Essay on Factors Facilitating Empowerment of Women – A big nation like India which consists of more than 50 crores women cannot afford to ignore the role of women in the national development. It is in this context the process of empowerment of women has assumed importance.
Women cannot be empowered in a magical manner. It is not an automatic or a spontaneous process but requires deliberate and consistent efforts. It is through the combined and co-ordinated efforts of the Government, people and the women the task can be fulfilled.
Women cannot be effectively empowered by statutory provisions or governmental efforts alone. “Women are empowered through — women emancipation movement, education, communication, media, political parties and general awakening.” – [Doshi and Jain]
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Various socio-economic and political factors facilitate the empowerment of women. Among them the following may be noted.
1. Acknowledging Women’s Rights:
Society should recognise that like men, women are also entitled to equal rights.
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2. Freedom to Take Decisions and Make Choices:
Women should have freedom to decide whether to marry or not to marry; and after marriage, the freedom to decide as to how many children that they should have, and so on.
3. Access to Education and Employment:
Women can become stronger only with educational and economic power. Mere expectations cannot help. Conditions must be created in such a way that women get easy access to education and later on become employed. Sufficient economic freedom is a must for women to lessen their dependence on men.
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4. Opportunities for Political Participation:
If women’s voice is to carry more weight they must be given political power. They must be free to take part in the administrative process. The process of empowerment of women belonging to weaker sections will definitely have multiplying effects on society.
For example, when a woman in the village gets elected as member of the Gram Panchayat Samithi, she becomes automatically powerful in the family, kin group and village. She is listened to by the people for she has the power to take a decision and she can do and undo certain things in the village, and so on.
For example, she can expand the facilities of the village school and raise it to higher standard; she can get a borewell and a water tank for the village, she may fetch for the village a community hall, a reading room, and so on. She is not, of course, everything. But by becoming the member of the Gram Samithi, she can definitely influence the decisions of the Samithi.