Leadership Development Training To Improve Your Skills
There is a popular saying that there are persons who are naturally born to lead. However, a majority of people dispute this thought. Most assert that leaders can be developed also. This in reality is partially true.
In short, it may be safe to believe that while quite a few people have naturally ingrained leadership qualities, others may hold a certain magnetism as well as the poise to allow themselves to be projected as a role model for others to emulate. It is unfortunate that certain individuals who hold such promise are not able to display their abilities. They, therefore, require undergoing training on leadership development.
Often training on leadership development can make available the direction required by such people to cultivate further their latent leadership abilities they possess in them.
What is riding on leadership?
Leadership revolves around skills, which need adequate dedication. Such skills will not have any value in case necessary steps are not taken to develop it. Training in leadership development is a way that enhances and inspires the abilities of an individual towards a greater realm. Now, this type of education serves as an instrument that motivates a leader to be more successful in discharging the responsibilities that he has undertaken.
Trainings in leadership development are planned to be of advantage to those who possess the ambition to advance both their leadership traits and their communication abilities. Regarding people with the makings of a leader, going to workshops and seminars on leadership development could prove to be beneficial. These things will help enhance their self-esteem and self-assurance.
How do you benefit from a training program on leadership development?
Overall, participating in a training on leadership development will help individuals to develop a much more alert and attentive team. These programs provide valuable insights to participants so that they guide their team members equally and impartially. They are also trained in various skills for instilling a sense of confidence in the teams they guide. Actually, team members should be steered by an individual with sound beliefs and excellent standards.
Often, even if an individual is blessed with leadership abilities, he fails to be effective in this role. It is more due to the absence of skills and practice required to help him perform very well. At times not being a good communicator works to his disadvantage as he is not capable of putting across his valuable viewpoints.
Alternatively, he may be lacking in self-assurance and he is insecure about himself and his abilities.
Training in leadership development is designed to help an individual to prevail over these obstacles, which hamper the display of his leadership abilities.
Training in leadership development produces adequate stimulation for those individuals who do not have the required ability to be an excellent leader. Such workshops assess sufficient comprehension of foresight required not just for this day but also for those yet to come. It is essential for a leader to have belief in himself and his actions. Prior to others reposing faith in him, he needs to first have confidence and faith in himself.
On the whole, by undergoing training on leadership development, individuals are inspired to give their best, move out of their protected nests, and exploit their potential to the fullest. A leader should be capable of persuading his team to go for the very best.
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Normal 0 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
ABSTRACT
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places. Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of
their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a woman, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on.
Introduction
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places, through in the western countries women are treated on par with men in most of the fields, their counterpart in the east suffers from many disabilities. The disabilities on the one hand and the inequalities between men and women on the other, have given rise to what is known “Gender problem”. All one the world and particularly in South and East Asia and Africa the gender problem has assumed importance during the recent years the gender issue has become virtually a crucial point of argument. It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives.
Meaning
Before thinking about the empowerment of women, one needs to understand the exact meaning of the word empowerment. According to Cambridge English Dictionary empowerment means “to authorize”. In the context of the people they have to be authorized to have control over their lives. When applied in the context of development the particular segment of population, the poor, the women, the vulnerable, the weak, the oppressed and the discriminated have to be “empowered” to have control over their lives to better their socioeconomic and political conditions,. But the questions raised are, who empowers them and how to empower them? Ideally speaking no one empowers any one, the best way us ‘self empowerment’, by the segments of population mentioned above are handicapped both structurally and culturally to empower themselves without any outside help and affirmative action by the State and others. But still as long as these segments of population does not make any effort at self employment. It would be long and arduous task and process for the outsiders to empower them.
Role of women in development process
The principal of gender equality was recognized in the United Nations Charter in 1945 and the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the majority of development planners did not fully address the role of women in development process. In 1975, the first UN Conference of Women and Development was held
at maxico city under the motto, “Equality, Development and peace”. The need to integrate women into development was internationally proclaimed in the 1995 Bejing Conference. The Economic Survey (1999-2000) used an entire section on
gender inequality. It began with a reminder of the commitment made in the ninth plan document of allocating 30 per cent of resources for women’s development schemes through “Women’s Component Plans”. According to Menon and Probhu (2001), there was a strong plea for investing in women’s equality on the ground that this made economic sense and spoke of “the social rate of return on investment in women” being greater that the corresponding rate for men. According to Paten (2002), women’s development can be attained by improving here status and bargaining power in the economy.
