NAACP Essay example - 1432 Words

On February 12th The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by a multiracial group of activists, who answered The Call, in the New York City, NY. They initially called themselves the National Negro Committee. Founded in 1909 The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has been active in its attempts to break legal ground and forge better opportunities for African Americans. At the beginning in 1909, some twenty persons met together in New York City for the purpose of utilizing the public interest in the Lincoln Centennial in behalf of African Americans. The history, function, purpose, and current activities of the organization is important.to work on behalf of the rights of†¦show more content†¦In the 1990s, the NAACP ran into debt, and the dismissal of two leading officials further added to the picture of an organization in deep crisis.However, in the second half of the 1990s, the organization restored its financ es, permitting the NAACP National Voter Fund to launch a major get-out-the-vote offensive in the presidential elections NAACP pushed for full desegregation throughout the South. Starting on December 5, 1955, NAACP activists, including E.D. Nixon, its local president, and Rosa Parks, who had served as the chapters Secretary, helped organize the bus boycott to protest segregation on the citys buses when two-thirds of the riders were black. Part B. Lemann discusses the life of George Hicks; native of Clarksdale who eventually works his way to the upper-middle class society of Chicago. Georges childhood was ingrained in Clarksdales southern style of harsh plantation life. He and his fellow black citizens were harassed and even arrested for fabricated charges. George himself was beleaguered by police officers for no legitimate reason andShow MoreRelatedNaacp1094 Words   |  5 PagesNAACP The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles between 1945 and 1970 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South. It focuses on that particular struggle, rather than the comparable movements to end discrimination against otherRead MoreEssay about NAACP1081 Words   |  5 Pages NAACP The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles between 1945 and 1970 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South. It focuses on that particular struggle, rather than the comparable movements to end discrimination againstRead MoreHelen Keller And The Naacp1701 Words   |  7 PagesRebecca Reed Honors American Studies I Mr. Cahalan 27 April 2015 Helen Keller and the NAACP A large issue in our country for the first two centuries, some would argue longer, of our time as our own, independent, country has been the issue of equality among races. This was an issue that was on the mind of many of the people who were very instrumental in our country including men like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., among others. The issue of equality among races caused lots of controversyRead MoreMr. NAACP is the Biography of Walter White738 Words   |  3 PagesThe Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP chronicles Walter White’s life from childhood until his death. The central focus is on his works within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, as well as within civil rights movement as a whole. What made Walter White unique was his skin complexion. He was a blonde hair, blue eyed, extremely light skinned Negro. This shaped how White viewed himself, how others viewed him, and how he was able to make such a great impact for the blac kRead MoreHe Resigned From The Naacp In June 1934 In A Dispute Over1525 Words   |  7 PagesHe resigned from the NAACP in June 1934 in a dispute over organizational policy and direction. He believed the depression dictated a shift from the organization’s stress on legal rights and integration to an emphasis on black economic advancement, even if this meant temporarily â€Å"accepting† segregation. But after teaching at Atlanta University, he returned in 1944 as head of a research effort aimed at collecting and disseminating data on Africans and their Diasporas and putting issues affecting themRead MoreEquality for African Americans After writing my newspaper article on the NAACP, I realized that800 Words   |  4 PagesEquality for African Americans After writing my newspaper article on the NAACP, I realized that the African American community needed a renewed sense of belonging, like all the other communities have in this day in age. This sense of being is better known as equality. Webster’s dictionary defines equality as having the same rights, social status and opportunities as others. The African American community has yet to reach a plateau were they are seen as equals. Equalities for African Americans areRead MoreThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People670 Words   |  3 Pages The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded in the year of 1909 in New York City. This association is considered the nation’s biggest and oldest civil rights organizations. It was formed in response to the continuing terrible practice of lynching during that period. Lynching was being practiced during this time and affected many people just because of their skin color. The NAACP was made by white and black citizens â€Å"[fought] for social justice† (NAACP History)Read MoreThe National Association of the Advancement of Colored People1450 Words   |  6 PagesPeople (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the world and probably the largest secular citizens action agency in the nation. Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization as well as the most powerful and the most respected today. The NAACP is the national spokesperson for black Americans and other minorities, and for those who support civil rights objectives in America. Organized in virtually every city and town where black Americans reside, the NAACP both articulatesRead MoreThe National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People1627 Words   |  7 PagesThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) states its mission as: â€Å"The NAACP insures the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group s and citizens; achieves equality of rights and eliminates race prejudice among the citizens of the United States; removes all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes; seeks to enact and enforce federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights; informs the public of the adverse effectsRead More National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People Essay725 Words   |  3 Pages National Association for the Advancement of Colored People nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Born from the Niagara Movement, led by William E. B. DuBois, the NAACP has had a volatile birth and a lively history (Beifuss 17:E4). The impetus for the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People came in the summer of 1908. Severe race riots in Springfield, Illinois, prompted William English Walling to write articles questioning the treatment of the Negro. Reading the articles

