Empowering the nation with Women- Led Development.

 Introduction

• Women make up half of India’s population. Over the years we have seen women grow in public life – working in offices, representing in international sports, in bureaucracy, politics, international organisations and much more.
• They need a safe and enabling environment which encourage their empowerment. They should be able to live without fear so that they can explore their potential and not be bound by artificial restraints.
• With this target in mind government has been working tirelessly and we can also notice some extremely encouraging developments in the area of women empowerment.

Examples highlighting the developments in the area of women empowerment are:

• The first female fighter pilots have recently been appointed in the Indian Air Force.
• The participation of women in combat roles in the Army is also strongly under consideration.
• India’s successful launch of the Mangalyaan and the record-breaking 104 Nano satellites launched into orbit on-board a single rocket had a team of women scientist behind them.
• India has been successful in achieving gender parity in school education. The literacy rate of women has risen from a mere 9 per cent in 1951 to 65 per cent in 2011.
• Today, every fourth worker in India is a woman. One third of all certified engineers are now women and over three fourths of all health workers at primary level are women.
• In a country bursting with entrepreneurial spirit, today almost every fifth entrepreneur is a woman.
• In politics too, the figures are more encouraging than ever before. Elected women representatives now make up about 46 percent of our panchayat members.
• With these 1.3million + women in positions of power at the village level, the landscape of our country is changing from ground up. For instance, where in the 1957 elections only 45 women had contested general elections, in the last election, 668 women candidates contested.
• On the health front, improvements have been noted with the average life expectancy of women having risen from 31.7 years in 1950-51 to about 70 years in 2016.
• Institutional births have risen to an all- time high of 79 per cent in 2014-15. The maternal mortality rate has dropped by half in the decade between 2001-03 and 2011-13.
• The number of women with a bank or savings account, which they operate themselves,has increased from just 15 percent in 2005-06 to 53 per cent in 2015-16.

Concerns

• Unfortunately, in spite of all the above facts and figures women still face serious dangers to their life and liberty in our country. Violence against women, high dropout rates and huge burden of unpaid work still disempower women.
• To end these incidents the government has taken a number of measures to ensure its female citizens have equal opportunities along with a supporting and safe environment for their development.

Steps taken by the government to end the existing discrimination:

Financial Empowerment

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Programme addresses the complex issue of mindsets in all districts of India.
• Along with this, the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana was also launched in 2015, under which small affordable deposits are made in the bank accounts of girls, with the benefit of higher rate of interest.
• The amount can be withdrawn by the girl on reaching 18 years of age, giving her a fund for higher education or other investments.
• Through the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and PM Jan Dhan Yojana, Government have enabled banking services for the unbanked.
• Women’s share of total savings accounts increased from 28 per cent in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2017 (according to the data form top 40 banks and RRBs.).

Empowering Motherhood

• The Maternity Benefit Act has been amended to extend the period of mandatory paid maternity leave for working women to 26 weeks.
• In order to extend protection to the unorganized sector as well, pregnant and lactating mothers are provided cash incentives under the PM Matru Vandana Yojana. As partial compensation for wage loss, these mothers are provided Rs. 6,000 as incentive, which enables them to take adequate rest before and after the delivery and exclusively breast feed their child.
• At the village level, women members of panchayats are leading the empowerment of their villages. To support their process the Ministry of Women and Child Development has conducted training for 18,000 women members.

Women Safety

• Government is strictly implementing the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. This provides a safe and secure environment to women at the workplace and covers all women – all ages, public and private sector and even those women visiting an office.
• An important aspect of empowerment is also safety. For this, the government has sanctioned 181 Women Helplines and 206 One Stop Centres have become operational where women affected by violence can access quick and easy help.
• 33 per cent reservation for women in the police force is also being implemented. A feature of Panic Buttons will soon be available on all mobile phones to provide emergency response system to women in distress.
• The Nirbhaya Fund is also being used to roll-out comprehensive plans to make 8 major cities in the country safer for women and also improve forensic analysis abilities in cases of sexual assault.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

• Under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, government has provided credit to small entrepreneurship without the need for collateral or a guarantor. 75 percent of these loans have been given to women.
• Over 47 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been promoted under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM).
• Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, a large number of Indian youth have taken up industry relevant skill training. Till date, half of the certificates awarded under this Yojana have been given to women candidates.

Accessing the Inaccessible

• The Government implements a number of schemes for the empowerment of women.However, these do not always reach beneficiaries in remote or backward areas.
• To overcome this problem, Government has recently launched The Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme. Under this, 3 lakh student volunteers are fanning out across the country to directly reach women at village level with government schemes and services for their empowerment.

Conclusion:

• As India looks forward to reaping benefits from its demographic dividend, the role of empowered women becomes all the more important.
• The way forward lies in the conviction that we must have women led development. And this can be done only when more and more women get education and productive employment.

By: Atul Sambharia