How women want to empower themselves : The Tribune India

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How women want to empower themselves

According to field studies, rural women want property, education and employment to enable them to gain control over their lives. Therefore it requires the State, NGOs and democratic forces to work together to evolve new strategies to work towards empowering women.

How women want to empower themselves

Women in traditional attire take part in a Women’s Day motorcycle rally in Thane. pti



Prem Chowdhry

WHAT does the empowerment of women entail? At a rudimentary level, it means gaining control over sources of power like material assets, self-assertion and ability to take part in taking decisions that affect their lives. For this, women must have equal opportunities, capabilities and access to resources. Such a manifestation would ultimately mean a redistribution of the existing power relations and, finally, a challenge to the patriarchal ideology and male dominance as the concept of women empowerment is associated with gender equality.

Many sociologists and political thinkers have written on women's empowerment but what do women themselves want? This question has to be thought through with the concerned categories of women and in this case that of rural women. What is it that the rural women may find empowering in their negotiation with their daily devalued and powerless life?

What I am going to state here is gathered from extensive field work conducted in 2011 in several areas of rural Haryana, involving several rounds of interviews with women of varying ages, social class, caste and professions, as also focus group discussions held in different villages with women. On the basis of these interactions, three important areas emerged, which in the opinion of women themselves were crucial and needed to be strengthened to enable their empowerment.

Among the options underscored by women,  property scored very high in their vision of empowering themselves. Possessing means of production not only entails possessing a source of income but also source of authority/power/status and mobility — leading to access to other facilities like education and health. Having a right to land or other productive assets gives women a bargaining power that they wouldn't normally have. In turn, they gain the ability to assert themselves in various aspects of their life, both in and outside the home. The case studies that I undertook also show thing what women do after acquiring some money (by inheritance or through earning etc.) is to acquire some productive resources as means of generating income. 

Although for the last 60 years women have had the right to inherit land and other property, yet they continue to encounter tremendous barriers to arrogate what should be rightfully theirs. It is undeniable that there is a difference between the legal recognition of a claim and its social recognition and between recognition and enforcement. There is also a distinction between ownership and effective control. For women's empowerment, it is essential to enhance her ability to claim and retain control over their rightful inheritance shares. For this, several aspects are likely to need attention. For example: establishing the social legitimacy of their claim; reducing gender bias in village-level registration practices and village council rulings; enhancing women's legal knowledge and literacy; providing women with legal aid; and improving women's fall-back position so that they are able to deal with the ensuing intra-family conflict, including providing external support structures that would reduce women's dependence on brothers and close kin. In all this, the role of collective action of women needs to be encouraged as it is likely to be the primary enabling force. Even so, the question arises, which the women raised  themselves, as to how many of them were in a position to acquire or inherit property or even other productive assets? This leaves out a vast number of women, especially those belonging to lower economic and caste categories. Clearly, in women's understanding, factors other than property are also crucial. These identified by women were: education and employment.  Education is a well- recognised, potent, strategic instrument that can impact the socio-economic status of women. 

Education, in the opinion of women, was the second-most coveted tool towards empowerment, which was directly linked with their ability to seek and get employment. Suman from village Meham, for example, who had studied only up to Class IV firmly believed that  had she been educated at least up till Class X, she could have landed herself an “honourable job”.  

There were several women who regretted not studying and losing the opportunity to earn izzatwali money, instead of having to engage in menial jobs. One woman from village Sunaria, speaking from personal experience and making a clear connection between education and employment, said: “I wanted to bring up my children well and not allow them to become alcoholics”. She maintained that she had to struggle hard as she needed money and money could only come through a job and “for a job, education is necessary.” Despite this recognition by women, their literacy rates lag behind that of males. Rural female literacy rate in Haryana (2011 census) is 65.9 per cent, having risen from 45.7 per cent in 2001 and 40.5 in 1991 as compared to rural males, which is 84.1 in 2011; having risen from  78.5 in 2001 and 69.1 in 1991. The female literacy rate, despite a steady increase over the last several decades, remains far from the desired standards. Also among the educated women, roughly 27 per cent out of 65.9 per cent are working in Haryana reportedly due to the paucity of jobs. 

Employment, therefore, emerged as one of the key factors of importance for women. Their employment, they opined, meant “an increasing self-dependence,” as also changing “the way they are looked at”.  They got respect in society as “a person who earns.” Once a woman's role in the household shifts from that of a “recipient” to one of a “provider” and an economic asset, her decision-making function also stands to be recognised and consolidated — empowering her in a major way. Voicing this, women  stated that as earners they get to be consulted in certain matters of the family. This may well be in a limited capacity, as the final decision lies in the hands of the man. One woman observed: “Your earnings or your owning property gives you self-confidence”. Yet  another one stated, “If I don't take any money from my husband, I can also confront him”. Significantly, as earners they also acquire some right to spend that money. Studies have shown that women's earnings have a positive correlation with children's health, nutrition levels and education and that they contribute a much larger share of their earnings to basic family maintenance than men.

The one major problem to this stated realisation and desire of women is the great paucity of jobs in Haryana and the very large numbers of unemployed male population who think that they have priority in getting employment, instead of females.  In fact, so far the focus of  job creation has been only for men. The emphasis needs to  shift to accommodate women to provide equal chances in the field of employment and education, as stated by the Constitution of India in its Directive Principles of State policy. The only answer is an all-round development and creation of jobs which may open employment avenues for men and women. The women's   movement and youth organisations too have a role to play in this.

The writer is a Senior Academic Fellow at the Indian Council of Historical  Research, New Delhi, & author of several books on gender issues.

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