Understanding The Uk Culture By Foreign National Students

The main purpose of research project is to understand in UK culture by foreign national student. There are 13 questionnairespre-sessional student at Middlesex University. We collect feedback from 13 pre-sessional students which are coming from different culture. The way of analysis these questionnaires used Zhou (2008) and also Hofsted’s, In that four dimension to comparing with national culture. In the research eleven people are coming from age belowthirty. The 47% people isquite confidence to speck with native people. In our research UK culture and international culture 67% differences in social life. Mostly 54% students have language difficulties in the UK. Introduction: - The topic is cultural adaption of Middlesex†¦show more content†¦Methodology: - This report shows how international students can adapt to the new culture well; the topic is the cultural adaption of Middlesex International students. We carried out primary research using a questionnaire for students who are studying in Middlesex University. The sample size was 15 people who were 7 nationalities: Saudi Arabia, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Nigeria. Thirteen questions were contained in the questionnaire which was based on Zhou et al (2008) that was produced by the three students who worked in our group. The main objective of this study is to find out about the adjustment and culture of those students. Findings:- This section will show the results from the questionnaire (see appendix A). The fifteen international students who are studying at Middlesex University were presented in the questionnaireresearch.To begin with, the seven nationalities were presented in this research. There were the dramatic differences between Saudi 33% and Nepal 6%, respectively. The second common was seen in China 20% and Thailand 20%. The figure for Myanmar 7% was exactly the same as Vietnam7% and Nigeria7%. Next, there were dramatic differences between students who have lived in the UK 2 months or less 60% and 5-11 months 13%. Moreover, the common was seen in the Social life which the difference between UK culture and other culture

An Interview With A Public School Setting - 1713 Words

Working in a public school setting provides a rich profusion of opportunities to interact with both children and adults claiming a multitude of different cultural and ethnic identities. As diverse populations continue to grow in the U.S., it becomes increasingly necessary for professionals and service workers of all types to acquire cultural competency. Although Suh (2004) identifies multiple variations of the exact definition, and the term as a whole contains many different components, its meaning and adherence have an undeniably universal effect and leads to harmonious and synergistic relationships between people of all cultural backgrounds. In an interview with John (named has been changed for confidentiality) on June 3, 2016, the†¦show more content†¦He decided to pursue a career as a high school English teacher. He began his career teaching in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he taught for 6 years falling more and more in love with being an educator every day. While teachin g, he pursued his master’s degree in educational leadership, and gradually took on roles within the school practicing leadership and curriculum development. It was there that he admits having his first real exposure to a melting pot of diversity both in his students, and his colleagues (personal communication, June 3, 2016). During the interview process, John (personal communication, June 3, 2016) reported that the most common minority groups he worked with were Hispanics and African-Americans, with the demographic breakdown of his first school being 20% African-American, 35% Hispanic, and 60% low income. During conversation, John admits that he strongly identifies with â€Å"white middle class† and feels his beliefs and values are consistent with the â€Å"average American†. He also admits that he entered the field with the naà ¯ve impression that everyone was more or less striving to attain the same â€Å"Middle-White-American dream†. As he quickly learned, nothing could prepare him for the diversity-laden challenges he would soon encounter (personal communication, June 3, 2016). Though there are many things John (personal communication, June 3, 2016) values in his work, he

