Prof Mithilesh Kumar Sinha
Nagaland University, Lumami
Woman establishes the institution of family life, builds the home, brings up the children and makes them good citizens. Her strength in totality contributes in the making of an ideal family, ideal society and an ideal state. A woman is an architect of society. But according to Hillary Clinton, women is the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world. Despite of honouring and celebrating women on every March 8, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.
Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and countries. When women are living safe, fulfilled and productive lives, they can reach their full potential, contributing their skills to the workforce and can raise happier and healthier children. They are also able to help fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. Women’s empowerment is a key factor for achieving sustainable economic growth.
In British Government period, Social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Dayanand enacted several laws to improve the position of women, to bring back the dignity and glory of women. Some of these enactments were: Act prohibiting the practice of sati (in 1850), Cast disabilities removal act, 1850, The Hindu widow remarriage act, 1856, The special marriage act III of 1872, The married women’s property act, 1874, The child marriage act, 1929, The Hindu gains of earning act, 1930, The Hindu women’s right to property, 1937, The Christian marriage act, 1872, The Parsee marriage and divorce act, 1936 and The dissolution of the Muslim marriage act 1939.
Equal rights for men and women are enshrined under Articles 14 to 16 in the Indian constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950. India’s journey on women empowerment and gender equality started when it became a sovereign state in 1947. The Narendra Modi government has launched flagship schemes to promote gender equality, including Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (a scheme to provide gas connections to women from below the poverty line households) and Mahila-E-Haat As a result women in India are emerging in all sectors, including politics, business, medicine, sports and agriculture. History was made when two female scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation led the country’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 from its inception to completion in 2019.
While visible gains have been made through legal reforms, human development and grassroots initiatives, India still continues to struggle to provide its women with equal opportunity. India continues to struggle to provide its women with equal opportunity. On international measures of gender equality, India scores low on women’s overall health and survival and ability to access economic opportunities.
We have restricted our perceptions to only upliftment of women- from the value of an object to the value of a living being. Women accrue less income than men over their lifetime for a variety of reasons. Due to discrimination, many women are unable to exercise their full potential in natural resource and environmental management, given their lack of training, status, land and property rights and capital.
On international measures of gender equality, India scores low on women’s overall health and survival and ability to access economic opportunities. In the UN Human Development Report’s (2016) Gender Inequality Index, India is at the bottom of the pile at 125th position, out of 159 countries. In Gender Gap index (World Economic Forum) 2017, its position is 108th out of 144 countries. It has slipped 21 places in one year compared to the 87th position last year in Gender Gap Index. India has slipped four places to rank 112th globally as per the Global Gender Gap Report 2020. India’s ranking in different dimensions: In terms of Economic participation and opportunity, India has been ranked 149th with a score of 0.354 in the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020. In terms of Educational attainment, India has been ranked 112th with a score of 0.962 in the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020. In terms of Health and survival, India has been ranked 150th with a score of 0.944 in the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020. In terms of Political empowerment, India has been ranked 18th with a score of 0.411 in the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 Female empowerment indicators in India showed improvement over a decade, but in our country still it only seems a distant dream.
