The big question today is-whether gender bias is dwindling and if yes, then where? Let us look at the international scene first. We have examples from Kuwait, Japan, Jordan, Brazil, Ireland, USA and our own homeland –India. First lets talk about the international scenario and then the position at home.

The Indian constitution has given due consideration to women. Equality is guaranteed to women in terms of article 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution. Therefore, constitutionally women are at par with men. However, difference is evident in various acts that were created about a century back as well as the practice of law. Obviously the society is impacted by the practice of law and conversely the practices prevailing in the society also impact the judgments given by various courts. In sum total, we can say that it is taken about 60 years of a free India to recognize the mother as the guardian of her children.

Empowerment refers to freedom to choose and act in economic, social and political fields. Initially, women had no control over her man’s decisions and assets due to the prevailing inequalities in the society. For elevating the status of the women in Indian society, it is mandatory that women possess educational and vocational abilities. Along with it she must have the capability to systematize and organize the things. The status of the women has improved considerably in Indian society but even in the present situation, varied inequalities between men and women exist where neither law nor the society come to a woman’s aid.

It is very unfortunate but true that in the Indian society the girl has to face discrimination for the whole life. In the low-income category the girl is considered as a burden. Even the basic facilities like education, nutritious food, and medical assistance are curtailed or not available to her. Not only in poor class but also in middle class and high class, son is preferred than daughter. These conditions are setback for the empowering of women issue. A study conducted on Infant / Children’s heart surgery cases by Apollo Hospitals in India revealed that it is the male child that is normally brought for surgery while in respect of girl child the parents think that she can be easily replaced with another child. Invariably, the girl child is allowed to die. This is true even in cases were parents are well off and can afford the treatment of their daughters.

Poverty is another culprit in attaining the goal of women empowerment. Poverty has definitely more impact on women than men. Several poverty mitigation programmes are aiming to solve the problems of the poor women. Among the total population living under poverty line, 70% is that of women. Besides the existing programmes, several new approaches are necessary for eradication of poverty. This would in turn improve the position of the women in the Indian society.

Empowerment of women is a gradual and complicated process. It involves changing the way of thinking of the whole society. A case in point is the practice of ‘Sati’ that was prevailing in our country. It has taken decades of protests – right from Raja Ram Mohan Rai to the present protagonists who advocate dignity of women including the right to live. However, we continue to here about stray cases of ‘Sati’ including ‘Sati Worship’, both being crimes under Indian Penal Code. Earlier, women were killed after their husband’s death. The modern and educated India offers death to the girl child in the womb. So much for removal of gender bias!

However, in urban areas, there is an attitude shift of girls’ parents due to neglect of aged parents by their sons. More and more old parents prefer to stay with their daughters. This is also reflected in the adoption ratio of girls and boy where girls are receiving preference over boys.

For a long time it has been stamped on the minds of the people that women are inferior to men. It is not easy to change the stubborn attitude of the people. In rural India, Women have inadequate access to education, health facilities, healthy diet etc and have to tolerate drudgery of household chores as well as labour in the fields to subsist their husbands’ income.

In India, gradually, the percentage of working women is rising. Only by contributing towards income of the family the women can get rid of the status of ‘burden’ both in their parental home as well as in the in-laws’ house. In the present situation also, the percentage of working males is still much greater than women’s. In most parts of the country, a large volume of women are still illiterate or inadequately educated so they acquire less wages as compared with men. In rural areas most of the women are engaged in farming or related spheres. Women are often exploited and they do not even revert back due to lack of knowledge and guts.

Even in modern India, mostly women do not have possession of land, property and finance. They are contributing towards income of the family but property rights still are in the hands of males. Women empowerment can be attained in true terms when women are free to use and mange the financial resources according to her desire.

Entrepreneur women can positively contribute to attain the goal of women empowerment. Entrepreneurship provides women for what she is longing for – control over the resources and power of decision making. Such women can help in poverty alleviation by providing job opportunities for many other deserving women, besides encouraging their subordinates to impart education to their girl children.

Surveys have proved that a large percentage of educated but not trained women are present in the country. Such women can be given training in a specific field like making homemade papads or pickles, handicrafts and many such things and can start their own small enterprise. Due to lots of family responsibilities to perform, they lack most important element of business i.e. time and mobility. So it is better for them to exploit available resources and start their enterprise near their residential place. Self- employment is a blessing for poor and deserving women as sufficient job opportunities are not available in the country. In small sector, the women may be owner of the enterprise may be a manager or controller or may be a worker in the enterprise.

In most cases neither law nor the society come to a woman’s aid for making her economically independent. A powerful example is the initiative taken by Andhra Pradesh Government where the Department of Women and Child directed the village Sarpanches to set up women cooperatives with one village woman acting as their leader. Each woman was asked to save Rupee one every day from the household expenses and make a saving of Rupees hundred. This sum was invested with the cooperative that took the initiative of growing flowers and vegetables or making pickles, papads and marketing them directly in towns / cities. This benefited the cooperatives as well as the women employed by them. The profits booked for the first year by these cooperatives are ploughed back to build up a kitty. However, from the second year onwards the women start receiving returns on their investment besides earning daily wages. Similar initiatives have been taken by numerous NGOs such as ‘ Sewa’ and ‘Lizzat Papad’. However, there is a need for emulation of such examples throughout the country.

The urban scenario for working women is no better. There are any number of organizations that do not employee women, including some of the well-known names in the country. Some other business houses believe in recruiting women only for decorative posts such as receptionists / telephone operators. Post recruitment, women face discrimination in promotions and postings. Plum postings and foreign trainings are reserved mainly for men with stray cases of women’s nominations. I am not talking about cases like ICICI Bank where women hold prominant posts. In majority organizations women rise comfortably up to middle level but fail to break the glass ceiling. In most cases they are overlooked on one pretext or the other.

In the end I would exhort state and national governments to take multi pronged initiatives for ensuring removal of gender bias. Some of these suggestions are;

a) Stringent punishment for tests leading to sex determination in the womb. Tax benefits to parents who have a single child - a daughter
b) Compulsory and free education for all children till the 12th standard and free college education for the girl child
c) Compulsory and free immunization for all children
d) Encouragement / tax benefits to organizations providing treatment to girl children from surrounding villages
e) Tax benefits to women acquiring property – houses and farmland, as Delhi government has introduced.
f) Setting of State Sports Academies for girls
g) Monitoring of growth of women employees in organizations by the government as is done in some of the advanced Asian Countries – Singapore and Malaysia
h) Tax concessions / holidays for employers more than 50% women