The Women's Equality Day is being celebrated on August 26 since 1973 to celebrate women's achievements in various sectors of society and raise awareness of women’s equality
The main aim is to create a 'gender equal society' as Gloria Steinem puts it, "A gender-equal society would be one where the word 'gender' does not exist: where everyone can be themselves." According to Dr B. R. Ambedkar, the progress of a community is measured by the degree of progress which women have achieved.
There have been quite a few women's empowerment programmes and projects for makng a shift towards gender equality, however, they have not made much impact since they worked more as tokenism rather than serious efforts.
Here I reproduce my article "Where do we stand in empowering women in India?" on the occasion of Women's Equality Day-2021 which is being reproduced from merinews.com portal on which was published earlier has closed down, I would like to mention that the article has been cited in research work on gender equity in STEM education.
IN INDIA, gender disparity manifests itself in various forms as is evident by declining sex ratio in the population, social stereotyping and violence against women at the domestic and societal levels. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in education, health and development in many parts of the country.
The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its preamble, fundamental rights, fundamental duties and directive principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women.
Some of the steps taken for by the GoI for women empowerment are:
• From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards there has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development.
• The national commission for women (NCW) was set up by an Act of the Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women.
• The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at the local levels.
• National policy for the empowerment of women (2001) spelled out.
Furthermore, India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. Key among these is the ratification of the convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), in 1993.
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CJ: Dr. Lalit kishore
Mon, Mar 02, 2009...20:42:55 IST
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