Women Empowerment the Phenomenal Change in Women’s Position in India

INTRODUCTION

Introduction within the history of human development, woman has been as important as man. In fact, the status, employment and work performed by women in society is that the indicator of a nation‟s overall progress. Without the participation of women‟s in national activities, the social, economic or political progress of a country goes to be stagnated. Women constitute half the humanity, even contributing two-thirds of world‟s work hours. She earns only one-third of the complete income and owns but one-tenth of the world‟s resources. In the times, where women status has been improved barely while, still they're facing problems. This happened due to women empowerment. Women empowerment are often explained as improving women‟s economic and status by increasing their education level, employment opportunities and political representation. It refers to making the environment in which women can have access and control over the resources at par with men. Efforts are made on everyday basis across nations to handle this issue and enhance the socio-economic status of women‟s. normally terms, understood in two broad senses, i.e. general sense Women empowerment may be a state when a women is in a position to, Take self-decision on her education, political participation, mobility, economic independency, address, execution of her social rights, and Challenge the incorrect traditions and customs which deny her rights or access to resources and Oppose the selections taken by her family or society which affects her freedom or dignity and self-esteem and Represent the group of other women or people generally who are full of the social evil system like child marriage, child labor, violence against widows etc. and after all Participate and influence in the deciding process in the family as in the society.

Despite many international agreements affirming women‟s human rights, women are far more likely to be poor, malnourished and illiterate and to possess less access than men to treatment, property ownership, credit, training and employment. Women‟s equal participation with men in power and decision-making could be a component of their fundamental right to participate in political life and at the core of gender equality and women‟s empowerment. Lot of questions has been raised especially on whether any positive change is typically seen since the campaign to empower women was initiated. Women play a critical role in agriculture in India; they're centrally involved within the assembly of crops and have primary responsibility for the care of livestock. Despite their important agricultural roles, women in India have little or no decision-making power with reference to adopting sustainable farming practices and other farm-based income generating activities. This reflects women's general lack of power in rural India where decisions regarding their lives are still largely made by the women‟s in their families. They‟re poor, uneducated and insufficiently trained. In an exceedingly country like India, with a strong tradition of democratic functioning, a vibrant opinion and influential sections of society interested in progress and welfare of women‟s, the movement for women's empowerment is definite to gather strength. Such a strong onward thrust towards strengthening this movement is definite to form a giant contribution towards nation-building. Creating of an environment through positive economic and social policies for development of women‟s to enable them to know their full potential. Any society which has achieved a high degree of social development has its women status in terms of education, health, employment, participation in higher studies is within the family, community, state and civil society. It strengthens their innate ability through acquiring knowledge, power and knowledge. Increasing awareness of the women‟s about their rights ensure women empowerment. Furthermore, awareness rising is helpful in controlling environment.

In order to awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move, the household moves, the village moves and also the country moves: and through the women‟s, its children are brought into the image and given the possibility of a healthier life and better training. The history of mankind reveals that there was a time when it absolutely wasn't essential for everyone to seek out out, or to read and write. The life was so simple and thus the activities of a personal were confined to his small village community which of women‟s were limited to their respective families only. With the passage of it slow, the complexity of life also increased. Now activity of the people is not any more confined to the boundaries of their communities/families but has tremendously grown within the recent century. The cognitive content and technology have entered the sphere of our day-to-day life-and-culture. But during this process women are backward. Only some of them have gotten the minimum fruits of present development of our country. But if we read the history of social change in India we are visiting observe that the position of women‟s today isn't as equal just like the position of women‟s in ancient period it absolutely was. Once it had been time when the position of women‟s in our society was very high, especially in Vedic period the educational status of women‟s was almost adequate to men. But in course of time women became the prisoners of our walls within the limited home among their members of the family, especially to serve the lads. But society cannot indicate ever in an exceedingly very particular place. So again, women are initiating of their small cottages to serve themselves for the greater interest of the society. Still there are some obstacles regarding their initiating from home for the society which prevents them to participate in Nation‟s development.

Empowerment of women‟s in all spheres of life are critical for his or her advancement particularly within the sphere of politics and so the inspiration of a gender-equal society. Political empowerment is the capacity to influence deciding process, planning, implementation and evaluation by integrating them within the group. It implies political participation which has right to vote, contest, campaign, party membership and representation in political office the smallest amount bit levels and effectively influences decisions thereby leading to political empowerment. In other words political empowerment can be a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation, greater deciding power and control and to informative action. An accurate representation of women does in affairs of state will ensure their views and desires reflected publicly policies that affect their lives most. The definition of the word 'empowerment' is simply given power or authority to somebody to act with none discrimination and so the meaning of women‟s empowerment in simple way is build up women‟s intellect, capacity, maximum participation in higher process and power sharing in representatives bodies, employment, security, access to property, access to information and resources, ability to change others‟ perceptions by democratic means, ability to be told skills for improving status, health and potential for participation in every field of life. Political empowerment of women‟s denotes a definite role for women‟s as a voter, as a member or as a very important person within the political process. It refers to the tactic by which women acquire due recognition at par with men with none discrimination and with human dignity. The term "political empowerment" refers to shaping and sharing the power at political front. Thus the political empowerment of women‟s denotes their role in arena i.e. political participation, political behaviour and actions related to influencing the selection making process and participating within the method of governance.

