clpl-india News

The empowerment of women is one of the central issues in the process of development of countries.

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Concept of Empowerment of Women:
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“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’. “Empowerment means moving from a position of enforced powerlessness to one of power”.

60 % of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are women who are dependent on their natural environment to earn a living and feed their families. These women and girls also shoulder the burden of tilling land, grinding grain, carrying water and cooking over smoky stone fires. Women thus have important knowledge and experience of their environments that should be harnessed as a vital source of information to shape inclusive national environmental policies.

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EDUCATION OF WOMEN:
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Education to women is the most powerful instrument of changing their position in 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 are being established exclusively for women. To bring more girl children, especially from marginalized Below the Poverty Line families, into the main stream of education, Governments are providing a package of concessions in the form of free supply of books, uniform, boarding and lodging, clothing for hostels, mid-day meals, scholarships, free bicycles and so on.

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WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA
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According to Siddhartha Dash, the plight of women in India was very sad as per the findings of Census of India, 2001, but the Government of India was taking sufficient measures to ameliorate their condition and give them Constitutional and legal empowerment. According to him:

Throughout history and in many societies including India, gender inequality was part and parcel of an accepted male-dominated culture. Atrocities and discrimination are the two major problems, which the Indian women face in the present day society. The traditional mentalities of India assume that the place of women is mainly concentrated to the household activities like kitchen work and upbringing of the children. They have been considered as the sex object and inferior to the men in different spheres of knowledge. The ‘Sati Pratha’, Pardah
System’, ‘Child Marriage’, ‘Dowry System’, etc. have been some form of atrocities and discriminatory attitudes against the women. Even after fiftyseven years of Indian independence, women are still one of the most powerless and marginalized sections of Indian society. The 2001 Census shows that the sex ratio for India is 933, which is lowest in the world. Percentage of female literacy is 54.16 (2001 Census) against male literacy of 75.85 per cent. In India, Women’s Representation in Parliament and in the State Assemblies has never beyond 8 and 10 per cent respectively. Most of the working women remain outside the organised sector. A mere 2.3 per cent women are administrators and managers, 20.5 per cent professional and the technical workers all of whom collectively earn 25 per cent of the shared income. Violence against women is on the rise. The democratic process in India created the awareness among the women about their plightful condition. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the state to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India provided for reservation of seats (at least one-third) in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women. Another Constitutional Amendment (84th Constitutional Amendment Act 1998) reserving 33 per cent seats in Parliament and State Legislatures is in the pipeline. The Indian Government has passed various legislations to safeguard Constitutional rights to women.

Apart from these, various welfare measures have been taken up by the Government from time to time to empower to the women.

The emancipation of women is not a simple matter. It requires the attitudinal change of the husband, other family members and society as a whole to the women. The community consciousness and bureaucratic efforts are integral parts of the implementation of the programmes. The first and foremost priority should be given to the education of women, which is the grassroot problem. The struggle for gender justice will be slow, strenuous and protracted, as the change cannot be brought about easily. It has to be fought at emotional, cognitive and action levels. The struggle has to be carried on within caste, class, race, religion, everywhere in which man/woman relationships figure and matter.

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EMPOWERING WOMEN IN SRI LANKA
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Applicable international and national law Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 5 October 1981. With regard to other international human rights instruments, Sri Lanka has acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was ratified by Sri Lanka in 1990 and it also ratified the
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict in September 2000.
OMCT welcomes Sri Lanka’s ratification of all of the international human rights instruments cited above and urges the government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, and to make a declaration under Article
14 of the CERD and under Articles 21 and 22 of the CAT as all of these mechanisms provide the treaty monitoring bodies with the competence to accept individual communications. OMCT would also encourage the
government of Sri Lanka to remove the reservation that it has made to the temporal scope of Article 1 of the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.
Article 12 (2) of the fundamental rights chapter of the 1978 Sri Lankan Constitution provides that “no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of
birth or any such grounds.” Chapter III of the constitution guarantees the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and provides procedural safeguards for arrested or detained persons including the right to be brought before a judge, the right to a fair hearing, the right to be represented at trial by an attorney and the right to benefit from the presumption of innocence. Under Article 126 of the Constitution, individuals are entitled to apply to the Supreme Court in order to have a hearing concerning the “infringement or imminent
infringement by executive or administrative action of any fundamental right.”
Article 15 (7) of the Constitution provides that “the exercise and operation of all the fundamental rights declared and recognised by Articles 12, 13 (1), 13 (2) and 14 shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of national security …”. Importantly, Article 15 (8) specifies that the exercise and operation of the fundamental rights contained in Articles 12 (1), 13 and 14 may, in their application to the
members of the armed forces and other forces charged with the maintenance of public order, be subject to certain restrictions. OMCT, while being aware that draft changes to the Constitution have been in process of consultation since 1994, is deeply concerned at the scope of permissible restrictions under the Constitution currently in force and calls upon the government to ensure that fundamental rights, in particular the right to be free from torture and the right to equality, are respected at all times and in all circumstances, especially by members of the armed forces and other law enforcement personnel.

