ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal (International Journal) ISSN-2456-1037
Vol. 05,Special Issue 03, (IC-WESD-2020) March 2020, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE
1
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (IN INDIAN CONTEXT)
Dr. Yogita Somani,
Asst. Prof., Saraswati Shiksha Mahavidyalaya, Mandsaur, (M.P.)
Abstract:- The overall development of a country, first of all, depends on maximum utilization of its human resources. It has been recognized that no national development can be achieved without proper conditions for women development. The national development of the country is being hampered, the government and many NGOs have made efforts in order to enable empower women’s participation in the development process and to promote their empowerment.
Keywords:- Women empowerment, sustainable development, environment.
1. INTRODUCTION
Women's empowerment is a movement involving respect, honor and recognition toward all Women. Empowerment can be defined in many ways, however, when talking about women's empowerment, empowerment means accepting and allowing people (women) who are on the outside of the decision-making process into it. “This puts a strong emphasis on participation in political structures and formal decision-making and, in the economic sphere, on the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision- making.” Empowerment is the process that creates power in individuals over their own lives, society, and in their communities.
People are empowered when they are able to access the opportunities available to them without limitations and restrictions such as in education, profession and lifestyle.
Feeling entitled to make your own decisions creates a sense of empowerment.
Empowerment includes the action of raising the status of women through education, raising awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment is all about equipping and allowing women to make life-determining decisions through the different problems in society. Alternatively, it is the process for women to redefine gender roles that allows for them to acquire the ability to choose between known alternatives whom have otherwise been restricted from such an ability.
There are several principles defining women's empowerment such as, for one to be empowered, they must come from a position of disempowerment. For example: A stripper no longer has to take off her clothes to get money and now is a receptionist for a respectable company. Empowerment stems from self respect. Furthermore, one must acquire empowerment themselves rather than have it given to them by an external party. Other studies have found that empowerment definitions entail people having the capability to make important decisions in their lives while also being able to act on them. Lastly, empowerment and disempowerment is relative to other at a previous time; therefore, empowerment is a process, not a product.
Women empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in development and economics. It can also point to the approaches regarding other trivialized genders in a particular political or social context. Women's economic empowerment refers to stability for women to enjoy their right to control and benefit from the resources, assets, income and their own time, as well as the ability to manage risk and improve their economic status and well being.
2. DESCRIBE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
In the late 1980s the report Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development defined the concept “sustainable development” as development which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. While aiming to maximize the well-being of today’s generation, it is important to take a long-term perspective, taking into account the consequences of our actions for our children, their children and grandchildren, ensuring that the resources they will require for their own well-being are not depleted, and that the natural environment into which they will be born will not be polluted or destroyed.
ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal (International Journal) ISSN-2456-1037
Vol. 05,Special Issue 03, (IC-WESD-2020) March 2020, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE
2
Sustainable development is conceptualized as resting on three inter-related pillars:
economic development, social development and environmental protection. A fourth pillar–
the preservation of cultural diversity has been proposed. This conceptual categorization can lead to treating these areas in isolation without accounting for a whole range of channels through which these pillars reinforce each other and bring about sustainable development.
Instead, by taking an integrated and holistic approach to socio culturally responsible, environmentally-friendly economic development, sustainable development can be revealed as a multifaceted and dynamic process.
As noted in a recent report by the Secretary General, “the goal, and indeed the ultimate test, of sustainable development is the convergence among the three trajectories of economic growth, social development and environmental protection”. Since the 1990’s women have been identified as key agents of sustainable community development and women’s equality and empowerment are seen as central to a more holistic approach towards establishing new patterns and processes of development that are sustainable. The World Bank has suggested that empowerment of women should be a key aspect of all social development programs.
Women’s role in decision making process is one of the most important points of attention in the movement for their empowerment. Among all, women participation in political life of the country plays one of the central roles in their advancement. Without active participation of women in the political life of the country, and introduction of women perspective in issues regarding equality, role of women in the society, it must be difficult to achieve the desired result for them. This amendment conditioned the distribution of seats to women in local level elections. This is an innovation in providing anew structural framework for women’s participation in political decision making of the country, thus bringing women to the center of local development and setting new grassroots level leadership.
There is a substantial need for women’s representation in government, because governmental and NGO’s measures do not sufficiently address all the need for women’s empowerment in the country. The article noted that women’s in the absence of their husbands can work on their own, make money, and plan their expenses to exert problem- solving abilities. And Education seems to play one of the most important roles for women’s empowerment, as it has been observed that the more educated the couple, the more tolerant the husband is to her empowerment. In reverse, uneducated husbands are apt to reject women’s empowerment, presumably because the former continuously wants to have severe control over the latter.
REFERENCES
1. Aref, F. (2010). Community capacity as an approach for sustainable tourism. e-Review of Tourism Research, 8(2), 30-40.
2. Aref, F., & Ma’rof, R. (2009). Community capacity building for tourism development. Journal of Human Ecology, 27(1), 21-25.
3. Aref, F., Redzuan, M. r., & Gill, S. S. (2009).Dimensions of Community Capacity Building: A Review of its Implications in Tourism Development. Journal of American Science, 5(8), 74-82.
4. Asnarulkhadi, A. S., & Aref, F. (2009). People’s Participation in Community Development: A Case Study in a Planned Village Settlement in Malaysia. World Rural Observations, 1(2),45-54.
5. Bank, W. (2001). Engendering Development: Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice. New York: Oxford University Press.
6. Gore, J. (1992). What we can do for you! What can “we” do for “you”? Struggling over empowerment in critical and feminist pedagogy’. In C. L. a. J. Gore (Ed.),Feminisms and critical pedagogy. New York:
Routledge.
7. Handy, F., & Kassam, M. (2004). Women’s empowerment in rural India. Paper presented at the ISTR conference, Toronto, Canada.
8. Aldershot: Avebury. Lennie, J. (2002). Rural women’s empowerment in a communication technology project: some contradictory effects. Rural Society, 12(3),224-245.
9. www.wikipedia.com 10. www.google .com