Sushma Sachay (1998) argues that approaches and strategic for women
empowerment could be possible by outlining the mechanisms and tools that till
influence for women empowerment. Decisions making process, multidimensional
process that are enable worn to realize their full identity and powers in all walks
of life.
Concept of Women Empowerment
Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
The National Policy on Education (1986) suggested certain strategies to empower women. Accordingly, women become empowered through collective reflections and decision making enable them to become agency of social change.
The global conference on Women Empowerment (1988), highlighted empowerment as the best way of making own partners in development the development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) program was initiated as a sub scheme of the national wide poverty alleviation program i.e., the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP). It aims at imparting self reliance to rural areas through income generating skill s along with group organization skills. Keeping this in view the year 2001 was celebrated as “The Women’s Empowerment Year”. Human resource development and empowerment of women unlock the door for modernization of society,. Instated of remaining as passive beneficiaries, women must become active partner. Participation and control over resources of power are considered as the critical indicators in the process of development discharged women especially in rural areas, possess the least proportion of these resources and as a result they are powerless and dependent on the powerful and wealthy.
Role and Empowerment
We will now realize the vital importance of the terms such as role, empowerment and function for an understanding of society. These terms tell us how individual and groups organize themselves as well as relate to each other. Very simple, role tells us about what is expected from individuals in a particular situation. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a women, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on. What happens when the mother is also the principal of the local village school? Not only does she have to deal with a range of roles and empowerments, but also with he tensions that may raise out of her ole s mother and her role as an administrator.
“Woman reposes more closely on the central surface of life, while man hunts it in the boundaries of existence, always concerned to overcome, and in the last analysis, to kill. A woman has a secret alliance with eternal life and man with the principle of death. Woman wants to embrace the contradiction of life and to reconcile them in the act of degree so. Man on the other hand release the tension between opposites by annihilating one of the sides, the one he finds unpleasant. He seeks the solution not in love and reconciliation, but in over coming and annihilation. He has a militant and not an erotic manner. The male principle borne of isolation, makes solitude thermal, seeks being in itself and disturbs life as a wholes his being is battle and self service, his willto- life is concerned with ascertaining his own person or overthrowing that of the stranger until the motive of salvation kindles with in him. Woman with her sustaining constitutions is at one and is harmony with the basis of the world. But man wants to change the world to bring it forward to overcome it”.
Women’s Empowerment in Contemporary India
Contemporary Indian society has been exposed to the broad processes of social transformation, agricultural modernization and economic development, urbanization and globalization. However, these processes have generated regional imbalances, sharpened class inequalities and augmented the gender disparities. Hence, women have become critical symbols of these growing imbalances. All these have affected adversely the various aspects of women’s empowerment in the contemporary Indian society. The family and women’s work is not enough to say that any society consists of men and women. It is equally important to look at how the two groups of people interact, as well as at the role and exceptions each group has of the other. Such roles and exceptions are a product of the stereotypes of each gender. By gender stereotype we mean attributes and qualities commonly associated with a gender. Thus, the first idea on gender role differences, which a child acquires, is that of women of one’s family marrying and leaving their homes to leave with different groups of people. Secondly, men appear to exercise far greater influence in decision making and are far more visible and audible than their wives. Third most of the tasks within the home are done by the mother, grandmother, sisters and so on. At meal times they carry food to the fields for the men. All these tasks, which consume time and energy, are not counted as work and there is no payment involved. In western countries, women’s groups, politicians and other concerned individuals have been arguing for payment for house work and childcare. In India, the question of payment for household jobs has not really been an important issue or demand. As we shall see, there are many other issues, which require urgent attention. At the same time, it is important for us to remember that non-payment should not also mean non-recognition. The fact that women are expected to perform all these tasks as a part of their conventional roles and on special merit is awarded to them for these tiring and tiresome jobs.
Women’s work participation
As per to 1981 figures 19.7 per cent Indian women were recorded as paid workers. Of whom over 87 per cent were in the unrecognized or informal sector of the economy. The work participation rate woman in 1991and 2001 was 22.3 and 25.7 per cent respectively. The increase in the work participation of women during the decade 1991-2001 is mainly due to the increase in the proportion of marginal workers (6.3 per cent to 11 per cent) in total female work force. It is held
by many observation of Indian economy that without women’s paid or unpaid labour the Indian agricultural economy would not be able to function. In the informal sector, there is no legal redressal for problems; no maternity or other leave benefits and little security of service. Working long hours as domestic servants, stitching clothes for the garment export industry, working on the assembly line of small electronics manufacturing units or the beedi, tobacco, cashew nut factories. A woman lives in fear of retrenchment, exploitation and low
wages.
