Women Empowerment - Constitutional Provisions

According to Cambridge English Dictionary ‘e mpowerment' means ‘to authorize'. In the context of the people, they have to be authorized to have control over their own lives. When applied in the context of development of the particular segment of population, the women have to be ‘empowered' to have control over their own lives to better their socio- economic and political conditions. Thus, women e mpowerment can be interpreted as totality of empowerment including political, social, cultural, and other dimension of human life as also the physical, moral and intellectual. 

Empowerment of women unlocks the door for modernization of any society. Participation and control over resources of power are critical indicators in the process of development. Women especially in rural areas possess the least proportion of these resources and are therefore dependent. Thus, the question remains that who will empower them and how to empower them. Ideally speaking no one empowers any one and the best way is ‘self empowerment '. However, this segment of population is handicapped both structurally and culturally to empower themselves without any outside help and affirmative action by the state and others. At the same time, it's also true that as long as they don't make any effort at self-empowerment, it would be long and difficult task and process for the outsiders to empower them. Instead of remaining passive beneficiaries, they must have to become active partners.

After independence, Government of India took several initiatives, programmes and policies, apart from constitutional and legal safeguards for the empowerment of women in the country.The Indian constitution grants equality to women and also empowers the state to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women to neutralize the cumulative socio-economic, educational and political disadvantages faced by them. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles of the Indian c onstitution . 

Article 15 of the Indian constitution forbids discrimination on grounds of caste, religion, sex, race and place of birth, whereas Article 16 ensures equal opportunities of employment. Some of the provisions of Indian constitution safeguarding the women rights include: Equality before law for women (Article 14); S tate not to discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex , place of birth or any of them (Article 15 (I)); S tate to make special provision in favor of women and children (Article 15 (3)); Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State (Article 16); State to direct its policy towards securing for men and women equally, the right to an adequate means of livelihood (Article 39(a)); E qual pay for equal work for both men and women (Article 39(d)); To promote justice, on a basis of equal opportunity and to provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or scheme or in any other way to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities (Article 39 A); State to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief (Article 42); State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46); State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health (Article 47); T o promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)); Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Panchayat to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat (Article 243 D(3)); and n ot less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every Municipality to be reserved for women and such seats to be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality (Article 243 T 3) etc. 

Though the status of women in India, both historically and socially, has been one of the respect and reverence, but the hard truth is that even today, they are struggling for their own identity, shouting for diffusion of their voices and fighting for their own esteem. Every day, they cross among the fears and fraught for individuality. Despite the constitutional guarantee of equality of sexes, rampant discrimination and exploitation of women in India continues. The incidence of bride-burning, woman battering, molestation and ill-treatment of women are on increase. It is high time now that women should get a respectable and dignified position in the Indian society. Awareness in the women as well as society should be created and their equal rights should be effectively implemented. Crimes against women should be made punishable and a research should be done on every crime which comes to the light.

In the era of globalization and with revolution in means of communication and information technology, the media role has become more crucial for women empowerment in India. The Indian media now must focus on women issues in a decisive way as their role is detrimental for the women empowerment in India. It is essential that media should devote a good percentage of their programmes to create awareness among women and the society at large, give information about women's rights and machineries to approach for their all round development . Programmes to strengthen women development should be enforced and news adversely affecting their development should be censored or banned. Thus, t he distant dream of women empowerment in India can be realized with the support of media, government and NGOs. As Swami Vivekananda rightly said that “The nation which doesn't respect women will never become great. Therefore, in pursuit of making India a great nation, media should work towards giving women their much deserved status.