ROLE OF EDUCATION IN WOMAN EMPOWERMENT

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1 ROLE OF EDUCATION IN WOMAN EMPOWERMENT Rakhi Jain If you educate a man you educate an individual, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family. Woman empowerment means mother India empowered. -PT. JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU I. INTRODUCTION Empowerment can be viewed as means of creating a social environment in which one can make decisions and make choices either individually or collectively for social transformation. The empowerments strengthen the innate ability by way of acquiring knowledge, power and experience (hashemi schuler and Riley, 1996).empowerment is the process of permitting individual to think take action and control work independently. It is the process by which one can gain control over one s destiny and circumstances of one s lives. Importance of woman education in India Women education in India plays a vital role in the overall development of the country. It helps in improving quality of life at home and outside. Educated woman tend to promote education of girl children and provides guidance for development of his all childrens.moreover if women is educated she is aware of population growth. History of women education in India Although in the Vedic period woman had access to education in India, they had gradually lost this right. However in British period there was revival of interest in women s education in India. At this time various socio religious movements led by eminent person like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra vidyasagar emphasized on women s education in India. Mahatma Jyotibai Phule, Periyar and Baba Saheb Ambedkar were leaders of the lower castes in India who took various initiatives to make education available to the women of India. II. CONTRIBUTION OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Today we speak a lot about woman empowerment. More than 100years ago, a young, wondering sanyasi noticed that the condition of women all over India was deplorable. Swami Vivekananda noticed that the sorrow of woman were mainly due to illiteracy. Writing down smritis and binding them by hard rules, the men man have turned the woman into mere manufacturing machines. On the other hand woman had to work out their own salvation. Woman needed to be educated about their rights as a human being so that they would become creative partners in managing the house hold. Swami Vivekananda worked effortlessly to try and uplift the plight of women in particular Indian women. According to him soul has no sex; it is neither male nor female. It is the only body that sex exists and that country and that nation which do not respect woman have never become great nor All Rights Reserved 327

2 even be in future. Swami Vivekananda was emphatic that woman must be educated for he believed that it is the woman who mould the next generation and hence the destiny of the country. The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence." Where woman are respected the god delights and where they are not, there all works and efforts come to naught. III. WOMAN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EDUCATION Women Empowerment is a global issue and discussion on women political right are at the fore front of many formal and informal campaigns worldwide. The concept of women empowerment was introduced at the international women conference at NAROIBI in Education is step stone of women empowerment because it enables them to responds to the challenges, to confront their traditional role and change their life. India presently account for the largest number no of illiterates in the world. Literacy rate in India have risen sharply from 18.3% in 1951 to 74.04% in 2011 in which enrolment of women in education have also risen sharply 7% to 65.46%. Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, plan and programmes have aimed at women s advancement in difference spheres. From the fifth five year plan ( ) onwards has been a marked shift in the approach to women s issues from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women has been recognized as the central issue in determining the status of women. The National Commission of Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the right 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 level.. As per united national development fund for women (UNIFEM) the term women s empowerment means: Acquiring knowledge and understanding of gender relations and the ways in which these relations may be changed. Developing a sense of self-worth, a belief in one s ability to secure desired changes and the right to control one s life. Gaining the ability to generate choices exercise bargaining power. Developing the ability to organize and influence the direction of social change, to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally. Thus, empowerment means a psychological sense of personal control or influence and a concern with actual social influence, political power and legal rights. The U.S. National Security Strategy recognizes that countries are more peaceful and prosperous when women are accorded full and equal rights and opportunity. Research indicates that investments in women s employment, health, and education, are correlated with a range of positive outcomes, including greater economic growth and children s health and survival. Let s see the difference in the literacy rate between men and women in given table are as under Years Person Male Female All Rights Reserved 328