Women’s Self-perception
According to Maithreyi Krishna Raj that though women were concerned about continuing their jobs, they were not looking for better prospects nor have they begun with a long-range carrier strategy. Once in a job, women rarely attempted to acquire further qualifications was by no means clear-cut. T.S. Papola’s study of workingwomen, which covered a range from those in supervisory post in industrial establishments to unskilled workers, showed that women were more different than men in respect of their promotion prospects.
Employer’s Attitude
Papol’s study showed that women were discriminated against at the time of promotions tended to be crowded into lower status electrical and primary school jobs. They were rarely promoted to executive and supervisory posts. As regards employment and promotion to supervisory category, male employers defend themselves by pointing out that women did not come forth to be recruited or promoted.
Traditional Positions of Authority in Urban Areas
In the urban areas, the working class, and men in particular have a wide range of job options available to them. The study by Leela Kasturi shows that when unemployed weavers from Tamil Nadu migrant to Delhi, the women folk found jobs only as domestic servants. While men become mechanics, cooks or drivers. The shift in residence meant a severance with an established way of life and the support of the extended family.
Working Conditions
For the majority of working class women, a job is essential. In relation to the limited chances for occupational mobility, when men and women work in the same occupation, female tasks are often the more arduous and time consuming. For instance, in paddy cultivation they spend long hours in sowing, weeding transplanting. In Kerala the extraction of the cashew seed from a corrosive liquid is women’s work. Again when both sexes do identical jobs, women often get paid
less than man. Protests are rare, apart from ignorance of legal and other rights; there is a fear of exploitation and sexual harassment by the landlord or contractor.
Traditional Role Expectations
Irrespective of social class there is at the level of belief, widespread commitment to the nation that a women’s job just not interfere or compete with her primary role of wife and mother. There is also concern with her physical safety and the respectability of the occupation. Clearly, working class familiar are far less able to ensure circumstances. NGO’s SHGs have been working to promote women more viable towards social, political, economic and cultural development micro finance is a significant factor and accessible to small and micro enterprises, socio-economic progress of poor women. Education and training also plays a major role in changing the life of poor women. The several institutions have been extending all types of vocational training, income generating activities and self-employment activities for poor women.
Empowerment of women is mainly related to their participation in decision making with regard to raising and distribution of resources i.e., income, investments and expenditures at all levels. Even though the Government of Karnataka has formulated and implemented various schemes of the social economic and overall development of the rural women, when the present position
of women is taken into account these schemes do not appear effective in enhancing the confidence and capability of the women. Empowering the poor women in rural areas to sustain their surrounding ecology is a necessity not only to stoop the ecological degradation but also for the physical survival of poor people. Almost every village in India has what is called “Common Property Resources (CDPs). Common Property Resources can be defined as “those resources, which are exploited by all people in the village free of cost by expending their labour.
References:
1. Chiranjeevulu, T. (2003). Empowering Women through Self-Help Groups – Experiences in Experiment, Kurukshetra, March.
2. Gopalan, Sarala (2002). Towards Equality – The Unfinished Agenda. Status of Women in India, National Commission for Women, New Delhi.
3. Kapadia, Karin (2002). The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender and Social Inequalities in India. Kali for Women, New Delhi.
4. Krishnaraj, Maithreyi (2002). Growth and Rural Poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, September 21.
5. Manohar, Sujatha (2002). Women’s Empowerment – Law and Gender Justice. Paper Presented in the International Women’s Day, 8th March 2001. Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi.
6. Sarkar, C.R. (2004). Poverty, Education and Economic Development.
Gender Inequality
Gender Inequality
Man and woman are both equal and both plays a vital role in the creation and development of their families in a particular and the society in general. Indeed, the struggle for legal equality has been one of the major concerns of the women’s movement all over the world. In India, since long back, women were considered as an oppressed section of the society and they were neglected for centuries. During the national struggle for independence, Gandhi gave a call of emancipation of women. He wrote – :I am uncompromising in the matter of women’s rights. The difference in sex and physical form denotes no difference in status. Woman is the complement of man, and not inferior”. Thus, the first task in post-independent India was to provide a constitution to the people, which would not make any distinctions on the basis of sex. The preamble of constitution promises to secure to all its citizens- “Justice- economical, social, and political”
The constitution declares that the equality before the law and the equal protection of laws shall be available for all . Similarly, there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground of sex . Article 15(1) guarantees equalities of opportunities for all citizens in matters of employment. Article 15(3) provides that the state can make any special provisions for women and children. Besides, directive principle of state policy which concern women directly and have a special bearing on their status directly and have a special bearing on their status include Article 39(a) right to an adequate means of livelihood; (d) equal pay for equal wok both men and women, (e) protection of health and strength of workers –men, women, children and Article 42 provides for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
It is really important to note that though the Constitution of India is working since more than fifty-seven years – the raising of the status of women to one of equality, freedom and dignity is still a question mark
In India, since independence, a number of laws have been enacted in order to provide protection to women. For instance the Dowry prohibition Act 1961, The Equal Remuneration Act 1986, The Hindu Marriage Act 1956, The Hindu Succession Act 1956, The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, the commission of Sati (prevention) Act 1987, Protection of the Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, etc. But, the laws have hardly implemented in their letter and spirit.
