Gender Discrimination & Women Empowerment

By- Sachin Kumar Tiwari Tech id- TECH52801

INTRODUCTIONThe unfair treatment of

a person based on his or her gender especially against women.

Discrimination on the basis of sex especially the oppression of women by men.

It is a common problem in India and its outcomes are disastrous for country.

Cause Of The Gender Discrimination

Men dominating mentalityVarious social and religious beliefLack of strong protest by women Family RitualsPhysical factor(Treating women as weaker

gender)Work place discrimination

Discrimination At Different Stages

ABORTIONIndia lost 8 million

foetuses due to abortion in past decade.

20000 women die every year due to abortion related complications.

In FiguresIn figures year 1980 1990 2000 2010

No. Of abortion reported

388405 581215 725149 620472

Female infanticidePer 1000 female live birth 61

female become the victim of infant mortality.

India losses 3 million girls in infanticide in one decade.

Infant girls , who were 1 year and younger were 50% more likely to die than boys of same of age.

Dowry system is main reason for female infanticide and sex selective abortion.

Discrimination in EducationAlthough at the primary

and secondary level of education the enrolment of girl has been improved but they are still much behind as compared to boys at higher and competitive level.

Only 2392 girls out of 21110 qualifying candidates qualified iit entrance exam.

As per 2009 out of 4572 IAS officer all over India only 604 are women(13.72%).

Year Literacy Male Female 2001 74.04 % 82.14 % 65.46 %

2011 65.38 % 75.85 % 54.16 %

Discrimination at WorkFemale work participation

rate in India is only 25.7% as compared to 51.0% of male.

Women comprise just 10% of India’s parliament .

Out of 35 full cabinet rank minister only 2 are women.

For same occupation and level of qualification Indian women earn an average of 64% of what their male counterparts earn.

At the time of marriage(Dowry)The dowry system is a

main reason for female infanticide and sex selective abortion. It is also a main reason for decrease in sex ratio in India.

Every year 2500 incidence of bride burning takes place in India.

Dowry kills a women every hour in India.

Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Dowry deaths reported in India

8093 8172 8383 8391 8619 8233

Domestic ViolenceA crime against a

women is committed in every 3 min.

A women is raped in every 29 minutes.

A dowry death occurs at every 77 minutes.

One case of cruelty committed by either husband or relative of the victim occurs at every 9 minutes.

Effects Of Gender Discrimination “Every effect is itself a Cause”

AbortionFemale foeticides and infanticidesDecrease in sex ratioDowry Domestic violenceSexual violence and RapeEconomic inequalityInequality and harassment at workplace, schools and in the

justice system etc.

Women Empowerment Women empowerment refers to increase the social,

political & economic strength of the women in different ways. e.g.

Having decision making power of their own.Political participation. Awareness and exercise of their rights.Self decision regarding education, participation, mobility & economic independency.

“ The government of India declared 2001 as the year of women’s

empowerment(Swashakti).”

Educational EmpowermentGirl’s enrolment at the primary and secondary level

has been improved after independence.

Government has started some schemes to foster the growth of female education.e.g.Mahila Samakhya ProgrammeKasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme National educational programme for girls at

primary level

Year 1950-51 2004-05

% enrolment in primary

28.1 46.7

% enrolment in secondary

61.1 44.4

Socio-Economic EmpowermentThere is a scheme known as

Indira Awas Yojna through which govt. gives money to women to make their home.

In many govt. give money to girl at the time of their marriage.

Govt. give loan to women to start their own business at very low interest.

In spite of all these schemes the social & economic status of women is not improved at desired extent.

Political Empowerment There is 33.5% reservation for

women in local government bodies.

This law has placed a million of women in elected positions to the panchayat in the country.

Govt. also encouraging the women to vote in the various elections.

Indira Gandhi former Indian prime minister is the world’s largest serving women prime minister.

In spite of all these steps taken by govt. Still there are very few women in national level politics.

Judicial EmpowermentIndian government has made

many laws and act to protect women.

The payment of a dowry has been prohibited under the “1961 dowry prohibition act” in Indian civil law.

Women are protected from domestic violence under the law “protection of women from domestic violence act 2005”.

For protecting women from sexual violence govt. Passed “criminal law act 2013”.

Self Help Group EmpowermentApart from government bodies many non governmental bodies are

also working for empowerment of women in various aspects. Some of these are-

Mahila Seva SamitiNari Seva SanghaWomen Coordinating CouncilSatya Bharati Shakti-ShaliniNari Raksha SamitiMaitriShakti-Vahini Navjyoti These bodies are working to help women for different problems

and also protest for women’s right.

My Own Ideas In spite of all the government and self help group efforts

still there are many problems faced by women. So here are some of my ideas for stopping gender discrimination and to empower women:-

The very first thing to stop gender discrimination is equality.

If people will treat every girl same as boys there would be no gender discrimination.

The main weapon which can be us used to stop gender discrimination & empower women is EDUCATION.

We have many laws for protecting women from dowry death, domestic violence and other problems but instead of all these many cases has been reported every year. So govt. should strictly implement these laws and make sure the safety of women from all this cruel acts.

We should give a chance to women to take decisions at various level e.g. At home, at work and in politics also.

People should take initiative by their own, till the people will not take an initiative the efforts of govt. would not help much.

We can relate protecting women to religion as “kandyadan is mahadan” so that people will take it seriously.

We should try to make women friendly environment at work and also try to get more participation from them in work.

As It is estimated that growth in India would increase by 1.09% if its female labor-participation rate were put on par with the US .

We have to change our men dominating mentality and should give chances to women to get involved in various social and political issues and also give their own view on that.

By this way we can stop gender discrimination and encourage women to achieve equality in all aspects of their life.

People should take initiative by their own, till the people will not take an initiative the efforts of govt. would not help much.

We can relate protecting women to religion as “kandyadan is mahadan” so that people will take it seriously.

We should try to make women friendly environment at work and also try to get more participation from them in work.

As It is estimated that growth in India would increase by 1.09% if its female labor-participation rate were put on par with the US .

We have to change our men dominating mentality and should give chances to women to get involved in various social and political issues and also give their own view on that.

By this way we can stop gender discrimination and encourage women to achieve equality in all aspects of their life.

THANK YOU !