Introduction
Empowerment has become a fashionable buzzword. It essentially means decentralization of authority and power. It aims at getting participation of deprived sections of people in decision-making process. In other words giving voice to the voiceless. The goal of empowerment may be of threefold revolution: To change people’s heart. To create a change in their lives and to change the social structure.
Change people’s heart
It is the desire of the people who feel powerless to have more control of their lives. People feel powerless in many ways. They feel that their lives are ruled by forces over which they have no control, which are too powerful for them, they also face forces which are far away and which they cannot identify. Powerlessness causes fear that their lives might be crushed or destroyed or reduced in time. It kills the human spirit.
The feeling of powerlessness is very strong in the poor. Because of their daily struggle for survival against strong economic and social forces, the poor constantly feel disempowered. This is increased in the case of the women who face not only the external economic and social forces but also within the household.1
Create change in their lives
Empowerment is the process by which the disempowered or powerless people can change their circumstances and begin to have control over their lives. Empowerment results in a change in the balance of power, in the living conditions and in the relationships. Perhaps the most important effect of empowerment is that the person says, “Now I do not feel afraid.”2.
Change the Social Structure
Powerlessness does not exist in one sphere alone. Powerlessness in one sphere leads to powerlessness in other spheres. Powerlessness is also a form of vulnerability. Overcoming powerlessness and building empowerment, also occurs in all spheres.3 Economic empowerment, where people begin to control their economic process, gain access to resources, to skills, to markets, also leads to social and political empowerment.
Today, however, the concentration is on political empowerment. The political system in our country unlike the social and economic system is democratic. This means that the poor and the socially backward people can gain access to power because of their large numbers, and in today’s political system it is happening. The political system is creating an empowerment of the most backward social classes and communities, who have entered the mainstream of politics, At the same time a process of decentralization is occurring in the political system as more power is being created at the panchayat level. At this level women too are being drawn into political power through the system of 33per cent reservation. In other words there is some channel for the empowerment through the political system. In the case of the economic system, as politics gets decentralized, economics is getting centralized. Though the poor and the backward are gaining political power, they are losing economic power. The process of centralization is increasing with globalization where international force have begun to control markets at local level. Today it is very necessary to build up economic empowerment. Political power without economic power will lead to very distorted development.
Women Empowerment
Women empowerment may mean equal status to woman, opportunity and freedom to develop themselves. It would mean equipping women to be economically independent, self reliant, to have a positive self-esteem, enable them to face any difficult situations and they should be able to participate in the process of decision making. “Women have a History; Women are in History”, the words of Gerda Lerner an American pioneer in the field of Women’s history became a manifesto.4 What emerged was a new way of thinking about gender, instead of accepting feminine identity as natural and essential, historians and other social scientists treated it as constructed. This liberating hypothesis simulated questions about empowerment of women.
Empowerment of Women through the ages : Vedic Period
Sucheta Kripalani, wife of the late Acharya Kripalani states that in the Rig Vedic age, the women of India enjoyed an exceptionally high status. At that time a woman was not only her husband’s life long partner and companion in weal and woe, but the mistress of his household. The Vedic word ‘dampati’ used to denote jointly the husband and wife, etymologically it means the joint owners of the house. The girls like boys, underwent ‘upanayana’ ceremony at an carly age and this practice continued even in later ages. Her high education was regarded as a necessary accomplishment for being well placed in life.5
A steady process of decline can be traced through different stages in our literature as the later ‘Samhitas’, ‘Brahmanas’, ‘Upanishads’, Dharmasutras’ and Samiritis’. The girl lost the status of ‘dwija’ (Twice born) and came to be regarded as Sudras’. Manu is often quoted for disparaging women and relegating them to lowly status. The lines of Manu which says “Her father protect (her) in childhood, her husband protects her in youth, and her sons protect her in old age: a women is never fit for independence underlines the above fact. By the close of the ancient period women’s social and domestic life had generally suffered a radical change and they had to occupy a position of inferiority both at home and in society. Indian women continued to hold this lowly position. There was a confrontation between the culture of the colonial rulers and of the colonized people, in which the condition of Indian women was the principal target of colonial attack, indicating ideological hegemony along with political ascendancy over the colonized people.
This necessitated an improvement in women’s condition and a programme of social reform, there develop an assertion of Indian National Identity, leading to the glorification of ancient past when women held a high position in society along with emphasis on women’s traditional qualities. On the other hand, under the impact of western ideas, a movement began for women emancipation. Opportunities for education and avenues of work started gradually open up for women.
The nineteenth century social reform movement prioritized the ‘Woman question’ in its agenda; it abolished sati, legalized widow marriage, and introduced women’s education, but did not interfere with the traditional ideology of gender or patriarchal relationships. In the new construction of womanhood, it was the conventional image of women as wife and mother, simply garnished by education and some Victorian womanly ideals borrowed from the West.6
Political independence from colonial rule was accompanied by the trauma of Partition. The bloodshed, violence and displacement of people that it generated constitutes the most shameful and tragic chapter in the history of both newly constituted and fragmented countries. As in other territorial partitions, women were especially victimized in the process. Even after partition, no official space was provided to hear from women experiences or to ascertain their views and to act accordingly. The civil community was unsympathetic and the state machinery indifferent. The term democracy appeared to be synonym for a male dominated political system.
Progress in Empowering Women in India – Post Independence :
More than sixty long years after the constitutional guarantee of equality, a lot of serious issues remain to be resolved. The formal global calls for the inclusion of women in national and international development began only in the early 1960s, but the Indian women were integrated as a special concern in the Indian development and planning process even before that — from the formulation of India’s first development plan (1951-1956). The Indian constitution, guarantees justice, liberty and equality to all its citizens. Recognising the greater vulnerability of women, the constitution makes special provisions for them. While prohibiting discrimination based on sex, Article 15(3) provides that nothing in the article shall prevent the state from making any special provision for Women and Children. There is thus a constitutional basis for affirmative action by the state in favour of women.