The sense of insecurity, humiliation and helplessness always keep a women mum. Our whole socialisation is such that for any unsuccessful marriage which results in such violence or divorce, it is always the woman, who is held responsible. Cultural beliefs and traditions that discriminate against women may be officially discredited but they continue to flourish at the grass root levels. Family relations in India are governed by personal laws. The four major religious communities are – Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi each have their separate personal laws. They are governed by their respective personal laws in matters of marriage, divorce, succession, adoption, guardianship and maintenance. In the laws of all the communities, women have fewer rights than that of man in corresponding situations. It is really that women of the minority communities in India continue to have unequal legal rights and even the women of the majority community have yet to gain complete formal equality in all aspects of family life. This is basically the problem of gender inequality. But what is this problem and how this can be solved.
As An Concept
Gender Inequalities refers to the obvious or hidden disparities among individuals based on the performance of gender. This problem in simple term is known as Gender Bias which in simple terms means the gender stratification or making difference between a girl and a boy i.e. a male or a female. In making biasness among the gender India has 10th rank out of 128 countries all over the world which is shameful for us . But this problem is increasing although government has banned the pre-natal sex examination. In India (in the older times) this problem is mainly seen in the rural areas because many rural people think that the girl child is burden on them. But now this is also being seen in the urban areas i.e. in offices, institutions, schools and in society. The afflicted world in which we live is characterised by deeply unequal sharing of the burden of adversities between women and men. Gender Inequality exists in most part of the world, from Japan to Morocco, or from Uzbekistan to United States of America (as stated earlier).
However, inequality between men and women can take very many different forms. Indeed, gender inequality is not one homogeneous phenomenon, but a collection of disparate and interlinked problems. The issue of gender inequality is one which has been publicly reverberating through society for decades. The problem of inequality in employment being one of the most pressing issues today. In order to examine this situation one must try to get to the root of the problem and must understand the sociological factors that cause women to have a much more difficult time getting the same benefits, wages, and job opportunities as their male counterparts. The society in which we live has been shaped historically by males.
However, in many parts of the world, women receive less attention and health care than men do, and particularly girls often receive very much less support than boys. As a result of this gender bias, the mortality rates of females often exceed those of males in these countries. The concept of missing women was devised to give some idea of the enormity of the phenomenon of women’s adversity in mortality by focussing on the women who are simply not there, due to unusually high mortality compared with male mortality rates. In some regions in the world, inequality between women and men directly involves matters of life and death, and takes the brutal form of unusually high mortality rates of women and a consequent preponderance of men in the total population, as opposed to the preponderance of women found in societies with little or no gender bias in health care and nutrition. Mortality inequality has been observed extensively in North Africa and in Asia, including China and South Asia.
Types Of Gender Inequalities
There are many kinds of gender inequality or gender disparity which are as follows:
1. Natality inequality: In this type of inequality a preference is given for boys over girls that many male-dominated societies have, gender inequality can manifest itself in the form of the parents wanting the newborn to be a boy rather than a girl. There was a time when this could be no more than a wish (a daydream or a nightmare, depending on one’s perspective), but with the availability of modern techniques to determine the gender of the foetus, sex-selective abortion has become common in many countries. It is particularly prevalent in East Asia, in China and South Korea in particular, but also in Singapore and Taiwan, and it is beginning to emerge as a statistically significant phenomenon in India and South Asia as well.
2. Professional or Employment inequality: In terms of employment as well as promotion in work and occupation, women often face greater handicap than men. A country like Japan and India may be quite egalitarian in matters of demography or basic facilities, and even, to a great extent, in higher education, and yet progress to elevated levels of employment and occupation seems to be much more problematic for women than for men. The example of employment inequality can be explained by saying that men get priority in seeking job than women.