3 On observing the above table, we come to know that at no point could the literacy rate of women match that of men. As a result, even after 65 years of independence, women occupy a secondary position in our social hierarchy. Inspire of being aware of her position, women can't transform the situation due to lack of education. Therefore, women's empowerment can't be effected unless we persuade the importance of women's education. But still, India has not achieved what it should have during this period. First of all, the progress made in this sector is very slow. Secondly, there a considerable gap between male and female literacy rates in India. It has been estimated that at the current rate of progress, India will attain universal literacy only until As per the census of 2011, an effective literacy rate for men was 82.14% whereas for women it was 65.46%. Though there has been seen a substantial increase in the number of literate women and this gap is narrowing, it still persists. Among such figures, there exists a ray of hope as well. According to the 2011 census, since year 2011, 110 million additional women had become literate as compared to 107 million men that means that the number of literate women is increasing. Females constitute about 50% of country s human resource but lack of education snatches their chance to be a part of the progress and development of India. This means our pace of progress is less than the required pace. Even if females do not use education to work, total illiteracy has a huge negative impact on our society. Region-based and state-based All Rights Reserved 329

4 There is a dramatic difference in the female literacy rate based on various regions in India. Female literacy rate in urban areas is higher as compared to rural India. In Rajasthan, most of the rural women are illiterate. Kerala has the highest female literacy rate (92% as per 2011 census) whereas Rajasthan (52.7% as per 2011 census) has the lowest female literacy rate in India. States such as Uttar Pradesh (59.3% as per 2011 census) and Bihar (53.3% as per 2011 census) that are the most populated states in India show low levels of female literacy. This is directly related to the health and infant mortality. Kerala has the lowest infant mortality whereas states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have a high mortality rate. IV. LOW FEMALE LITERACY RATE AND ITS IMPACT ON OUR SOCIETY Low female literacy rate means an overall weak growth of India, as it impacts every area of development. India is struggling hard to stable its population growth by family planning programs. But if females are illiterate, then this has a straight impact on the initiatives. When a girl or a woman is not educated, it is not only she who suffers but the entire family has to bear the outcome of her illiteracy.it has been found out that illiterate woman face more hardships in life than literate ones. They have high levels of fertility as well as mortality; they suffer from malnutrition and all other related health problems. In such conditions not only woman but their children s do suffer the same she, who does not know the importance of education in life, does not emphasize the same for her kids. This hampers the family as well as the nation s progress as a whole. Lack of education means lack of awareness. Illiterate women are not aware of their rights. They know nothing about initiatives taken by the government for their welfare. Illiterate women keep on struggling hard and bear harshness of life, family and even their husbands. Why is female literacy rate low in India? Social and cultural barriers: The negative attitude of parents towards the girl child and her education is one of the major reasons of low female literacy rate in India. In most of the families, boys at home are given priority in terms of education but girls are not treated in the same way. Right from the beginning, parents do not consider girls as earning members of their family, as after marriage they have to leave their parents home. So their education is just considered as wastage of money as well as time. For this reason, parents prefer to send boys to schools but not girls. Early marriages: Women and girls face barriers and disadvantages in every sector in which we work In the developing world, 1 in 7 girls is married before her 15th birthday. Each year more than All Rights Reserved 330

5 women, 99 percent of them in developing countries, die from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. Lack of separate toilets for girls and boys: Even if schools are there then lack of adequate school facilities becomes a hurdle. Some of the schools are really in pathetic conditions and do not have even basic facilities. As per a survey, 54% of schools in Uttar Pradesh do not have water facility and 80% do not have latrine facilities. Even some schools do not have enough rooms to accommodate all the students. Violence at school or on the way to school: Around the world 62 million girls are not in school. Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime. Distance to school: To this is connected the accessibility to schools. In most of the rural areas lack of easy accessibility to school is another reason for low female literacy rate. Parents do not prefer to send girls to schools if these are located at a far distance from their village or home. Poverty: It is the root cause of many problems in India and also of low female literacy rate. More than one-third of population in India is living below the poverty line. Though government is putting efforts to make the primary education free but still parents are not ready to send their girls to school. Genetic factor: from a long time before the woman have never get or given a chance for being educate or literate. Generation to generation it was supposed that woman are only for household work. This thought converted into habit and entered in the genes of woman. Same is transferred in female child.we see that female child behaves towards household works and not the manly work. This character also hinders in woman education. V. EDUCATIONAL EQUALITY Educational equality another area in which women s equality has shown a major improvement as a result of adult literacy programs is the area of enrolment of boys and girls in schools. As a result of higher participation of women in literacy campaigns, the gender gap in literacy levels is gradually getting reduced. Even more significant is the fact that disparity in enrolment of boys and girls in neoliterate households is much lowered compared to the non-literate householders. The world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys. But few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education. The political participation of women keeps increasing. In January 2014, in 46 countries more than 30% of members of parliament in at least one chamber were women. In many countries, gender in equality persists and women continue to face discrimination in access to education, work and economic assets, and participation in government. While women make up more than 40 percent of the agriculture labor force only 3 to 20 percent are landholders. In Africa, women owned enterprises make up as little as 10 percent of all businesses. In South Asia, that number is only 3 percent. And despite representing half the global population, women compromise less than 20 percent of the world's legislators..putting women and girls on equal footing with men and boys have the power to transform every sector in which we work. The gender equality and women s empowerment isn t a part of development but at the core of development. To get rid of this we have to make some educational awareness programmes on gender equality and women empowerment for cementing our commitment to supporting women and All Rights Reserved 331

