Role of Women in the Global Scenario

INTRODUCTION The empowerment of women refers to providing the necessary rights

and responsibilities to women in order to make them self-reliant.

Traditionally, Indian women have been brought to become workers or servants to serve the man – dominating world.

 Empowerment is the process of building capacities of women, creating an atmosphere which will enable people to fully utilize their creative potentials.

Empowerment gives women, the capacity to influence decision making process, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Gender gap exists regarding access to education and employment.

Household decision-making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with their age, education and employment status.

Role of women in the current scenario

Atrocities on women Male violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon.

Although not every woman has experienced it, and many expect not to, fear of violence is an important factor in the lives of most women.

It determines what they do, when they do it, where they do it, and with whom.

Fear of violence is a cause of women's lack of participation in activities beyond the home, as well as inside it.

Brutalities- A Statistical Chronicle Another danger in India is that, Indian law does not differentiate

between major and minor rape.

In every ten-rape case, six are of minor girls. In every seven minutes a crime is committed against women in India.

Every 26 minutes a woman is molested.

Every 34 minutes a rape takes place. Every 42 minutes a sexual harassment incident occurs.

Every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped. And every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death over dowry.

One-quarter of the reported rapes involve girls under the age of 16 but the vast majority are never reported.

Although the penalty is severe, convictions are rare.

Measures of women protection

Women in the filed of Agriculture The women are the backbone of agricultural

workforce but worldwide her hard work has mostly been unpaid.

She does the most tedious and back-breaking tasks in agriculture, animal husbandry and homes.

The research efforts at the ICAR institutes have been tried to relieve her of the drudgery by providing time and labour saving tools.

Her enlightenment will change the face of rural India. Several programmes started at the National Centre

for Women in Agriculture and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, are the right steps in this direction.

Women Empowerment In India – Milestones & Challenges

Empowerment is now increasingly seen as a process by which the one's without power gain greater control over their lives.

This means control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology. It involves power to, power with and power within.

Some define empowerment as a process of awareness and conscientization, of capacity building leading to greater participation, effective decision-making power and control leading to transformative action.

This involves ability to get what one wants and to influence others on our concerns.

With reference to women the power relation that has to be involved includes their lives at multiple levels, family, community, market and the state.

The Cairo Conference-Women’s Participation in Society

Importantly it involves at the psychological level women's ability to assert themselves and

this is constructed by the 'gender roles' assigned to her specially in a cultural which resists

change like India.

The questions surrounding women's empowerment the condition and position of women

have now become critical to the human rights based approaches to development.

The Cairo conference in 1994 organized by UN on Population and Development called

attention to women's empowerment as a central focus and UNDP developed the Gender

Empowerment measure (GEM) which focuses on the three variables that reflect women's

participation in society – political power or decision-making, education and health.

1995 UNDP report was devoted to women's empowerment and it declared that if human

development is not engendered it is endangered a declaration which almost become a lei

motif for further development measuring and policy planning.

Equality, sustainability and empowerment were emphasized and the stress was, that

women's emancipation does not depend on national income but is an engaged political

process.

CONCLUSION "When women move forward the family moves, the village

moves and the nation moves".

It is essential as their thought & their value systems lead the development of a good family, good society & ultimately a good nation".

 Indian government has taken several steps towards empowering women.

Empowerment of women also requires participation and co-operation of men as they benefit by having educated mothers, wives, daughters and sisters.

The economic empowerment will allow raising women's self awareness, skill development, creative decision making and it may also lead to produce better citizens and a new and modern India.