3. Ownership inequality: In many societies the ownership of property can also be very unequal. Even basic assets such as homes and land may be very asymmetrically shared. The absence of claims to property can not only reduce the voice of women, but also make it harder for women to enter and flourish in commercial, economic and even some social activities. This type of inequality has existed in most parts of the world, though there are also local variations. For example, even though traditional property rights have favoured men in the bulk of India.
4. Household inequality: There are often enough, basic inequalities in gender relations within the family or the household, which can take many different forms. Even in cases in which there are no overt signs of anti-female bias in, say, survival or son-preference or education, or even in promotion to higher executive positions, the family arrangements can be quite unequal in terms of sharing the burden of housework and child care. It is, for example, quite common in many societies to take it for granted that while men will naturally work outside the home, women could do it if and only if they could combine it with various inescapable and unequally shared household duties. This is sometimes called “division of labour,” though women could be forgiven for seeing it as “accumulation of labour.” The reach of this inequality includes not only unequal relations within the family, but also derivative inequalities in employment and recognition in the outside world. Also, the established fixity of this type of “division” or “accumulation” of labour can also have far-reaching effects on the knowledge and understanding of different types of work in professional circles.
5. Special opportunity inequality: Even when there is relatively little difference in basic facilities including schooling, the opportunities of higher education may be far fewer for young women than for young men. Indeed, gender bias in higher education and professional training can be observed even in some of the richest countries in the world, in India too. Sometimes this type of division has been based on the superficially innocuous idea that the respective “provinces” of men and women are just different.
Issues that Need Investigation
This is the issue which needs some investigation. The problems out coming are as follows:
(1) Under nourishment of girls over boys: At the time of birth, girls are obviously no more nutritionally deprived than boys are, but this situation changes as society’s unequal treatment takes over from nature’s non-discrimination.
There has, in fact, been plenty of aggregative evidence on this for quite some time now. But this has been accompanied by some anthropological scepticism of the appropriateness of using aggregate statistics with pooled data from different regions to interpret the behaviour of individual families. However, there have also been some Detailed and concretely local studies on this subject, which confirm the picture that emerges on the basis of aggregate statistics. One case study from India, performed in 1983, involved the weighing of every child in two large villages. The time pattern that emerged from this micro study, which concentrated particularly on weight-for-age as the chosen indicator of nutritional level for children under five, brings out clearly how an initial condition of broad nutritional symmetry turns gradually into a situation of Significant female disadvantage.
The detailed local studies tend to confirm rather than contradict the picture that emerges from aggregate statistics. In interpreting the causal process, it is important to emphasise that the lower level of nourishment of girls may not relate directly to their being underfed vis-à-vis boys. Often enough, the differences may particularly arise from the neglect of health care of girls compared with what boys get. There is, in fact, some direct information of comparative medical neglect of girl’s vis-à-vis boys in South Asia. Indeed, when In a study, admissions data from two large public hospitals in Bombay (Mumbai), it was very striking to find clear evidence that the admitted girls were typically more ill than boys, suggesting the inference that a girl has to be more stricken before she is taken to the hospital. Under nourishment may well result from greater morbidity, which can adversely affect both the absorption of nutrients and the performance of bodily functions.
2) High incidence of maternal under nourishment: In South Asia mostly in India, maternal under nutrition is more common than in most other regions of the world. Comparisons of Body Mass Index (BMI), which is essentially a measure of weight for height, bring this out clearly enough, as do statistics of such consequential characteristics as the incidence of anaemia.
(3) Prevalence of low birth weight: In South Asia, as many as 21 per cent of children are born clinically underweight (in accepted medical standards) – more than in any other substantial region in the world.17. The predicament of being low in weight in childhood seems often enough to begin at birth in the case of South Asian children. In terms of weight for age, South Asia has around 40 to 60 per cent children undernourished compared with 20 to 40 per cent under nourishment even in sub-Saharan Africa. The children start deprived and stay deprived.
