Empowerment in real sense does not mean necessarily rising money, income or longer life span. A woman may live in midst material comfort in a luxurious palace and yet be powerless in terms of self assession or autonomy over her own life. Ensuring equality in all spheres of life by removing discrimination is a key to real empowerment. Empowerment can’t be understood separately from an understanding of power. And the power can be achieved by political participation of women. The attainment of powerful political positions by women and expansion of their political rights are perceived as important factors for gaining empowerment in other areas of social life, especially after the Beijing World Conference of Women in 1994. The Beijing Declaration emphasized that women’s empowerment and their fuller participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making processes and in power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace.
Empowering women must be a united approach, a genuine cause that requires continued attention and recognition by all. Women are considered to be more honest, meticulous, and efficient and thus more and more companies prefer hiring them for better performance. But still, the state and society seem to be lagging behind in offering them political reservations that were long overdue. Whereas Constitution on India not only embodied provision of gender equality, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. The 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendment Acts (1993) provides reservation of one third seats for women in the local self bodies (Panchayats and Municipalities) which enhanced women’s participation in the decision-making bodies at local self-government. Whereas in state level there is no political reservation for women and the Women’s Reservation Bill is pending from number of years in Parliament due to several reasons and opposition. Increased political participation of women will help them fight the abuse, discrimination, and inequality they suffer from. Political empowerment would contribute to women’s overall empowerment.
Post Contributed By:
Rupa Pradhan
Asst. Prof. of Law
Indian Institute of Legal Studies