Education And Requirements Of Criminal Defense Essay

Occupation Description Education and Requirements Criminal defense attorneys must hold a bachelor’s degree, a juris doctor degree, and pass the bar exam. A criminal defense attorney can hold a bachelor’s degree in area of study from an accredited four-year college. There is not a specific major required in order to get into law school (Harr; Jackson 2016). In addition to a bachelor’s degree they must also hold a juris doctor degree, in order to obtain this degree one must successfully graduate from law school. However, before attending law school the potential criminal defense attorney must take the LSAT (Law School Admission Test). This exam is designed to determine the test taker’s skill level in logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension. The LSAT is not a technical requirement to gain admission to law school, but most law school admission boards use the results of the LSAT to determine if they will accept an applicant into the school’s law program and view the exam as a necessity for every applicant (Harr; Jackson 2016). In the application process applicants are also evaluated on their undergraduate GPA, but this is not nearly as big of a factor as is the score on the LSAT (Craven, 2015; Jones 2014). According to research conducted by LAWSCHOOLi, the median GPA for law schools ranking in the top 100 in the nation range from a 3.90 to a 3.39. They also go on to say that does not mean an applicant will not be accepted if they are not in thisShow MoreRelatedDefense Attorney Johnnie Simpson Murder Trial1727 Words   |  7 Pages Defense Attorneys Today Kailen Alston Belcher English III Mrs. Wright 5 November 2015 Kailen Alston Belcher English III Mrs. Wright 5 November 2015 Defense Attorneys Today When people think of the OJ Simpson murder trial, they immediately think of his defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. At the height of his career Cochran earned an excess of ten million a year (Fabrikant). Defense attorneys, or criminal defense lawyer represents individuals or companies accused of criminal activityRead MoreProbable Cause946 Words   |  4 PagesTillian Stokeling November 10, 2010 Criminal Procedures Mid- Term Probable cause does not rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt but must be beyond a mere hunch or guess. The legal standard to a probable cause arrest is when an officer finds evidence during a valid stop and frisk search that confirms the reasonable suspicion of an officer that a crime has been or is being committed and would lead to the arrest of and offender. There are a variety of sources to establish probableRead MoreEffect Of Conviction On Professional Licenses1535 Words   |  7 Pagesconcern about criminal charges is the effect that a conviction will have on their professional licenses. With many occupations, a conviction can result in licenses being suspended or even revoked. It is important for any alleged offender to immediately seek the help of an experienced criminal defense attorney in order to help avoid any long-term professional licensing consequences. Having qualified legal representation will give people the best chance to have any alleged criminal offense cause additionalRead More15th Judical Court in Colorado813 Words   |  3 Pagesentered the historic three story Victorian style building in which the 15th District Court of Cheyenne County which was playing host to several criminal court cases according to the court docket. The county happens to be the sixth least densely populated county within the state of Colorado in which provided a shocking revelation as the vastly large docket of criminal offenses in which was scheduled to be heard this morning. In order to access the courtrooms on would began by walking to the second floorRead MoreA Career in Criminal Justice1213 Words   |  5 Pagespolicing. EDUCATION Educational programs in criminal justice are placed within two core groups. One core group being a degree-granting programs that are focused on psychology, sociology, and law in courses. 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Students and faculty alreadyRead MoreHow Paralegals Is Qualified Through Training, Education, And Work Experience Essay1435 Words   |  6 PagesParalegals are qualified through training, education, and work experience, whom possess several specific qualities and skills necessary to succeed in the legal profession. Paralegal professionals are required to perform at superior levels of communication and proficiency. Provided is a brief analyzation into the paralegal profession, statistics and course requirements for career path I have chosen. A Paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training, or work experience to perform substantiveRead MorePolice737 Words   |  3 Pagesexists between two or more individuals to share information, ideas, thoughts or feelings. 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These include the American Association for Employment in Education, the Association of Christian Schools InternationalRead MoreLawyers : Legal Issues And Disputes1072 Words   |  5 Pagesrepresent one of the parties in criminal or civil trials by presenting evidence and arguing in support of their client. As advisors, lawyers counsel their clients about their legal rights and obligations and suggest courses of action in business and personal matters. All attorneys research the intent of laws and judicial decisions and apply the laws to the specific circumstances that their clients face. Criminal law attorneys are also known as prosecutors and defense attorneys. Lawyers held about