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IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS
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Kemal Derviş, United Nations Development Program Administrator, has declared: “The empowerment of women and achieving gender equality permeates everything we do – our policies, programmes and investments.”

“…gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation.” — Kofi Annan

“…there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.” — Kofi Annan

“When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.” — Kofi Annan

“Women’s empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights.” — Mahnaz Afkhami

“We are faced with a long and rocky road ahead but it is nothing compared to the women that go to sleep tonight with no food to eat and without the comfort of a warm bed.” —Mel Singleton, National Chairperson (EW of South Africa Chapter & Group)

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6-YEARS UNESCO THRUST TO EMPOWER WOMEN OF THE WORLD
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UNESCO designated the equality between men and women as one of its two global priorities for 2008-2013. We are implementing this commitment through the Priority Action Plan on gender equality, a six-year plan that includes specific actions, with expected outcomes and budget allocations. Overall emphasis is given to two of the MDGs pertaining to the situation of women and girls: Goal 2 (achieve universal primary education) and Goal 3 (promote gender equality and empower women ). In its internal structure, UNESCO is committed to achieving gender parity at senior levels of the Secretariat by 2015.

UNESCO is convinced that sustainable development, human rights and peace can be achieved only if women and men have in larger measure and equal, opportunities, options and capabilities that allow them to live in freedom and dignity. Equality between men and women exists when both sexes are able to participate equally in the distribution of power and knowledge, have the same opportunities, rights and obligations with regard to employment or income generation, have the same access to quality education, opportunities to improve their skills throughout life and in all areas, and have equal opportunity to develop her full potential.

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Links:
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1. Complete text of Constitution of India with all the 93 Amendments.

2. National Ploicy For The Empowerment of Women In India (2001)

http://wcd.nic.in/empwomen.htm

3. Women Empowerment In India by Siddhartha Dash as published in Orissa Review – December, 2004 (PDF Format)

http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/orissareview/dec2004/englishpdf/womenempowermentinindia.pdf

4. Women In India (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_India

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LINKS
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The following sites for international NGO websites has been developed by the World Bank Gender Net:

Academy for Educational Development, Girl’s Education and Gender Issues
ACCION International Nonprofit fighting poverty through microlending in Latin America
Asia Foundation – Global Women in Politics Program
Asian Women’s Resource Exchange (AWORC) Internet-based women’s information service and network in Asia
Development Gateway The Development Gateway helps communities, organizations, and individuals build partnerships, share ideas and work together to reduce poverty.
InterAction, Commission on the Advancement of Women
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) Development with Women’s Full Participation
International Water and Sanitation Centre Men, Women and Gender
International Women’s Tribune Center — What’s New?
WIDNET Women in Development Network (Eng/French)
Women, Ink. Books on Gender Topics in Global South 13
WomenAction A global information, communication and media network enabling NGO’s to actively engage in Beijing +5 review process
Women’s Human Rights Net (WhrNET) A collective information and communication technology project of around 40 international, regional and local NGOs from over 20 countries
Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP)
Women’s Net – Institute for Global Communications (IGC)

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Non-profit, non-political, non-religious and a voluntary NGO Group.

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This group does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, physical handicap, marital status, politics, or membership or non-membership in any organizations.

VISION
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Over the coming months and years, the focus of this group will continue to revolve around supporting the current mission, vision and goals and extending the positive outcomes seen thus far to other parts of the world. The future that we envision for this group in the communities we serve is articulated in the following statements:

1) To be a leading resource for addressing women’s issues; to be sensitive and responsive to women’s needs; and to be viewed as proactive, creative and innovative in our approach to the field of women’s empowerment.

2) To be a powerful, effective group that, through responsible and sensitive management, and provision of exemplary services and programs, is seen as a benchmark model for support of women.

3) To be a caring, open and welcoming group sensitive to the differing needs of individuals from various racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, political, religious, age, gender and sexual identity groups.

WELCOME to the Facebook Group: EMPOWERING WOMEN OF AFRICA:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=125500397651&ref=ts

WELCOME to the Facebook Group: EMPOWERING WOMEN OF ASIA:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=126458718857&ref=ts

WELCOME to the Facebook Group EMPOWERING WOMEN OF SRI LANKA:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=116785226610&ref=ts