The constitutional mandate regarding women was reflected in the first- five year plan. It provided welfare measures for women, and a national body known as the Central Social Welfare Board was set up in 1953 to implement welfare programmes for women. Simultaneously Community Development Movement was launched, which sought to mobilize women through a network of community-level women’s groups known as ‘Mahila Mandals’. These groups turned out to be elitist in composition and agenda and had limited value for the large mass of rural and urban poor women.7 Its impact was minimal on those who were most in need of political representation and development assistance.
The Second five-year plan (1956 —1961) was geared towards intensive agricultural development and it failed to make an impact on rural women and the poor in general. The third promoted women’s education and reproductive health and the fourth five-year plan focoused on planning and mass education of women.
The approaches to women in each of the plan remain welfare oriented and did not seek to address basic structural and cultural issues constraining women’s roles, opportunities and entitlements. The designation of 1975 as international Women’s Year and of 1976 – 1985 as the United Nations Decade for Women prompted a National plan of Action for Women was adopted in 1976. This National plan was for intervention in the areas of health, family planning, null Ilion, education, employment, legislation and social wellitre to improve the conditions of women. The Women’s Welfare and Development Bureau was created in the Ministry of Social Welfare to act as a nodal point within the Government to coordinate policies and progammes and initiate measures for women’s development.
The Fifth Five-year plan (1974-1979) especially emphasized the training of women through income generation and functional literacy programme with a-view to making women more productive on the public as well as the domestic front. This period witnessed the growth of many women groups working on various gender issues.
In the Sixth plan family rather than women remained the basic unit of development. The seventh five-year plan targeted women with the concepts of equity and empowerment propagated globally by the United Nations Decade for Women. It emphasized interventions to empower women by generating awareness of their rights and privileges and training women for more productive economic activity. It also strived for continued support for improved access, control and use of economic assets, services, and emerging technologies by women.
The mid-term evaluation of the women’s decade globally threw the door open to critical assessments of planned approaches to women’s development in India. In 1985, a separated Department of Women and Child Development was created in the Human Resource Ministry to oversee the implementation of more than 27 different programmes for women covering a range of services. Long pending demand of Women organiztions and NGO groups resulted some action in 1988, The Department of Women and Child Development formulated a National Perspective plan (NPP) for Women (1988-2000), which represents a long term comprehensive policy for Indian Women and a frame work for integrating women in the country’s development process.
Contrary to what was intended, the persistent gap between development theory and practice in India has accentuated the burden of poverty and underdevelopment for women as for the less privileged.8 Present day format of the process being pursed in the name of globalisation, privatization, and liberalization is disempowering for the poor, downtrodden, weaker sections of the society and especially the women there is a need to analyse, from a gender perspective policies and programmes.
Status of Women in Kerala Character of the Society
Kerala Society is widely considered as a matrilineal one. In the caste society of Kerala many communities followed matrilineal order by and large in the past and a few followed patriarchal order NINO. The matrilineal order allowed property rights for women, but not the control over it. The control of family as well as property was Vested with the male head of the family. Slowly and steadily the matrilineal joint families were transformed to the breadwinner. The three main religions of Kerala — Hindu, Christian and Muslim — de- cisively determine the position of the women in Kerala society. Women’s place in the society is defined in terms of traditional affiliates and belief patterns.
Position of women in the family
In the Kerala family structure, the roles and responsibilities are allotted on the basis of gender. Women have to take up the roles of wives and mothers and their prime responsibilities are bearing and rearing children and taking care of household duties, which are not considered as productive. The sexual division of labour is naturalized through a broad range of social, cultural and religious discourse; and the family ideology has great significance in constructing gender differences.
Kerala society is the one in which a series of socio-political developments had taken place and women had contributed in these to a large extent. The social movements of ‘Punnapra’’Vayalar’, ‘Karivelloor’ and ‘Kayyoor’ are few examples.9 And the first Communist Ministry of 1957 put forward various measures for women welfare.10 But the patriarchy was not ready to share power in political field, which finally resulted in the confinement of women in the household.
Women of Kerala, a comparison
The Women of Kerala have some unique features compared to their counterparts in other states. Kerala is the only state in which women dominate the men in number. The sex ratio of Kerala, according to the 1991 census is 1036 as against the national figure of 1927.11
Female literacy rate in Kerala (86.13) is also above the national rate (39.29).12 These peculiar characteristics have contributed favourably to the consciousness of Kerala women for their existence, rights and work situations. On the entrepreneurial front, the MON. of women entrepreneurs has been steadily on the increase and their visibility is really felt in the state economy. They have attracted the pointed attention of the policy makers as well of the agencies in the state.
Dr. Y. Immanuel Raja Kumar, Assistant Professor in History, Arignar Anna Government Arts College, Attur.
REFERENCES
- Promilla Kapur, Empowering The Indian Wome, New Delhi 2001, pp.55-56.
- Ibid., p.56.
- Ibid., p.59.
- Forbes Geraldine, The New Cambridge History of India, New Delhi, p.2.
- Sucheta Kripalini, Mahatma Gandhi Hundred years, New Delhi, 1968, pp.73-75.
- Bharati Ray &Aparna Basu (Eds), From Independence towards Freedom, Indian Women since 1947, New Delhi,1999, p.6.
- Promilla Kapur, Op.cit., p.91.
- Ibid., p.119.
- V.K. Vasudevan, Status of Women in Kerala, Kerala Women’s Commission, Thiruvananthapuram, 2002, p.300.
- Ibid., p.188.
- Ibid., p.190.
- Ibid., p.192.