Women Empowerment in India Free Essays

Women Empowerment in India: A psychological view Women Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social and economic strength of Women. It involves increasing their power over decision making, social participation, economic opportunity and economic participation, political participation, access to education and health. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are human rights that lie at the heart of development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by UNO. We will write a custom essay sample on Women Empowerment in India or any similar topic only for you Order Now Worldwide, in agriculture animal care the women contribute 90% of the total work force. Women constitute almost half of the population, perform nearly 2/3rd of its work hours, but receive 1/10th of the world’s income own less than 1/100th of the world property. †¢ Among the world’s 900 million illiterate people, women out number men two to one. †¢ 70% of people living in poverty are women. †¢ Lower sex ratio i. e. 933. †¢ The male child perceived as an asset for the landless rural labourer, a dowry earner for a greedy middle class family and a simple matter of pride for the mother. Women are relatively less healthy than men even though, they belong to same class. †¢ They constitute less than 1/7th of the administrators managers in developing countries. †¢ Only 10% seats in world’s parliament 6% in national cabinets are held by them. The Constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equal rights, no discrimination by the State, equality of opportunity for work, equal pay for work and protection of dignity. The year 2001 was declared as the year of empowerment of women. In 2010 March 9, one day after International Women’s day, Rajyasabha passed Women’s Reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state legislative bodies. There are laws, laws and laws. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Dowry prohibition act, Child Marriage Restraint Act, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act etc etc. Still in India women are discriminated and marginalized at every level of the society. Gender disparity is high, crimes against women are increasing and violence against women is all time high and in most cases go unreported. Dowry related problems and death is increasing and is profoundly manifesting in the urban population. Workplace harassment of women is another phenomenon which is rapidly increasing as more women join the workforce. Early age marriages are still taking place in large numbers. According to UNICEF’s report, 47% of India’s women aged 20–24 were married before the legal age of 18, with 56% in rural area. The report also showed that 40% of the world’s child marriages occur in India. India, the world’s largest democracy, has only 60 women lawmakers in the current 543-member Lok Sabha, while there are 24 women MPs out of 240 members in Rajya Sabha at present. Everywhere women face barriers that hinder their ability to start or expand their businesses—challenges that CIPE is also working to address. Women often lack access to finance, to markets, to training, mentors, and networks, and to technology. They also frequently face discriminatory regulations, policies and practices that are often deeply entrenched. Sometimes they lack property, inheritance or land rights. A review of government’s various programmes for women empowerment such as Swashakti, Swayamsidha, Streeshakti, Balika samrudhi yojana and another two thousand projects reveal that little has been done or achieved through these programmes. Women’s access to formal financial services remains limited. Women’s empowerment cannot take place unless women come together and decide to self-empower themselves. Self empowerment should be all round in nature. Somewhere we have to make a beginning and it’s always better if we make the initiation at our own self. We can strengthen this mass movement for the â€Å"rise of womanhood† by bringing about the necessary changes in our own life as felt by our inner self. CHANGES: Two levels: 1. Individual level 2. Structural level Individual change: women become actors for change, able to analyze their own lives, make their own decisions and take their own actions. Women gain ability to act by building awareness, skills, knowledge, confidence and experience. Structural change: Women and men, individually and collectively, challenge the routines, attitudes, conventions, laws, family forms, kinship structures and taken-for-granted behaviors that shape their lives – the accepted forms of power and how these are perpetuated. Gender stereotypes and societal perceptions of females and their role are often the biggest barriers to change, because they shape women’s perception of themselves. Across all strata of Indian society, people still believe that women are capable of performing only certain types of jobs and that marriage must take precedence over career. This mind-set, common to both men and women, must change. We must focus on the girl child and help her escape the traditional stereotypes that stifle her potential. Take women in science as an example. The prejudice is that women are less capable of understanding science, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Psychological