Women's empowerment
2005
In this paper presented at the PACS Programme's national conference on 'Empowering Livelihoods: State Policy, Private Initiatives and Civil Society Action' (New Delhi, October 2005), Neelam Gorhe, chairperson, Stree Adhar Kendra, Pune, first traces the steps taken towards women's empowerment both globally and nationally.
The paper then identifies the key women’s empowerment issues in India today as:
- growing feminisation of poverty
- violation of women’s human rights
- inequitable access to power and decision making
- inequalities
- lack of access to education and health, and
- discrimination against women in disaster situations.
The paper suggests some ways in which these issues can be tackled.
The author stresses that there is first a need for all stakeholders to develop conceptual clarity about gender issues.
Among the suggestions made for tackling the key issues are:
- developing support structures and linkages
- using legal structures and policy framework
- using the media.
