Women Empowerment

The World is walking into a new era of Evolution which scientists refer to as ‘Meta – Biological Evolution’ i.e., evolution beyond Biology or the evolution of a new type of awareness. Beyond materialism, the world is now desperate in its searching for the meaning of life in its full. It can be seen, the structure of the society and the day to day activities of people living in it are more and more getting concentrated and depended on the significance of one beautiful term – Empowerment. Empowerment becomes so significant in this modern nuclear age because of the creeping dissatisfaction into the family and professional lives of people. In order to keep pace with the fast world and changing times, people sometimes let go of their value system. As a result they feel frustrated, destabilized and drained of their enthusiasm and happiness. Women are the mainstay of the society due to the fact that she is the first teacher and preceptor of a child. It is her attitude, belief system, ideologies, values and will power which creates a lasting impression on the child, thus deeply influencing the future activities of the child. The empowerment of women has a direct effect on the society. A society or a country will prosper when the women are empowered. There was a time when women were held in high esteem. They were worshipped as shaktis or Devis. Every different aspect of women is being worshipped by devotees even now. Her motherly form is being worshipped as, Amba’, her prosperous form is worshipped as ‘Lakshmi’, her knowledgeable form is worshipped as ‘Saraswati’ and her powerful form is represented as ‘Durga’ or ‘Kali’ Does our society really do justice to the well being of its mothers, sisters and wives? Let us look at some statistics. Of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty around the globe, 70 percent are women. Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, according to the United Nations. At the same time women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income. Women own less than 1 percent of the world’s property. Women make up two-thirds of the estimated 876 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write. Girls make up 60 percent of the 77 million children not attending primary school. Violence against women is on the rise according to statistics. The modern woman face a myriad of problems starting from gender disparities, sexual exploitation, lack of proper education, denial of rights etc. These problems are weakening the self esteem and dignity of women and the very roots of society are being affected. ‘Yatra Naryastu Poojyante Ramante Tatra Devta’ ‘Where women are being worshipped, deities live there.’ So who will be the inhabitants of a society where women are being treated like a doormat? In many societies around the world, women never belong wholly to themselves; they are the property of others throughout their lives. Their physical well-being – health, security and bodily integrity – is often beyond their own control. Where women have no control over money, they cannot choose to get health care for themselves or their children. Where having a large number of children confers status on both men and women – indeed, where childbearing may be the only marker of value available to women – frequent pregnancy and labor can be deadly. World Health Organization data indicates that in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, for example, a woman’s lifetime chance of dying in childbirth is one in seven; in the United States it is one in 3,418, and in Norway and Switzerland, one in 7,300. In any given year, 15 percent of all pregnant women will face a life threatening complication, and more than 500,000 – 99 percent of them in the developing world – will die. Some 130 million girls and women, mostly in sub Saharan Africa, have been subjected to genital cutting at the behest of their parents, and 2 million more face the blade every year, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Around the globe, home and community are not safe havens for a billion girls and women: At least one in three females on earth has been physically or sexually abused, often repeatedly and often by a relative or acquaintance. By the World Bank’s estimate, violence rivals cancer as a cause of morbidity and mortality for women of childbearing age. Even within marriage, women may not be able to negotiate when and what type of sex to have, nor to protest their husbands’ multiple sex partners. Poverty and exclusion push some girls and women to engage in sex work, almost always the desperate, last choice of people without other choices. Further, the U.S. Department of State indicates that up to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually: 80 percent of these are women and girls, and the majority is forced into the sex trade. And in the midst of conflict and natural disaster in countries around the world, women’s risk of violence skyrockets. Systematic rape as a weapon of war has left millions of girls and women traumatized, forcibly impregnated, and/or HIV positive. These factors combined explain why today more women than men around the world are HIV positive. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than twice as many young women as young men are living with HIV, according to the International Labor organization. The solution lies in empowering women from the root level. Demanding recognition, shouting protests and such methods to call for the attention of society are not going to yield results. Women will have to recognize their role as provider and sustainer of powers, their original powerful form of the ‘Amba’ or Shakti or Devi. Rather than waiting for some savior or messiah to come and protect them, woman will have to bring out her dormant powers and adopt the attitude of a donor. That is the only way to re-establish a Golden age for humanity.