Open Access Research Article
CAN CURRENT NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT SUSTAIN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Published Paper
Article Details
CAN
CURRENT NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT SUSTAIN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
AUTHORED BY - SNEHA SOLANKI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,
FAIRFIELD INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
AND TECHNOLOGY, IP UNIVERSITY
Abstract
In this article the focal point is the nexus with the environment degradation and its impact on women
status. How women are related with
environment including its accessibility of
natural resources, what kind of
problems are being faced by the women belongs to different strata of society
etc. issues have been discussed in this article. Also, in this
article, it is discussed that sustainable
development is vital in women environment and what are the key hurdles in implementation of policies of women empowerment.
Key Words: - women empowerment, natural
resources, sustainable development Goals, environment degradation and gender gap, etc.
INTRODUCTION
The
nature is symbol of the femineity. Almost in all types of culture woman identity relates with the
nature and its beauty. Especially in India, the Earth and whole nature relate to the woman factor,
in Indian culture,
nature means ‘prakriti’ that identifies
as feminine and ‘purusha’ as man.
They all consider to be complimentary to each other.
One is nothing without other.
But if one exploits other,
the balance of nature would be disturbed, that
is the reality of the contemporary world. Here the concept of development in modern world since Industrial Revolution became a matter of concern regarding condition
of women in economy. This is a Global
concern. When various country has
started to face bad consequences, they raising concern
on International Platform, for instance, Kyoto Protocol or Rio Convention etc. The idea of Sustainable Development is an
objective to protect and preserve the environment in the race of economic
growth and development and
providing inter-generational as well as intra
generational development. Women, Children and Poor are as class
are worst affected by this traditional development where on one hand, unlimited and indiscriminately exhaustion of natural resources has been consumed for economic
growth but on the other hand, the gap between poor and rich, environmental degradation, displacement of poor and
tribal people and violation of human rights etc. are major consequences of this kind of development.
WOMEN AND ENVIROMENT
Women as a class are multi dimensionally affected by the traditional development which creates environmental degradation in
nature. Women and environment are intrinsically, related with each other. Since Ancient Era, Women is a
symbol of nature. She is plays a major role in home management and manages resources for family. Women as
a class can be classified in three kind of sub
- classes these are 1. Urban Women; 2. Rural Women; 3. Tribal Women.
All three sub-groups are differently connected
with the environment. Throughout these categories
the Rural and Tribal women are
directly and worst affected with the environmental degradation, because they depend on the nature directly for
their living hood. Most of the percentage of population is of the developing and under developed
countries. The economy
of these countries is mostly depending upon the Agriculture, while women produce 60 to 80 percent of food in
developing countries[1].
The rural women in villages are
depend upon the natural resources from water to wood.
Similarly, the living
hood of the tribal women
are identified majorly with the forests and collects herbals to sell in the tribal markets. In Manipur, there
is Ima Keithel means ‘mother market’
organised which is only for women traders. This is one of kind a women’s contribution
in economy. This is only a one
example, there are many more examples we can observe throughout India and in world where rural and tribal women are major factors in economy. In developing world, women predominantly responsible for management
and conservation of resources for
their families. Thus, they must spend most of their life in collecting and storing water, securing sources
of fuel, food,
and fodder. And if these resources centralised or procured by industrialist and capitalists, then it
would adversely affected rural and
tribal women. Natural calamities and disasters like drought, erratic rainfall, severe storms, volcano
eruptions, forests fire or flood etc.
are makes access of these basic resources intensely affected. Vandana Shiva, the ecofeminist she observed that the marginalisation of women and destruction of biodiversity go hand in hand.[2]
She described commonality of gender and environment oppression. She links women’s physical, social, and sexual
nature with the environment.
She says diversity as central to “women’s work
and knowledge,” as the reproductive/ domestic work of life is dependent
on diverse skills that belie specialization.
The
relation of women to environment can be classified in two ways: one is cultural aspect and second is economic
aspect. Firstly, in cultural aspect,
women are treated
as a symbol of nature
and earth who nurtures lives. Secondly, the cultural aspects
include gender conditioning. That means women has responsibility to manage family and she must have
nurturing nature. Whether
she is urban women or rural
women, it is women who has duty towards her family and manage and collect resources
for her family’
s living hood affairs. Thus,
gender norms are very much defined the relationship between
women and environment. Then second aspect is the
economic aspect, which is very
relates to the rural and tribal women. In Agricultural economy, cottage industry, construction labour,
or small industry etc. the women having a great share and contributing in
the GDP of the country.
