness, participation, control and decision making power and brings transformative action. Empowering women having control, organizing further control and being organized and respected as equal citizens and human being with contribution to make. It makes contribution at all level of society and make their contribution recognized and valued.
Empowerment of women also implies the avoidance of crimes against women and improvement in education, health etc. Improvement of the status of women and their access to family planning services, make a contribution to sustainable development such as they make their own contribution to the quality of life and eradication of poverty, they contribute to economic growth, by raising the equality and skill of work and reducing the burden on the environment which will improve sustainability.
It makes redefining the nation of femininity and brings social change in man-women relationship. This empowerment is achieved by making more and more women literate so that they can free from economic oppression and exploitation and participate more equally in society.
It also brings improvement of status in respect of health, education and economic opportunity is highly important and it also enhance decision making capacity. Through education, women become aware, have knowledge, skill and self confidence to enjoy all the respects of life.
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They continue to meet their family responsibilities and participate in religion and they did not retreat from traditional responsibilities but also forge their own way of doing things. This empowerment make manifestation of redistribution of power that challenge patriarchal ideology and male dominance and make transformation of structure that reinforces gender discrimination. It makes realistic developmental efforts in direction of progress in term of economic independence and economic advancement of women.
According to Zippy, empowerment represent a means for accomplishing community development task and can be conceptualized as involving two key elements giving community members the authority to make decision and choices and facilitating the development of the knowledge and resources necessary to exercise these choices.
Bandura, Empowerment is process through which individual gain efficacy defined as degree to which individual perceive that he or she can control his or her environment. Barker, “Empowerment is process of helping a group to achieve political influence or relevant legal authority.” Guiterrez, “Empowerment is ambiguities and has been unequally developed. Karl defines “Empowerment capture this sense of gaining control, of participating of decision making. Pillai “Empowerment is an active, multi-dimensional process which enables women to realize their full identity and powers in all sphere of life.
Women empowerment moves women in the direction of living more fully. The more empowered women are the more fully they live and more meaningful their lives becomes. Women can work outside the home can be primary avenues their empowerment and they have economic independence they will able to take firmer stand against their oppression in families.
The active participation in decision making and in social, political and economic sphere would help in enhancing the process of empowerment and it would give women the desired self-respect and social dignity and it is prerequisite of empowerment. It neutralize patriarchal structure in order to ground their own rights in social realities, women can more balance to male value hierarchy in modern society.
Women make active participation in governance and developmental programmes. Empowering women would be strength economic intervention as well as through integrated intervention. It suggest that women’s understanding of strength and weakness of their personal and collective post and present will increase their sense of purpose and direction for future and it will able to cope with the conflict in their relationship.
It will clarity of women view of society and can motivate them to new values and goals. Women empowerment should also generate new notion of power and evolve new understanding of power, building collective responsibility, accountability and decision making. This empowering of women brings collectivization, capacity building, mediation, ownership and control, social awareness.
(a) Collectivization:
Bringing the group of women together at base to become a integral part of economic activity. It is an important part of an economic strategy toward their empowerment. This collectivization brings in the possibility of sharing resources and skills. Pooling is important way of strengthening the capacities of the poor women to work together and develop sense of strength and development.
(b) Capacity building:
Empowerment of women enhances capacity at work and make able to effectively participate in process of economic activity. Capacity building of women in planning, executing and monitoring aspect of the economic activity.
(c) Ownership and Mediation:
Empowers women to work as group, planning, executive and monitoring the activities to make control on their own ventures. It also mediates with the external world and conduct economic activities. All these empowerment of women help in collective self inquiry, reflection of social environment of their life. It brings social awareness and makes them self-reliant.
Thee integrated development, economic empowerment bring women development as key to the advancement of family and community. It work for reducing gender discrimination, meet basic survival needs, alleviate poverty, women gains self esteem, engage in development activities, tackle social and economic problems, strengthening women security.
NGO’s work for women empowerment and integrated development programmes, economic development and consciousness rising among women. The process of empowerment involves improvement in physical and social condition but equal protection in decision-making, control over resources and mechanism for sustaining these goals.
Mahila Samakhya Programme work for initiating women education for equality, it work for struggle for equality as necessary condition for women education. Literacy and education create conditions for welfare of people. These are keys which will allow the condition of life of women as well as men to be modified and changes made in social structure.
The education of women is very essential for them to able to participate in benefit from the development processes. It helps in making their own decision and expresses their talents and give directions to their aptitudes. The female literacy help in getting more knowledge about better hygienic nutrition practices, child rearing and child bearing. They can work more actively and freely both in home and outside the home.
Illiterate women are exploited by given minimum facilities and denied for minimum wages, equal pay for equal work, favorable work condition, leave benefits etc. But by giving education to women, there will empowerment of women and greater participation in government and entrepreneurial opportunities. It also bring prerequisite not only for their equality and empowerment but for development of nation and bring better future generation. More women in parliament, top administrators, civil servant, managers will bring pace of progress toward equality and empowerment.
It will bring women in top position in which they have the decision making power which lead to better integration of women concerns into the formulation of development programmers and national policies, it will bring full potential of women and full development and welfare of women, so that they play important roles within the society.
From psychological point of view, it is more important that education of women bring changes in attitude and behavior for better adaptation to the modern world. This literacy bring wider struggle against inequality and injustice in society and prohibited all type of social evils prevailing in society. This equality and empowerment of women bring the development of nation. They have feeling of self-confidence and came out their home and take part in campaigns with great enthusiasm.
The empowerment of women take into account diversity of problems like illiteracy, female infanticide, gender inequality and will help women to understand their problems. This education and literacy of women will help to cope with superstitions, illiteracy, and ignorance and can be effectively aware enough to take recourse to them.
These women development should be looked upon as an exercise in human resource development. This empowerment of women leads to better quality of people and encourage women to become active participation in the process of change.
It enhance self image of women and build collective tentative vision of their lived environment. It able to fight against injustice and inequality. The focus of empowerment is that it relegates the responsibility of initiating change, raising question and taking initiative on the poor and it becomes integral to sustaining and vitalizing these changes.
Women equality, empowerment, literacy played a key role in development and integrate them into the mainstream of social life. All these empowerment make active role in nation development process and to make directly benefit from economic development.
Indian development planning has always aimed at removing inequities in process of development to ensure that the fruit of development are equal privilege for all women are availing of the benefit of development and as participant in process of development due to several socio- economic-political impediments. The groups of women and collectivization would initiate a learning process through sharing of ideas, skills and interactive capacity and in course of time women would work at grassroots level.