(4) High incidence of cardiovascular diseases: South Asia stands out as having more cardiovascular diseases than any other part of the third world. Even when other countries, such as China, have greater prevalence of the standard predisposing conditions, the Indian population seems to have more heart problems than these other countries have. It is not difficult to see that the first three observations are very likely causally connected. The neglect of the care of girls and of women in general and the underlying gender bias that they reflect would tend to yield more maternal under nourishment, and through that more foetal deprivation and distress, underweight babies, and child under nourishment. But what about the last observation – the higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases among South Asian adults? In this it
Has been shown that low birth weight is closely associated with higher incidence, many decades later, of several adult diseases, including hypertension, glucose intolerance, and other cardiovascular hazards. The robustness of the statistical connections as well as the causal mechanisms involved in intrauterine growth retardation can, of course, be further investigated, but as matters stand these medical findings offer a possibility of causally interconnecting the different empirical observations related to South Asia, The application of this medical understanding to the phenomenon of high incidence of cardiovascular diseases in South Asia strongly suggests a causal pattern that goes from the nutritional neglect of women to maternal under nourishment, from there to foetal growth retardation and underweight babies, and thence to greater incidence of cardiovascular afflictions much later in adult life (along with the phenomenon of undernourished children in the shorter run). What begins as a neglect of the interests of women ends up causing adversities in the health and survival of all – even at an advanced age? Given the uniquely critical role of women in the reproductive process, it would be hard to imagine that the deprivation to which women are subjected would not have some adverse impact on the lives of all – men as well as women and adults as well as children – who are “born of a woman” (as the Book of Job describes every person, not particularly daringly). Indeed, since men suffer disproportionately more from cardiovascular diseases, the suffering of women hit men even harder, in this respect. The extensive penalties of neglecting women’s interest rebounds; it appears, on men with a vengeance
Focusing On India
While there is something to cheer in the developments I have just been discussing, and there is considerable evidence of a weakened hold of gender disparity in several fields in the subcontinent, there is also, alas, some evidence of a movement in the contrary direction, at least in one aspect of gender inequality, namely, natality inequality. This has been brought out particularly sharply by the early results of the 2001 decennial national Census of India, which are now available. Early results indicate that even though the overall female to male ratio has improved slightly for the country as a whole (with a corresponding reduction of the proportion of “missing women”), the female-male ratio for children has had a substantial decline. For India as a whole, the female-male ratio of the population under age 6 has fallen from 94.5 girls for hundred boys in 1991 to 92.7 girls per hundred boys in 2001.
While there has been no such decline in some parts of the country (most notably Kerala), it has fallen very sharply in others, such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra, which are among the richer Indian States. Taking together all the evidence that exists, it is clear that this change reflects not a rise in female child mortality, but a fall in female births vis-à-vis male births, and is almost certainly connected with increased availability and use of gender determination of foetuses. Fearing that sex-selective abortion might occur in India, the Indian Parliament banned some years ago the use of sex determination techniques for foetuses, except when it is a by-product of other
Necessary medical investigation. But it appears that the enforcement of this law has been comprehensively neglected. This face of gender inequality cannot, therefore, be removed, at least in the short run, by the enhancement of women’s empowerment and agency, since that agency is itself an integral part of the cause of natality inequality. Policy initiatives have to take adequate note of the fact that the pattern of gender inequality seems to be shifting in India, right at this time, from mortality inequality (the female life expectancy at birth is by now two years higher than male life expectancy in India) to natality inequality. Indeed, there is clear evidence that traditional routes of changing gender inequality, through using public policy to influence female education and female economic participation, may not serve as a path to the removal of natality inequality.
A sharp pointer in that direction comes from countries in East Asia, which all have high levels of female education and economic participation. Despite these achievements, compared with the biologically common ratio across the world of 95 girls being born per hundred boys, Singapore and Taiwan have 92 girls, South Korea only 88, and China a mere 86. In fact, South Korea’s overall female-male ratio for children is also a meagre 88 girls for 100 boys and China’s 85 girls for 100 boys. In comparison, the Indian ratio of 92.7 girls or 100 boys (though lower than its previous figure of 94.5) still looks far less unfavourable.
However, there are more grounds for concern than may be suggested by the current all-India average. First, there are substantial variations within India, and the all-India average hides the fact that there are States in India where the female-male ratio for children is very much lower than the Indian average. Second, it has to be asked whether with the spread of sex-selective abortion, India may catch up with – and perhaps even go beyond – Korea and China. There is, in fact, strong evidence that this is happening in a big way in parts of the country.
There is, however, something of a social and cultural divide across India, splitting the country into two nearly contiguous halves, in the extent of anti-female bias in natality and post-natality mortality. Since more boys are born than girls everywhere in the world, even without sex-specific abortion, we can use as a classificatory benchmark the female-male ratio among children in advanced industrial countries. The female-male ratio for the 0-5 age group is 94.8 in Germany, 95.0 in the U.K., and 95.7 in the U.S., and perhaps we can sensibly pick the German ratio of 94.8 as the cut-off point below which we should suspect anti-female intervention. The use of this dividing line produces a remarkable geographical split of India. There are the States in the north and the west where the female-male ratio of children is consistently below the benchmark figure, led by Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat (with ratios between 79.3 and 87.8), and also including, among others, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, and Bihar (a tiny exception is Dadra and Nagar Haveli, with less than a quarter million people altogether).