6 But in spite of all reasons, women must understand and realize that education can actually end the vivacious cycle of poverty, their misfortune, so that they can live a life with pride. In case of any misfortune in life, it is education that would help her, not anything else. The government should really work towards the number, distance and quality of schools in rural as well as urban India. We should encourage the girl child in getting education to create a balanced and an educated society VI. IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN PARTICIPATION Women s participation may be used both for support by an agency and as a control device by the lawmakers. Participation may be direct or indirect, formal or informal; it may be political, social or administrative in nature. Women s participation in Panchayat Raj institutions may take many forms. It refers to all those activities which show the women s involvement in the processes and administration, that is, participation in policy formulation and programme planning, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes meant for development target groups. Indian women have been associated with politics since the pre-independence period. They were part of the freedom movement both as volunteers and leaders. On independence, Article 15 of the Indian Constitution guaranteed equality to women under the law. Though the Indian Constitution guarantees equal rights to all citizens, women are still marginally represented in the Indian political arena. The fact is that in the hands of women are having lack of power at the centre and state level. India s population has only 10 per cent representation in the Lok Sabha. In the current Rajya Sabha, there are 21 women out of a total of 233 MPs, which amounts to only nine per cent which is even lower than that in the Lok Sabha. At the societal level male dominance in Parliament, bureaucracy, judiciary, Army, police all point towards gender inequality, notwithstanding the fact that it is often argued that women s political leadership would bring about a more cooperative and less conflict-prone world. Lack of political and economic powers add to the subservient and unequal position of women. VII. SUGGESTIONS To encourage the education of women at all levels and for dilution of gender bias in providing knowledge and education, established schools, colleges and universities even exclusively for women in the state. To bring more girls, especially from marginalized families of BPL, in mainstream education, the government is providing a package of concessions in the form of providing free books, uniform, boarding and lodging, clothing for the hostilities midday meals, scholarships, free circles and so on. Women education in India has a major preoccupation of both the government and civil society as educated women can play a very important role in the development of the country. Strict laws should be made regarding child marriages. The government should reject the working of those schools having insufficient toilet facility. Special and exclusive programs should be held to prepare girls for self safety. And last but not the least concession in fees for competitive exams should be provided to girls to increase the participation so that they hold major functioning of government and contribute to its nation. VIII. CONCLUSION According to the Country Report of the Government of India, Empowerment means moving from a weak position to execute a power. Education of women in the education of women is the most powerful tool of change of position in society. Women play an imperative role in making a nation progressive and guide it towards development. Women, with her intelligence and personality, protect the family from disruptions and disintegration. They are essential possessions of a lively humanity required for national improvement, so if we have All Rights Reserved 332

7 see a bright future of women in our country, giving education to them must be a pre-occupation Empowerment means moving from a weak position to execute a power. The education of women is the most powerful tool to change the position of society. Education also brings a reduction in inequalities and functions as a means of improving their status within the All Rights Reserved 333