Today Indian society isn't as rigid as it was earlier. With the passage of time and steady developments the perceptions and attitude of people have changed towards women. Though the proportion is low but today women don't seem to be any longer confined to the house premises, today women try hard to determine themselves as top entrepreneurs. But many face challenging constraints which has household duties, the atmosphere or living conditions and also the burden of debt were actually is abstaining them from involving themselves actively in entrepreneurship. But with the changing attitude, outlook and attributes of women‟s and also the ever rising economic needs has led women to work outside the families and to financially support their families. As quoted by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru “When women moves forward, the family moves, the village moves and also the state moves”. This truly means women should be actively involved within the economic development of country by not only empowering then but also by making them entrepreneurs. Once they're involved only then any development is possible in true sense. This helps them to achieve these highly volatile markets. The spurt in women investors started from 1997. Since then markets are providing a straightforward opportunity to make fast money. Education levels among women are mounting. In India, there are a variety of business cooperatives during which women are active, producing food stuffs like spices, pickles, papads, readymade garments, embroidered goods, and diverse other articles to be used within the house.

Some of the empowerment mechanism in India is literacy and better education, better healthcare, greater work participation, opportunities for higher position of power, knowledge of rights and self-reliance, self-respects and dignity of being women. Let‟s have a glance into a number of the problems which create challenges in women empowerment 1. Decline of education to them: Discrimination in the extent and quality of any group‟s education which can affects the cultural adjustment, rank and private enjoyment of its members. In the present study it's found that women‟s educational status isn't conductive. Although a number of them are literate, but their education isn't within the proper way. They unable to require advantage of opportunities that would benefit them and their families, preparing women for the labour force and helping them understand their legal and reproductive rights. 2. Domestic and Social Violence: In a male dominated society like India violence against women is unfortunately increasing at an alarming rate. Such violence is usually grouped into two types. the first one is Violence against women within the family or violence which contains dowry related harassments including death, wife buttering, marital rape, regulatory offense, deprivation of food to female members of the family to resort to sex trade, female genital mutilation, abusing female servants of the family, then on and second is Violence against women outside the family or social violence, which contains Kidnapping, raping and murdering women are very serious offences. 3. No sufficient Fund for own Empowerment: Women are the invisible workforce in India. The final word access to the work market women cannot participate in better paid work so their economic status remains stunted. India has forsaken and untapped human capital resource with high potential. Women‟s work participation presents various trends thanks to changing structural features of the economy. Industrial development and modernization have displaced quite larger number of women‟s working in traditional occupations. 4. Zero involvement in Decision Making: Women‟s development would include not only materialistic growth but also and perhaps more realistically and meaningful, the blossoming of their intellectual, personnel, emotional, psychological, cultural and even spiritual progress. Therefore, empowerment of women‟s can't be a static motion but a dynamic process, its approach is balance, integrative and holistic, its common goals and it's participatory in nature.

Women Empowerment is the division of roles and responsibilities in a very society that shapes the identities of both men and women‟s. It‟s a incontrovertible fact that job shapes the social identity and standing of women‟s also. The social norms are a regular mode and also the expected behavior of the broader society including schools and work which culture both men and women‟s. It‟s found that, social customs and traditions have more effect on the amount of autonomy available to women in India. Generally it's observed everywhere the globe that, among the poorest section of the society, women are highest in number. They‟re always the victim of all varieties of evil system as a women child or a women. It may be observed that, high son preference in the society is the basic reason for all kinds of disempowerment of women‟s. India is third fastest growing economy among G20 countries but it's great distance to travel to match standard of living on the opposite measures. It‟s wrong to argue that men don't control the sphere of women‟s life within the way of grandfather, father, father-in-law, husband, son and grandson. By and big this social nation of labor pattern reflects the biased gender inequalities where men are in power and women‟s are exploited by the previous. This shows that, when women are empowered with education and have control on their earnings they'll use their earnings for the aim of buying assets for them irrespective of the type of family they live though their decision on other matters may depend upon the family type. Hence, it'll be concluded that, economic empowerment makes the women‟s more concerned about their participation in higher cognitive operation regardless of the family type they live. It‟s going to be seen as Joint families are ready to give women some space within the deciding process after they're working. But at the identical time Joint families also control their decision power.

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Associate Professor and HOD, Department of English, K. A. PG College, Kasganj, U.P., India