Walk to Equality: Ensuring Safety & Empowerment of

Women Team Members:

Hina Saxena Anubha Mishra Jyoti Agrawal

Anurag Mishra Yashasvi Singh

“You can tell the state of a nation by looking at

the condition of the women there.”

• According to Indian constitution, Women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men.(e.g right to equality, no discrimination by the states, equality of opportunity, equal pay for equal work etc.)

• But because of lack of acceptance from the male dominating society, Indian women suffer immensely.

• Women are responsible for baring children, yet they are malnourished and in poor health.

• In India, rape, sexual harassment and abuse of women are common occurrences that go unspoken due to social stigma or fear of retribution.

• Crime clock:

1 crime against

women in every 3 minutes

1 cruelty case in every 9 minutes 1

molestation case in every 15 minutes

1 rape case in

every 20 minutes 1

kidnapping in every

23 minutes

1 sexual harassment case in every 53 minutes

1 dowry killing in every 77 minutes

“There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.”

• What is Women Empowerment

• Why it is needed

To establish high level corporate leadership for gender equality.

To treat all women & men fairly at work. Respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination.

To promote education, training and professional development for women.

To ensure the health, safety and well being of all women & men workers.

To implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women.

To promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy.

To measure and publically report on progress to achieve gender equality.

The couple of word Women-

Empowerment may be defined as a multidimensional social process that helps women in gaining control over their own lives.

It fosters capacity in them, for use in their own lives, their communities, and in their society by acting on issues that they define as important.

It comprises of 5 components:

Women’s sense of self worth.

Their rights to have & to determine

choices

Their rights to have power to

control their own lives

Their ability to influence the direction of

social change

Their rights to have access to opportunities .

Advantages over existing system • Proposed solutions to ensure

safety and empowerment of women:

These actions are particularly important for three subpopulations of women.

Strengthen opportunities

for post-primary education for

girls. Closing gender

gaps in earnings and reducing occupational segregation.

Combat violence against girls and

women.

Increase women’s share of seats in local

and central government.

Increase women’s & girls’

property and inheritance

rights.

Invest in infrastructure to reduce woman’s

& girl’s time burdens.

Guarantee sexual &

reproductive health and

rights.

• The wellbeing & survival of poor households depend on the productive and reproductive contributions of females so focus on them is therefore central to reduce poverty.

Poor women of the society

• Investments to help girls complete good quality secondary schooling, support their transition from education to work, develop healthy sexuality and guarantee their physical safety.

Adolesc-ents girls

• Situations of conflict have disproportionate impacts on women & children. Post-conflict periods present a window of opportunity to create a gender-equitable society

Women and girls

in conflicts

Operational framework of Gender Equality with three dimensions

The

Ca

pa

bili

ties

Do

ma

in It refers to basic human

abilities as measured by education, health and nutrition. These capabilities are fundamental to individual well being and are the means through which individuals access other forms of well being. Th

e a

cces

s to

Res

ou

rces

&

op

po

rtu

nit

ies

Do

ma

in

It refers primarily to equality in the opportunity to use or apply basic capabilities through access to economic assets(such as land or housing) and resources(such as income & employment) as well as political opportunities.

The

Secu

rity

Do

ma

in

It is defined to mean reduced vulnerability to violence and conflict that result in physical and psychological harm and lessen the ability of individuals, households and communities to fulfill their potential. Violence directly specifically at women & girls often aims at keeping them at their place ‘through fear’.

The attainment of capabilities increases the likelihood that women can access opportunities for employment or participate in political and legislative bodies.

• Access to opportunities decreases the likelihood that women will experience violence.(although in certain circumstances, it may temporarily increase that likelihood).

Progress in any one domain to the exclusion of the others will be insufficient to meet the goal of Gender Equality.

• And to exercise agency to use their rights and opportunities, Women must live without the fear of coercion and violence.

Stakeholders involved

Making it happen The practical actions and key essentials that can be taken with each strategic priority to bring about gender equality and empower women.

The framework provides a powerful legal mechanism enabling stakeholders at the country level to hold the government accountable for meeting goals.

NGO’s such as women’s organizations and other civil society organizations have taken the lead in holding government & international agencies accountable for implementing their commitments to gender equality & women empowerment.

Political commitment by and mobilization of large group of change agents at different levels within country who seek to implement the vision of the world.

Technical expertise and knowledge of how to mainstream gender into development policies and programs.

Institutional structures and processes to support the transformation, including structures that enable women to successfully claim their rights.

The allocation of adequate financial resources for direct interventions by governmental and non-governmental organizations in the strategies.

Accountability and monitoring systems need to be in place within country to ensure that fundamental change is broad based and lasting.

Total Funding required • Fund Management For the strategies expenditure should be categorized in 3 categories.

An accurate cost analysis is the first step in efforts to mobilize the financial resources needed to implement the various interventions and policy measures are:

The cost of universal primary and expanded secondary education would be roughly Rs.1500 per capita on average annually.

