The document discusses women's empowerment in India. It provides definitions of empowerment from the World Bank and others. It outlines the five components of women's empowerment and discusses women's status and empowerment across various areas in India such as education, employment, political participation, and access to resources. Challenges facing women in India are highlighted through various statistics. Government and non-government programs and policies aimed at promoting women's empowerment are also summarized.

1. Dr Menaal Kaushal
JR III
Department of S P M
S N Medical College, Agra

3. World Bank says:
“Empowerment is the process of increasing
the capacity of individuals or groups to make
choices and to transform those choices into
desired actions and outcomes.”

4. Definition
• “Empowerment is the process of
increasing the authority and
responsibility of individuals or groups to
make choices and to transform those
choices into desired actions and
outcomes”.

5. Women's empowerment has five
components:
• Women's sense of self-worth;
• Their right to have and to
determine choices;
• Their right to have access to
opportunities and resources;
• Their right to have the power to
control their own lives, both
within and outside the home;
• And their ability to influence the
direction of social change to
create a more just social and
economic order, nationally and
internationally.

6. Women Empowerment
• Women Empowerment refers to
increasing the spiritual, political,
social, educational, gender, or
economic strength of individuals
and communities of women.

7. Women in India
o Total population - 1210.2 million (2011)
{Almost equal to the combined population of U.S.A.,
Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan
put together}
o Women population - 586.5 million (48.5%)
o Sex ratio: 943/1000 men
o Child Sex ratio: 919 /1000
22-07-
2014
7

8. Shocking Facts
• According to 2013, UNDP report on
Human Development Indicators, all South
Asian Countries, except Afghanistan, were
ranked better for women than India
• It predicts: an Indian girl child aged 1-5
yrs is 75% more likely to die than the boy
child
• A woman is raped once in every 20min and
10% of all crimes are reported to be of

9. • Women form 48% of India’s
population
• Only 29% of the national
workforce
• Only 26% of women have access
to formal credit

10. •NEW DELHI: Being equal to their
male counterparts is still a far cry
for Indian women. Not only are
they marginal as public figures, an
average Indian woman can hardly
call the shots at home or outside.
•In 2012, women occupied only
eight out of 74 ministerial positions
in the Union council of ministers.
There were only two women judges
out of 26 judges in the Supreme
Court, and there were only 54
women judges out of 634 judges in
various high courts.

11. • About 66% of the female
population in rural area is
unutilized. This is mainly due to
existing social customs.
• In agriculture & animal care the
women contribute 90% of the
total work force. Women
constitute almost half of the
population, perform nearly 2/3
rd of its work hours, receive
1/10 th of the world’s income &
own less than 1/100 th of the
world property.
• Among the world’s 900 million
illiterate people, women out
number men two to one. 70% of
people living in poverty are

12. Educational status of women
Census data 2001,2011, RGI, GOI
Literacy rate
Department of education, Ministry of Human
Resource & Development
22-07-
2014
12

13. Gender Disparity in Literacy
Age Sex Literacy
rate (%)
Gender
Disparity
15-49 Male
Female
78
55
29%
20-24 Male
Female
84
64
23%
15-19 Male
Female
89
74
17%
NFHS 3,India 2005-
2006

14. Gender Disparity in Media
Exposure
Not only are fewer women than men literate
but fewer are also regularly exposed to
media
• Percentage of men and women age 15-19
regularly exposed to print media, TV,
radio, or cinema
• Men 88%
• Women 71%
• Gender Disparity 19%

15. Employment: Another Area of
Gender Disparity
43
29
87
79
Employed Employed for
cash
Women Men
• Among the population age 15-
49
• Men are 2 times as likely to be
employed
• Men are 2.7 times as likely to
be employed for cash
• Among the employed, 64% of
women vs. 91% of men earn cash
• Female share of population
employed for cash in non-
agricultural occupations is 22%
Percent
NFHS 3,India 2005-
2006

16. Economic independence of women
Work participation of
women– 25.63%
Urban: rural ratio of work
participation of women-
11.88: 30.79
Women working in
unorganized sectors – 80%
Women economically active
at 15 years (2009) – 33%
22-07-
2014
16

17. The majority of employed women
are engaged in agricultural work
Type of worker
Occupational Distribution (%)
Women Men
Professional 7 7
Sales 4 14
Service 7 5
Production 22 37
Agricultural 59 33
Other 2 4
NFHS 3,India 2005-

18. Do married women have access to
any other financial resources?
68
45
15
5
Participate in decision on how
husband's earnings are used
Have money which they can
decide how to use
Have a bank or savings account
that they themselve use
Have taken loan from
microcredit program
Percentage of women
who:

19. Do married women participate in
other household decision making?
Decisions
Make decision
alone or jointly
with husband
Own health care 62
Making major household purchases 53
Making purchases for daily household
needs 60
Visits to her family or relatives 61
All four 37
None of above 21

20. Women at decision making level
• Participation of
women in elections
increased over the
years
• Proportion of women
turnout for voting –
58.2%Source: Election Commission of India
22-07-
2014
20
58.2
48.0

21. Women at decision making
level
• Proportion of women in
national parliament
dipped till year 2007
• “Women Reservation
Bill” is still pending in
the parliament
22-07-
2014
21
Proportionofwomeninnationalparliament

22. WHY NEED OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?
• The main problems that were faced by women in
past days(and still today up to some extent):
• Gender discrimination
• Woman education
• Female infanticide
• Dowry
• Marriage in same caste and child marriage(still
existing)
• Atrocities on Women: Raped, kicked, killed,
subdued & humiliated almost daily.

23. NEED FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMNENT:
WOMEN ARE DEPRIVED OF:
• Decision Making Power
• Freedom of Movement
• Access to Education
• Access to Employment
• Exposure to Media
• Domestic Violence

24. Holistic approach to Empowerment
Health
& Nut.
Education
Water & San.
Skills
Technology Credit
Political
Participation
Marketing
Asset base

25. WAYS TO EMPOWER WOMEN:
• Changes in women's
mobility and social
interaction;
• Changes in women's labor
patterns;
• Changes in women's
access to and control over
resources; and
• Changes in women's
control over decision-

26. WAYS TO EMPOWER WOMEN:
• Providing education
• Self employment and Self help groups
• Providing minimum needs like nutrition, health,
sanitation, housing
• Other than this, society should change the
mentality towards the word “women”.
• Encouraging women to develop in their fields
they are good at and make a career.

27. Non-governmental organizations are playing a
significant role in the empowerment of
disadvantages women.
Just a few years after Independence, the Government
set up the Central Social Welfare Board, an apex body
of the voluntary sector that aids more than 10,000
NGOs across the country, helping women stand on
their own through such programme as socio-economic
programme, vocational training and other similar
programmes.

28. Free Powerpoint Templates
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
The Department of Women and Child Development has been
implementing special programmes for the holistic development
and empowerment of women with major focus to improve their
socio-economic status. There has been policy shifts from time to
time based on the shifts in emphasis.
to bring greater focus on the programmes for women.
A programme of Support to Training-cum-Employment for
Women (STEP) was launched in 1987 to strengthen and improve
the skills for employment opportunities for women below the
poverty line, in traditional sectors of agriculture, small animal
husbandry etc where women are employed on a large scale..
Swayamsidha launched in March 2001 and the Swa-Shakti
Empowerment Project), launched in October 1998.

29. Women Empowerment
Programmes
• Swayamsidha
• Swa-Shakti Project
• Support to Training and employment programme for Women
(STEP)
• Swalamban
• Creches/ Day care Centers for the Children of working and
Ailing Mothers
• Hostels for working women
• Swadhar
• Rashtriya Mahila kosh (RMK)

30. Swayamsidha: ( Indira Mahila yojna)
• It is an integrated project for the development and
empowerment of women through Self Help Groups
(SHGs) with emphasis on covering service,
developing access to micro-enterprises.
• About 10 lakh women have taken membership.
Swam-Shakti Project:
• Earlier known as the Rural Women’s Development
and Empowerment Project, was sanctioned in
October 1998 as centrally sponsored scheme to be
implemented in the states of Bihar, Chattisgarh,
Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya
Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.

31. Swayamsidha:

32. Programmes contd…
Support to Training and employment
Programme for Women (STEP):
• The program seeks to provide updated skills and
new knowledge to poor asset less women in eight
traditional sectors of employment, agriculture,
animal husbandry, dairying, fisheries, handlooms,
handcrafts, Khadi and Village industry and
sericulture.

33. Swadhar:
This scheme was launched in 2001-2002 as a
central sector scheme for providing holistic
and integrated services to women in
difficult circumstances.
NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE
EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN (2001)
The goal - of this Policy is to bring about the
advancement, development and
empowerment of women.

34. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK):
• Also known as the National Credit Fund for
Women was set up as a registered society
under the Societies Registration Act, 1860
on March 30, 1993.
• Credit support or micro-finance to poor
women to start income generating activities
such as in - Dairy , Agriculture ,Shop-
keeping ,Vending and Handicrafts.
In 2003-04, an amount of Rs.25 crore was
sanctioned through RMK benefiting about

35. MDG GOAL 3
• Promote Gender Equality and
Empower Women.
TARGET
1. Eliminate gender disparity in
primary and secondary education,
preferably by 2005, and in all levels
of education, no later than 2015

36. • UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the
United Nations.
It provides financial and technical
assistance to innovative programs and
strategies to foster women’s
empowerment and gender equality

37. Four strategic areas
• UNIFEM has identified four strategic areas
that are of critical concern for the
achievement of gender equality and women's
empowerment :
• Reducing feminized poverty
• Ending violence against women
• Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women
and girls
• Achieving gender equality in democratic
governance in times of peace as well as war

38. • GRBI is a collaborative effort between the -
United Nations Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM), The Commonwealth
Secretariat and Canada's International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), To-
• Support government and civil society in
analyzing national and/or local budgets from
a gender perspective and applying this
analysis to the formulation of gender
responsive budgets.

39. • 2014 Theme: Inspiring Change
• Each year around the world, International Women's
Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8.
• Thousands of events occur not just on this day but
throughout March to mark the economic, political
and social achievements of women.

40. CONCLUSION
• Women represent half the world’s population, and
gender inequality exists in every nation on the
planet.
• Until women are given the same opportunities that
men are, entire societies will be destined to
perform below their true potentials .
• The greatest need of the hour is change of social
attitude to women.

41. Positive Stories…

42. The Lijjat Papad
story
• Seven illiterate and poor women borrowed Rs 80 to
start a papad business in 1959
• Its turnover from Rs 6,196 in the first year went upto
Rs 300 crore in the next four decades
• 42,000 women on its revolutionary march
• Jaywantiben Popat, one of the women involved with
this phenomenal spirit, was honoured at the ET
Awards for her outstanding achievements

43. Mann Deshi Mahila
Sahakari Bank
• Chetna’s foundation established in 1994 a
co-operative bank that is completely
operated by women and serves women
customers.
• The bank was established with help of a
group of illiterate women and has now
grown into a $562,000 firm by the end of
2011.
• In collaboration with HSBC, Mann Deshi
Bank established the Udyogini Business

44. SEWA (Self-Employed Women's
Association)
• Started as a trade union, registered in 1972,
founded by Ela Bhat,
• Organisation of self-employed women workers
who earn a living through their own labour or
small businesses.
• SEWA's membership, which is a nominal Rs. 5 a
year, includes women from a cross-section of
society — from vegetable and fruit hawkers to
home-based weavers, potters and manual
labourers.
• Year Number of Members

46. EMPOWERMENT
INDICATORS
I- Legal Empowerment
 Enforcement of legislation related to the protection
of human rights.
 Number of cases related to women ’ s rights heard in local
courts, and their results.
 Number of cases related to the legal rights of divorced and
widowed women heard in local courts,and the results.
 Increase/decrease in violence against women.
 Rate at which the number of local
justices/prosecutors/lawyers who are women/men is
increasing/decreasing.

47. II- Political Empowerment
 % of seats held by women in local councils/decision-
making bodies.
 % of women in decision-making positions in local
government.
 % of women in the local civil service.
 % of women/men registered as voters/ % of eligible
women/men who vote.
 % of women in senior/junior decision making positions
within unions.
 % of union members who are women/men.

48. III-Economic Empowerment
 Changes in employment/unemployment rates of
women and men.
 Salary/wage differentials between women and men.
 Average household expenditure of female/male
headed households on education/health.
 Ability to make small or large purchases
independently.
IV-Social Empowerment
 Control of women over fertility decisions (e.g.
number of children)
 Mobility of women within and outside their