On the other side of the divide, the States in the east and the south tend to have female-male ratios that are above the benchmark line of 94.8 girls per 100 boys: with Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam (each between 96.3 and 96.6), and also, among others, Orissa, Karnataka and the north-eastern States to the east of Bangladesh (Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh). One significant exception to this neat pattern of adjoining division is, however, provided by Tamil Nadu, where the Female-male ratio is just below 94, which is higher than the ratio of any State in the deficit list, but still just below the cut-off line used for the partitioning (94.8). The astonishing finding is not that one particular State seems to provide a marginal misfit, but how the vast majority of the Indian States fall firmly into two contiguous halves.
Classified broadly into the north and the west, on one side, and the south and the east, on the other. Indeed, every State in the north and the west (with the slight exception of the tiny Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli) has strictly lower female-male ratio of children than every State in the east and the south (even Tamil Nadu fits into this classification), and this indeed is quite remarkable.
The pattern of female-male ratio of children produces a much sharper regional classification than does the female male ratio of mortality of children, even though the two are also fairly strongly correlated. The female-male ratio in child mortality varies between 0.91 in West Bengal and 0.93 in Kerala, on one side, in the southern and eastern group, to 1.30 in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, with high ratios also in Gujarat, Bihar and Rajasthan, in the northern and western group. The north and the west have clear characteristics of anti-female bias in a way that is not present – or at least not yet Visible – in most of the east and the south. This contrast does not have any immediate economic explanation. The States with anti-female bias include rich ones (Punjab and Haryana) as well as poor States (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), and fast-growing States (Gujarat and Maharashtra) as well as growth failures (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh). Also, the incidence of sex-specific abortions cannot be explained by the availability of medical resources for determining the sex of the foetus: Kerala and West Bengal in the non-deficit list, both with the ratio of 96.3 girls to 100 boys (comfortably higher than the benchmark cut-off of 94.8), have at least as much medical facilities as in such deficit States as Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan. If commercial facilities for sex-selected abortion are infrequent in Kerala or West Bengal, it is because of a low demand for those specific services, rather than any great supply side barrier.
It would also be important to keep a close watch on whether the incidence of sex-specific abortions will significantly increase in States in which they are at this time quite uncommon. It was never meant to be an elitist idea. It has come and assumed from the grassroots level. The women parliamentarians have been able to make many changes to address the state of women in India. But one can never say enough has been done for women.
In India, this problem is mainly in work places i.e. related to Sexual Harassment and Wage Payment and related to inheritance. Although, judiciary decided in favour of the deceased i.e. the suffered parties. There are many landmark and famous cases of gender discrimination in work place like that of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan it was held that a woman was brutally gang raped in the village of Rajasthan. The incident reveals the hazards to which a working woman may be exposed and the depravity to which sexual harassment can degenerate; and the urgency for safeguards by an alternative mechanism in the absence of legislative measures. In the absence of legislative measures, the need is to find an effective alternative mechanism to fulfil this felt and urgent social need. So, a writ of Mandamus was filed in Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Indian constitution. Later the Supreme Court decided that direct that the certain guidelines and norms would be strictly observed in all work places for the preservation and enforcement of the right to gender equality of the working women. These directions would be binding and enforceable in law until suitable legislation is enacted to occupy the field.
Since Article 15(3) itself hints substantive approach, its application for giving special educational facilities, for giving representation in local bodies and for protection in places of work has a substantive dimension. Upholding a service rule that preferred women in recruitment to public employment to the extent of 30% of posts, the Supreme Court stated in Government of A.P. v. P.B. Vijayakumar: “To say that under Article 15(3) job opportunities for women cannot be created would be to cut at the very root of the underlying inspiration behind this Article. Making special provision for women in respect of employments or posts under the state is an integral part of Article 15(3)”.
Also, In Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co. Ltd v. Audrey D’Costa The Court observed that there was discrimination in payment of wages to lady stenographers and such discrimination was being perpetuated under the garb of a settlement between the employees and the employer. The Court finally not only made it mandatory to pay equal remuneration to lady stenographers as their male counterparts but also observed that the ground of financial incapability of the management cannot be a ground to seek exemption from the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
Andhra Pradesh’s Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 1986 is a piece of legislation that ought to be replicated in all our states. The Act confers equal rights of inheritance to Hindu women along with men, thus achieving the constitutional mandate of equality. An important measure undertaken to thereby eradicate the ills brought about by the dowry system while simultaneously ameliorating the condition of women in Hindu society
But now after the decision of the Supreme Court in Gurupad Khandappa Magdum v Hirabai Khandappa Magdum and that till such time, such ascertained share is handed over, the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) would continue to be treated as the owner of such assets, notwithstanding the ascertained shares of such female heir as part of the corpus of the Hindu family, even as held in State of Maharashtra v Narayan Rao Sham Rao Deshmukh . And also after the amendment of Hindu Succession Act in September 2005 under Sec. 3(2), the right of a Hindu widow to get the full share of her late husband in coparcenary property (with limited interest — later enlarged to absolute right) continues or has been curtailed now. It means that From September 2005, daughters also have become coparceners.