Women and Sustainable Development
The basic reason behind the emerging of the concept
of Sustainable Development is
the indiscriminately exhaustion of natural resources
and consequently problems
of inequality between
classes, environmental degradation, global warming, and centralisation
of resources in some big hand of industrialists and capitalist etc. Here in above we have analysed how women are related
to the environment and its natural resources so that women as a class majorly
affected. We cannot
expect gender equality
and women empowerment in this kind of indiscriminate development. Here the need of sustainable development arises, which defined
as development which meets the requirements of the present
without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development has various aspects
some of these
are inter - generational equity,
intra - generational equity, democracy etc. in which gender equality is
one of the major aspects of it.
Gender
equality is the key aspect for development of a country. The development of a country
never completes without
participation of women factor in economic growth,
that economic growth
backs social and political growth
of a half population. But the
nature of recent development, highly impacted adversely on the concept of gender equality
and women empowerment. So that Sustainable development includes the gender equality
and women empowerment. There are major Sustainable
development treaties and conventions have done countries on International level which have acknowledged the specific need for
women’s participation and for a
mainstreamed gender perspective. The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit (UNCED) serves basic two aspects these are biological diversity and on protect
the earth environmental degradation from a gender perspective. In Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Principle 1 itself clearly
stated that the human beings
are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a
healthy and productive life in harmony
with nature. In Principle 20 altogether with sustainable development it is clearly stated that women have a vital role in environmental management and development and to achieve
sustainable development their full participation is essential. Hence, it is now profoundly recognized by International community that women’s
participation is a pre-condition for sustainable
development. The world commission on environment and development, in its report
named ‘our common
future’ (1988) had reported that practices of
unsustainable development created a huge crisis that were worsening
the north south gap among them women are in majority of the world’s poor
and illiterate. Then in 1995 in
fourth world conference on women, Beijing focused on the women empowerment, full participation, and equality and these are major keys of the sustainable development. Indian women took a great lead in 1970s through
Chipko movement where activists most
of them tribal or local women, hugged trees to protect
and preserve. In report discussion on sustainable development, it is observed that women are
playing as natural resources managers
and agents of change. It is important
to recognize this role and to draw attention on women’s commitment and expertise in shaping strategies and decisions. There is one more major step has taken by one wing of
United Nations that is UN office on
Drugs and Crime. It has set 5 SDGs by promoting access to justice
for women and girls; supporting the development of legislations and policies that protect
their right and prevent as well as
respond to violence against women and girls; developing institutional and professional capacities relevant to
respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the rights of women and girls; and creating
the conditions for women and girls to be able to claim their rights and be active agents of change. These are the main SDGs Goals which can be achieve by cooperation and coordination of nation-states. Women empowerment through
sustainable development is not only substantive concept,
it is a process or way to ensure full- fledged
development among throughout the world population. If half
of the world population does not have
any involvement or less than to expectations, the economic growth would remain partly
successful.
Women
empowerment and sustainable development are relating with the feminist concept of ecofeminism. It is not just a
concept but also movement
that sees a connection between
the exploitation and degradation of the natural
world and subordination and oppression of women.[3] Ecofeminism focuses on gender
inequality by environmental
degradation and to cure this gender Gap the participation
of women in decision making policy of government concerned environmental protection and economic growth. This movement first emerged in North American
and European academic circles in the 1970s but in
India, in same decade the Chipko movement
was also organising by tribal women.
Francoise d’ Eaubonne,
a French author
considered a leader
in her country’s feminist movement, coined the name “ecofeminism” in 1974. Vandana Shiva is also an
ecofeminist and she argues how destroying
environment development effects the lives of women. She further argues that the monoculture in farming is
destroying fertility of soil and consequently women are particularly marginalised by their alienation from the seeds and
traditional way of farming. In the
destruction of biodiversity, women are not
only displaced as keepers of the economic
life in their communities, they pushed aside by big industrialists and capitalists.
WOMEN AS A CLASS
Women
as class are facing various major problems. Out of these many feminists alleges the capitalistic way of development. The economic
crises have led to heightened criticisms of the capitalist model, where growth is fuelled by competition and the quest for profits. In this, development model, the Glass
ceiling phenomenon is one kind of the hurdle in the women empowerment and increases the gap of gender inequality.