Cost of setting up a primary health care system(for child & maternal health, sexual & reproductive health) would average roughly Rs.2000 per capita annually.

Cost of water & sanitation provision would average roughly Rs.700 per capita annually.

Preliminary estimates suggest that the addition cost of gender specific intervention to meet goals will average approximately Rs.100 per capita annually with costs peaking at Rs.150 in 2015.

Public expenditure can be clustered in terms of four categories

Protective & welfare services

accounting for 67%

Social service

education, water,

housing, health 26%

Economic resources:

self employm-

ent training fuel supply managem-

ent 4%

Regulatory services-

awareness generation NCW 3%

Specifically targeted

expenditure on women

Pro woman allocation-composite

expenditure at least 30%

Mainstream expenditure with

gender deferential impact

Existing Government Schemes and Policies

Besides these Government policies, NGO’s are playing a significant role in the empowerment of disadvantageous women.

Govt. have set up the Central Social Welfare Board(CSWB), an apex body of the voluntary sector that aids more than 10,000 NGO’s across the country, helping women stand on their own through such programmes as socio-economic programme, vocational training and other similar programmes.

Some of the NGO’s that are working to uplift the status of women are:

Nanhi Kali (for the girl child)

Sarojini Rehabilitation Centre for Women

Ujjawala programme

Sanjeevini Rehabilitation

The establishment of the National Commission for Women (NCW)

Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

Balika Samriddhi Yojna (BSY)

Rural Women’s Development & Empowerment Project (RWDEP)

Indira Mahila Yojna (IMY)

Reproductive & Child Health Scheme (RCH)

Adolescent Girls Scheme

Working Women’s Hostel Scheme

Support to Training & Employment Programme for Women (STEP)

Stree Shakti Puraskar

Education & Training support

The National Policy for Empowerment of women

Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW)

Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls

A National Resource center for Women

Criteria to measure the impact of the solution P

rop

ose

d in

dic

ato

rs f

or

tra

ckin

g p

rog

ress

Education

• The ratio of female to male gross enrollment rates in primary, secondary, & tertiary education.

• The ratio of female to male completion rates in primary, secondary & tertiary education.

Sexual and Reproductive health & rights

• Proportion of contraceptive demand satisfied.

• Adolescent fertility rate.

Infrastructure

• Hours per day (or year) women & men spend fetching water and collecting fuel.

Property rights

• Land ownership by male, female or jointly held.

• Housing title, disagregated by male, female or jointly held

Employment

• Share of women in employment, both wage & self-employment, by type.

• Gender gaps in earnings in wage and self-employed.

Participation in National parliaments & local Government bodies

• Percentage of seats held by women in National parliament.

• Percentage of seats held by women in local government bodies.

Violence against women

• Prevalence of domestic violence

The rule of law means little to most women & girls: Access to justice demands knowledge, literacy, money & time.

• Appropriate Monitoring Mechanism

Country statistical agencies need an infusion of resources to strengthen their capacity & efforts to do all that is necessary to collect and prepare sex-disaggregated data.

Work at the country level also requires technical support from key international statistical agencies to develop methodological guidelines and undertake new data collection efforts.

• Scalability & Sustainability of solution

It includes gender specific interventions in agriculture, education, health, nutrition, rural development, urban development, water & sanitation, environment, trade, science & technology.

These strategies are included in the needs assessment for specific sectors-

Post primary education for girls has been costed as part of the education needs assessment methodology.

The provision of sexual & reproductive health services has been costed within the wealth sector needs assessment methodology.

Infrastructure to reduce women’s time burdens has been costed as part of the infrastructure needs assessment methodology.

Legal empowerment strategies can help create a culture of justice among women and ensure that principles of equality are translated into practice. “Let us give them wings to fly high. Let her be happy, so that she can give

her best to family, society and nation.”

Challenges of the women empowerment Maternal Morality: India accounts for more than 25% of all maternal deaths in

the world.

Malnourishment: More than 80% of pregnant Indian women are found to be anemic. This results in high rates of child malnutrition.

Lack of girl education: only 39% of Indian women attend primary school.

Female Infanticide: India loses around 3 million girls in infanticide per year.

Dowry Deaths: NCRB statics show that 91,202 dowry deaths were reported in country from Jan 1 ,2001 to Dec 31,2012.

Trafficking: Forcing girls in to prostitution, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery & trade in human organs.

Way

s to

mee

t ch

alle

nge

s Health :Basin sanitation facilities, adequate medical camps, govt. health schemes would be conducive to bring about a major change.

Education: It is one of the most important means of empowering women with knowledge, skills & self confidence necessary to

participate fully in the development process.

References:

Global urban Development Magazine, March 2006

National policy for the empowerment of women,2001

Neera Desai & Usha Thakkar: “Women in Indian society”(2001)-NBT, New Delhi

Report by the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education & Gender equality.

Report by The International Development Law Organization.