Women empowerment is a buzzword in all societies, developed as well as developing. It involves economic, social, legal and political empowerment. The issue of women empowerment is complex, multi-dimensional and very much crucial for development of women. Empowerment is the process by which powerless gain greater control over the circumstances of their lives. It includes both controls over resources (physical, human, intellectual) and over ideology (beliefs, values and attitudes).
The Preamble to the Constitution of India promises “to secure to all citizens, justice-social, economic, political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and opportunity and to promote all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation”.
Apart from this, there are many enactments in various countries under the provisions of their respective Constitutions, making the provision to secure rights, benefits and securities of women. But it is unfortunate that in spite of the existence of many laws, majority of women are deprived of their rights and benefits and finally, their securities are in jeopardy. The offences against women in various fields are on rampant. Even in case of most successful women leaders, there have been the hidden hands of men. The major reasons for such a state of affairs are lack of awareness and consciousness of women about their rights, interest and benefits available under existing laws, inefficiency and lack of sincerity and seriousness of the authorities in enforcement of the laws. The tardy and costly process in existing legal system is also equally responsible. Another dark area of the enactment of the legislations is that majority of women are engaged in domestic work where the legislation is overdue. Besides this majority of women are concerned and engaged in unorganized and informal sector which is one of the most exploitative areas of work for women in the world in general and India in particular. Hence, there is an urgent need to review the relevance of existing enactments and further necessary measures to strengthen women all over the world.
The present book consists of nineteen papers from dedicated scholars, academicians, representatives of women organizations and research scholars of different countries of the world.
This book will be helpful not only to those who are interested in studying and understanding the concept of women empowerment but also to the policy-makers, judges, research scholars of different faculties and others in studying the growing problems of women. |