Due to this phenomenon only few handful women can achieve
equal status with men colleagues. There is also
institutionalised gender discrimination embedded
in the whole economic development structure. The family responsibilities, childcare etc. are restricts women to
get full participation in economic
development. In Fortune
magazine[4], among
500 companies, women are only three percent
of CEOs, six percent of top managers and 15 percent of board members. In top decision making in world
women representation is very less.
According to Inter-Parliamentary Union, about 18 percent of legislative seats worldwide are held by women and in many countries, there are no female
representatives at all. This is the
real situation at global level although many countries are achieving
well gender goals.
As
in India, the constitution itself very clearly declared that there shall not be any kind of discrimination
based on the sex, caste, class, creed
etc. Although India has achieved very much gender parity at the primary education level but in political sector,
as of June 2019, the proportion of
seats in the Lok Sabha held by women
had only reached 11% but 46% in the Panchayati Raj institutions. In India, central and state governments are making and implementing many welfare schemes
for women empowerment to achieve SDGs 5. For
instance, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,
Beti Bachao , Beti Padhao, SABLA Yojna etc. But these all schemes mostly on only paper and nothing else.
OBSTRUCTIONS ON THE WAY OF WOMEN
EMPOWERMENT
There are many obstructions on way of achieving goals of women empowerment or gender
equality and sustainable development.
A.
First hurdle is very patent which lies in stereotypes
attitude of society. As stated above,
glass ceiling is cause of this attitude. About
most of the law related to labour laws like Factories Act, Minimum Wages Act, Equal Remuneration Act etc. are not
implemented in India satisfactorily or adequately in India, especially in informal sector.
B.
Secondly, the lack of political will in the field of
women empowerment commitment is also
an obstruction before gender equality
and sustainable development. Most of the policies and welfare schemes regarding women’s economic independency are hang
on political vote banks or faces the problem of lack of fund.
C.
Thirdly, the centralisation or unequal distribution of
resources is one of the major hurdles in the gender gap. Traditionally, religious
personal laws mostly discriminately towards women. Personal laws frails the economic or property rights for women. The succession laws, inheritance laws or maintenance law etc. are very
indiscriminately towards women and women has very less rights on land property unequal to men. Still, in rural and
tribal areas most of the population
of women is illiterate or having lack of
knowledge of their rights, hence, contractors or employers exploits them and provide less wages, that
violates their rights. Mostly, the laws are man -made structured , where lack of representation of women needs are major cause in gender equality. The reproductive and sexual health are women specific rights
but least considered rights from
the perspective of the women. There are
17 Global Goals determined that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which gender equality is one of the major goal. Although at national and international level acknowledging the women empowerment but real impacts
are still missing.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that the sustainable development is not only important
for environmental protection but also inevitable for women empowerment. As women and nature or environment and its
resources are clearly related to each other. Any bad effects on environment inevitably, effects adversely
to women. Hence, sustainable
development is a way to achieve gender equality. Recently, countries are making plans
to accelerate climate
change adaptation efforts.
Known as national
adaptation plans(NAP), these
are key mechanism for achieving the goals identified in the climate change agreement countries have
committed to the Paris agreement. In
this concept, countries are committed to the gender responsive NAP processes that
will ensure that resources for adaptation are targeted where they are needed most, yielding more equitable benefits
over the longer term.[5] For women empowerment and sustainable development
more has to be done. There is need
to change the perspective on the ground level and need more cooperation and coordination of countries and civil society.
Without a strong and firm determination, the Goal of gender equality with sustainable development can not be achieved. Education
and skill development among women especially in rural and tribal women are very major tools to achieve women empowerment. There must be strong awareness among rural and urban areas by the
government towards family planning schemes.
These are just some steps towards gender
equality. A dream of a better world only fulfils
strong determination and right things to achieve the goals.
[1] “Global Women’s issues:
Women in the world today, extended version
chapter 11 :women and environment”, available on https://opentextbc.ca/womenintheworld/chapter/11
[2] Shiva,Vandana and Maria
Mies, “Ecofeminism.London”, 2014, Zed Books
[3] “Women and life on Earth:
what is ecofeminism”, available on www.Wloe.org/what-is-ecofeminism.76.0.html
[4] ibid
Article Information
CAN CURRENT NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT SUSTAIN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Authors: SNEHA SOLANKI
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2023/04/18
- Volume 2
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Access Open Access
- License CC 4.0
All research articles published in International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis are open access and available to read, download and share, subject to proper citation of the original work.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis.