Post Tagged with: "Women Empowerment"

Woman is born with Identity? Or Woman creates her own Identity?

Woman is born with Identity? Or Woman creates her own Identity?

We talk of equality of the sexes, gender stereotyping breakthrough but these terms get restricted only to discussion on right to work, right to body, freedom of movement, choices of clothing so on and so forth. Even the women’s role as decision taker in the kitchen and at home politics is mistaken as women empowerment in many household. The young[Read More…]

by 08/03/2023 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Reduced presence in politics main cause of Gender Gap

Reduced presence in politics main cause of Gender Gap

With four parameters, the gender gap in 156 nations was studied in 2021. It says it will take 135.6 years to bridge the gender gap worldwide… India is at 140th rank among 156 nations. It has slipped 28 places.. It is unfortunate that India was rated as one of the most dangerous places for women in the world.. The problem[Read More…]

by 09/03/2022 Comments are Disabled India
The Agency of ‘Left-Behind Women’ in Bihar

The Agency of ‘Left-Behind Women’ in Bihar

The prevailing perception about Bihari women in a sub-urban/ rural setting reduces the different dimensions of their persona into fossilised gender identities like ‘left-behind women’. In other words, they are mostly considered as the passive recipient of exploitative patriarchal actions in a traditional, patriarchal society of Bihar. However, a closer look at the society of Bihar would suggest that the[Read More…]

by 21/05/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Promoting Gender Equality and Rights of Women in India: A Study of CEDAW, MDGs and SDGs

Promoting Gender Equality and Rights of Women in India: A Study of CEDAW, MDGs and SDGs

 Introduction Though India had a distinction of electing a woman Prime Minister in 1966 (Mrs. Indira Gandhi) and an Indian (Mrs. Vijay Laxmi Pandit) became the first woman President of the UN General Assembly in 1953, the position of women in India is very low and their rights are rarely protected. Problems like dowry, sati or self-immolation of widows, child[Read More…]

by 10/03/2021 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
How The Women’s Self Help Groups Leading The Way In Pandemic Times

How The Women’s Self Help Groups Leading The Way In Pandemic Times

Addressing the requirements arising out of Covid-19 Pandemic, in a populous country spread across the length and breadth, has received substantial economic, and social support from the self-help group(SHG)/Samuh members. Rising to these testing times, operational challenges like financial delays must be done away with, driving sustained empowerment of the most vulnerable. Restructured in 2011, as DAY-NRLM(Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural[Read More…]

by 23/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Vanita Pise: A Woman Leads A Farm Revolution

Vanita Pise: A Woman Leads A Farm Revolution

There is a tempest in India’s farmlands even as their tillers wage an extraordinary crusade for alleviating age-old distresses. Away from the bustle of the raging storm in the Delhi-National Capital Region is a small semi-literate group of women farmers in a remote hinterland who are assiduously managing a farmer producer company (FPC) to help alleviate the woes of other women growers[Read More…]

by 23/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Odisha Women conduct Gram Sabha to place gender-based violence

Odisha Women conduct Gram Sabha to place gender-based violence

Bhubaneswar: 9th December-A unique Gram Sabha on gender-based violence was organised across 17 districts in Odisha where the meetings were being led by the women as they were holding centre stage to discuss issues that concern them the most. The objective of these Gram Sabha were to ensure the involvement of women in Gram Sabha and place issues that concern[Read More…]

by 09/12/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Kudumbashree: Empowering Women

Kudumbashree: Empowering Women

As the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 showed an overall improvement in the political representation of women, it became obvious that we have come a long way but there is still a long stretch to cover. In all of our misplaced understanding of just “helping” women to ensure we empower them, we forget that empowerment lies in building agency, above[Read More…]

by 14/09/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
 Innovative financing for women’s health becomes vital when purse strings tighten

 Innovative financing for women’s health becomes vital when purse strings tighten

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of weak health systems that were ill prepared to withstand the onslaught of the pandemic. As documented by the Pulse survey of the WHO, the pandemic has resulted in disruption of essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health services, in most countries. Weak and perpetually poorly resourced health systems have escalated the[Read More…]

by 05/09/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Covid-19 and Maternal health in India

Covid-19 and Maternal health in India

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019    (COVID-19) outbreaks a global pandemic. In India, during the last six months had a tough time for everyone as government had announced the lockdown in the month of March because of day by day increasing in the number of cases of coronavirus. Pregnant women have more stress about the effects[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Anganwadi Workers Test Their Resilience In The Pandemic

Anganwadi Workers Test Their Resilience In The Pandemic

 During my professional engagement with rural India, I found that one of the most useful resources at the grassroots level was an Anganwadi worker. I would always begin my village exploration with a visit to an Anganwadi and would be rewarded with a finer introduction to the local community. I have always regarded Anganwadi workers as the most efficient last-mile[Read More…]

by 12/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Becoming “flesh”: Society shaping women’s body image

Becoming “flesh”: Society shaping women’s body image

“We don’t need Afghan-style burqas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse – by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet the externally imposed vision of beauty” – Robin Gerber Existentialists argue that everything we are today is the result of our choices, and we build our own values with the available choices and resources that society gives us.[Read More…]

by 26/07/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Financial Empowerment and Autonomy for Women

Financial Empowerment and Autonomy for Women

In a country where the culture of arranged and forced marriage is the norm, marrying for love is an exception, and divorce or choosing to remain single is associated with social stigma; it can be argued that a financially empowered woman is better positioned to reverse these traditional social dynamics and bring about social change in the right direction. However,[Read More…]

by 19/06/2020 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Women In Rural India: The Long Road To Power

Women In Rural India: The Long Road To Power

  International Day of Rural Women–15 October The empowerment of rural women and girls is essential to building a prosperous    equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake[Read More…]

by 16/10/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
When Women Succeed, We All Succeed

When Women Succeed, We All Succeed

  In an ashram perched high on a hill above the city of Guwahati is a small exhibit commemorating the life of India’s most famous son. Alongside a bed  where Mahatma Gandhi himself  slept is a display reminding visitors of something the man himself said in 1921: “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so[Read More…]

by 23/01/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Bridging The Gender Gap

Bridging The Gender Gap

    Women and girls play a lesser recognised role as drivers of growth and progress and powerful agents of change. Gender remains a critically important and largely ignored lens to view development issues across the world. Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at[Read More…]

by 23/11/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
Poor Women Craft Their Destiny

Poor Women Craft Their Destiny

   The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them -Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus When I first initiated livelihood finance projects through women collectives called as self help groups, more than two decades back, I encountered stiff resistance from the local elders who[Read More…]

by 07/08/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
Bridging The Gender Gap

Bridging The Gender Gap

Pride and dignity would belong to women if only men would leave them alone. Egyptian Proverb Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analyzed in a McKinsey Global Institute report, The Power of Parity:[Read More…]

by 09/04/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
Give These Tenacious Women Some Flashlights

Give These Tenacious Women Some Flashlights

  Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression. – Margaret Sanger Providing women with more and better opportunities to fulfill their social, economic, and political roles is now deemed so essential for reducing poverty and[Read More…]

by 08/04/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
Mahila Shakti Kendras: Yet Another Well Worded  Scheme, With No Teeth

Mahila Shakti Kendras: Yet Another Well Worded  Scheme, With No Teeth

A few kilometers outside Ahmedabad in Gujarat, I visited a Mahila Shakti Kendra about a year ago. I was amazed at what I saw and heard. In a community building, right in the center of a buzzing market, was a decent sized room. There were info graphics on the wall, a group of women of all ages having a charcha.[Read More…]

by 10/02/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
25 Years Of New Middle Women

25 Years Of New Middle Women

  We live in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and injustice from birth to death. From poor education to poor nutrition to vulnerable and low pay employment, the sequence of discrimination is very hard, but all too common. They face significant constraints in maximizing their  But there are also silvery strands in this dark[Read More…]

by 04/02/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
How Poor Women Are Taking Charge Of Their Future

How Poor Women Are Taking Charge Of Their Future

If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones. ― John Steinbeck The Indian women farmer, almost never publicly acknowledged, reviled by superstition and patriarchy, and increasingly troubled by entrenched social and cultural mores and taboos bears the real burden of farm labour. Nearly 98 million[Read More…]

by 29/01/2017 1 comment Patriarchy
How Women Are Remaking Their Destiny

How Women Are Remaking Their Destiny

When I first initiated livelihood finance projects through women collectives called as Self Help Groups, more than two decades back, I encountered stiff resistance from the local elders who couldn’t believe that their women could attend a meeting without a male chaperone. There were some who felt that since I was a male, I had no customary sanction to interact[Read More…]

by 27/12/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
We Are Flames, Not Flowers

We Are Flames, Not Flowers

Worldwide millions of women   have traditional responsibilities as food growers, water and fuel gatherers, and care-givers. In South   Asia, women make up   make up 43% of the agriculture workforce in developing countries and account for around 66% of the world’s subsistence livestock keepers. Women secure clean water for drinking and cooking; they are familiar with non-timber forest products (medicinal plants[Read More…]

by 21/11/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
Thumbs Up To Women Power In Village India

Thumbs Up To Women Power In Village India

The transformation of women’s roles is the last great impediment to universal progress. Indian women haven’t always had much by way of social agency or power whereby they could formulate strategic choices, and   control resources and decisions that affect important life outcomes. This   , however, hasn’t stopped them from elbowing past certain patriarchal structures to powerful effect. The introduction of[Read More…]

by 11/11/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
A Taste Of Women Power

A Taste Of Women Power

It has  been more than  20 years since the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts – termed as post-Independent India’s most revolutionary exercise in democratic decentralization and devolution of power – were passed by the Parliament, mandating one-third seats in all local governments be reserved for women. The biggest significance of women’s reservation was that it unlocked the power, talent[Read More…]

by 07/11/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
In Villages Women Hold The Reigns

In Villages Women Hold The Reigns

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman -Margaret Thatcher If we want to bring a truly transformative gender revolution, we must remember that all women, regardless of their marital status, need access to education, good jobs, and support for domestic duties. Although transforming long-held laws, beliefs and practices may be difficult,[Read More…]

by 02/11/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
Poor Women: A Voiceless Underclass

Poor Women: A Voiceless Underclass

A mother is a school. Empower her and you empower a great nation.   -Hafez Ibrahim, Egyptian poet  The real tragedy of the poor, particularly the women among them, is that their voice is unheard in forums, even at those which are exclusively devoted to their problems. As the Madagasy proverb goes, “poverty won’t allow him to lift his head, dignity[Read More…]

by 01/11/2016 1 comment Patriarchy
Poor Women Furrowing Male Bastions

Poor Women Furrowing Male Bastions

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau The 21st century poses many challenges that require new ways of thinking, none more important than the economic role of women in a rapidly changing world. Over the last several decades, it has become accepted wisdom that improving the[Read More…]

by 31/10/2016 1 comment Patriarchy