The Constitution of India not only grants equality to women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women.

Despite the Constitutional guarantee of equality, the quality of life of a majority of women has remained at its lowest ebb because the concept of inequality is so deep-rooted that Indian women are not able to make use of the Constitutional provisions.

Gender inequality is something pervasive all over the world. lives of millions of girls and women are still overshadowed by discrimination and disempowerment. 70 per cent of poor, 2/3rd of illiterates are women. Of the millions of school age children not in school, most are girls. HIV/AIDS is rapidly becoming a women’s disease. In India discrimination exists everywhere.

Because of sustained effort, considerable progress is made no doubt, but still inequality persists. Proportion of women working in organised sector ensures dignity is very low (16 per cent). Within the family, gender bias in allocation of resources is responsible for greater poverty among women.

The inequalities prevailing in different sphere relegate women to the status of 2nd class citizens and make them vulnerable and less able to protect themselves from discrimination.

Gender inequality in different spheres emphasises the need for empowering women. Empowerment is providing rights and responsibilities to women to make them self reliant. It is an input intended to eliminate their subordination and establish equality. It is a strategy to realize their full potential.

The strategy consists of (a) greater access to knowledge and resources (b) greater autonomy in decision making (c) greater ability to plan their lives, overcame prejudices and customary beliefs.

Unless they themselves become conscious of the oppression meted out to them and show initiative to push forward, a positive change in their status and dignity can’t be ensured.

Empowerment has different dimensions — economic, political, social and cultural. They are all inter-related.

Economic empowerment is increased access to and control over resources and market and through that improvement in wellbeing and dignity. It is increasing the capacity of women to participate in, contribute to and benefit from economic growth.

Access to productive resources such as credit, technology, infrastructure and marketing links can significantly enlarge opportunities for women to engage in formal economic activities and improve their social status and dignity in life.

In India, the empowerment process has already started. A steady improvement in enrolment of girls in schools and colleges even in professional institutions is witnessed. They are showing their skill even in non traditional sectors like police, defence, administration and media etc. But this constitutes at best a very insignificant part of total number of women in labour force.

Majority of women workers are concentrated in agricultural sector, working for less than six months in a year. One can say that our efforts at empowering women through SHG have borne fruit to some extent and SHGs supported by MFIs which provide training and livelihood support at doorstep have created opportunities for creating awareness among the poor women about their capability for earning and decision making.

Globalisation, it is said, has increased the employment opportunities for women, but in this liberalised economy, their access to decent economic opportunities is frequently constrained. They are in fact over represented in low paid part time jobs with no social security and protection.

Employers prefer to hire women workers because they are prepared to work in less than human condition and have no bargaining strength. This can’t be considered conducive to promoting their dignity in life.

It has to be recognised that women have the potential to change their own economic status as well as that of the community and country where they live in.

Strengthening women economically not only helps them to live with dignity but also contributes to sustainable development of the country. When women own income yielding assets, they have more bargaining power at home and this helps reducing their vulnerability to domestic violence.

In view of concentration of women worker in agricultural sector, concerted efforts have to be made to ensure that benefits of training, extension and various other programmes reach them in proportion to their number.

Balancing maternity and family responsibility with work is a challenge before women. It is estimated in an UN Study that if care-work was assigned a monetary value, it would constitute between 10 per cent and 39 per cent of GDP in different countries. Social and family support is essential to maintain the balance.

To support women’s economic empowerment, it is essential to incorporate a gender equality perspective in the public financial management system.

Women in India enter the labour market mostly for economic reasons. Their access to skill and knowledge has to be increased to facilitate their entry into the formal sector.

It needs to be emphasized that along with economic empowerment safety of girls and women is equally necessary. In the present situation women sometimes have a feeling that their economic independence comes with a risk. Safety is something which can’t be taken for granted at home, at work place and outside.

Even professional girls now ask the question, what is the use of education and money if they are not physically and emotionally secure in the societyIJ

A change in attitude of both men and women and mutual respect for each other is the need of the hour to ensure dignity in life.

(Dr Mohanty is a former Professor of Economics in the Utkal University. Mob: 9437006755, E-mail:bedabatimohanty@gmail.com)