So, these are some landmarks where the legislature and judiciary had performed a well job i.e. by serving in favour of the deceased or victim in a way that the truth or right should not to fail.
Measures To Solve Gender Inequality
Every problem has its own solution elsewhere or what ever the problem is? Like this phenomenon this problems has many measures out of which some of the simple one are stated below (except legislative and judicial Solutions).
1. Changes at District level mechanism: A clear cut administrative should be made available at the district level for monitoring and reviewing the incidence of inequality against women. This district level machinery headed by District Magistrate should consist of representatives of police, prosecution machinery, judiciary and the representatives of prominent individuals of women’s organizations in the Districts. This committee should review progress of investigation and prosecution. At least one special cell should be created at the district level for ensuring better registration and progress of investigation and monitoring of crimes against gender equality. This special cell should network with community groups and women’s organizations and help to create an atmosphere in which people would feel encouraged to freely report the cases of gender injustice. At present, most, non-reporting of the cases is due to lack of confidence in enforcement machinery.
The reporting of violence against women from the Thana to the district level and from district level to the state level gets obscured in the overall mass and complexities of the currently prescribed reporting system. Specific format should be created and implemented for reporting on gender-related crimes.
2. Changes at State level Mechanism: Similarly, like District level mechanism there should be State level machinery at the State level in which there should be special entry for those cases which needs prompt actions. This institution will make a full control over the district level machinery. So that there should nit be any corruption or fraud with innocent persons.
3. Law of Torts: An area of civil wrong is tort law. Tort law is probably one of the most underutilised areas of the law with respect to the problem of gender injustice. The torts that are directly applicable are:
Assault
Battery
Unlawful imprisonment
Nuisance
Tort of harassment
Tort of Medical pre- natal test
It means that there can be punishment under tort law also.
4. Sensitization of Criminal Justice system: The police officers, prosecutors, and judges at all levels of hierarchy need to be exposed to the gender equality education which would enlighten them on existing assumptions, myths and stereotypes of women and how these can interfere with fair and equitable administration of justice. Judicial system should comprise of all types of officers i.e. from judiciary i.e. judges, police officers and which should take immediate action in serious cases.
5. Family Law: Another of wrong is family law also. In this accused can be punished under Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and Dowry Prohibition Act, 1987 other laws relating to family disputes. The suit/ case can be filed for domestic violence or any other household wrong.
Conclusion
The most significant factor in continued use of law to enforce patriarchal privilege is that men still control not only the legal process and the interpretation of laws, but also the subject matter and vantage point of law. If the subject matter of law is male concerns and if the perspective employed within the legal process are those of men, then women should actually have no reason to expect that mere reform of existing law will materially improve the condition of women. This is particularly true when attempts to improve the statutes of women are made through incremental reforms that are not grounded in an understanding of how women’s oppressions are constructed. Reforms of rape law will not materially improve the status of women when the point of rape laws is their no enforcement.
It has been shown that law is strictly restricted in it capacity to deliver gender justice, which in itself is contingent on the nature of law and its functioning. In this connection it is worthwhile to recall that the law itself is not a monolithic entity, which simply progresses or regresses. Historically, the development of law has been an uneven one. That is to say, more than not, what law promises on paper cannot carry through in reality. That is why law-as-legislation and law-in-practice are most of the time in contradiction with each other. To cite an example, the Indian constitution explicitly enshrines formal equality for women. However, the lives and experiences of India women relentlessly continue to be characterized by substantive inequality, inequity and discrimination.
Gender justice may not be then that much of a caste in the sky. Finally, one must at least clearly suggest what ought to be done. The present feminist analysis is such a modest endeavour which not only attempts to understand the reality but also tries to explain how to change it.
“Fight for gender equality is not a fight against men. It is a fight against traditions that have chained them – a fight against attitudes that are ingrained in the society – it is a fight against system – a fight against proverbial laxshman Rekha which is different for men and different for women. The society must rise to the occasion. It must recognize & accept fact that men and women are equal partners in life. They are individual who have their own identity”.
– Dr. Justice A.S. Anand