studies suggest that self-efficacy is one of the most commonly cited constructs for behavioral change. Self efficacy means ‘belief in one’s own competence and ability’. Low self-efficacy beliefs of women stem from the limited and disadvantaged positions women have in society. This makes any behavior change towards self-empowerment difficult if it merely relies on verbal persuasion. Own successful experiences, role models, positive feedback and persuasion raise the level of self efficacy. The best way by which self-efficacy is acquired is by combining persuasion with role modeling and successful experience in a supportive and appreciative environment. Micro credit schemes such as self help groups can give them successful experience. Governmental and non governmental organizations and progressive and resourceful women in the society need to come forward to help less privileged women in as many ways as possible, be the role models for them and persuade them to bring inner change. In India we have so many role models from our Puranas and Ithhasas. In the olden days Indian women have accomplished so much in adverse environments. We are the descendants of great achievers like Avvaiyar, Kannagi and Droupathi. Let us take them as role models and learn to attain their amazing mental strength and will power. Somewhere we have to make a beginning and it’s always better if we make the initiation at our own self. We can strengthen this mass movement for the â€Å"women empowerment† by bringing about the necessary changes in our own life as felt by our inner self. Further we can transmit the change to others and empower them. A small step today will definitely lead to a giant leap tomorrow. Let us remember Swamy Vivekannda’s words. â€Å"All the power is in you. Be conscious and bring it out. Arise, awake and stop not till you reach your goal’ [pic] How to cite Women Empowerment in India, Essay examples Women Empowerment in India Free Essays string(269) " percentage shares of position as legislators, senior officials and managers; and \(2\) Women and men’s percentage shares of professional and technical positions; and \(c\) 3 Power over economic resources as measured by women’s and men’s estimated earned income\." http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. We will write a custom essay sample on Women Empowerment in India or any similar topic only for you Order Now cfm? abstract_id=1320071 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA Purusottam Nayak and Bidisha Mahanta Email: nehu_pnayak@yahoo. co. in Web Address: www. pnayak. webs. com/ Abstract The present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of women empowerment in India using various indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, political participation, acceptance of unequal gender role, exposure to media, access to education, experience of domestic violence etc based on data from different sources. The study reveals that women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men in spite of many efforts undertaken by government. Gender gap exists regarding access to education and employment. Household decision making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with their age, education and employment status. It is found that acceptance of unequal gender norms by women are still prevailing in the society. More than half of the women believe wife beating to be justified for one reason or the other. Fewer women have final say on how to spend their earnings. Control over cash earnings increases with age, education and with place of residence. Women’s exposure to media is also less relative to men. Rural women are more prone to domestic violence than that of urban women. A large gender gap exists in political participation too. The study concludes by an observation that access to education and employment are only the enabling factors to empowerment, achievement towards the goal, however, depends largely on the attitude of the people towards gender equality. Introduction In the last five decades, the concept of women empowerment has undergone a sea change from welfare oriented approach to equity approach. It has been understood as the process by which the powerless gain greater control over the circumstances of their lives. Empowerment particularly includes control over resources and ideology. According to Sen and Batliwala (2000) it leads to a growing intrinsic capabilitygreater self confidence, and an inner transformation of one’s consciousness that enables one to overcome external barrier. This view mainly emphasizes on two important aspects. Firstly, it is a power to achieve desired goals but not a power over others. Secondly, idea of empowerment is more applicable to those who are powerless- whether they are male or female, or group of individuals, class or caste. 1 Though concept of empowerment is not specific to women, yet it is unique in that and it cuts across all types of class and caste and also within families and households (Malhotra et al, 2002). Women empowerment is also defined as a change in the context of a women’s life, which enables her increased capacity for leading a fulfilling human life. It gets reflected both in external qualities (viz. health, mobility, education and awareness, status in the family, participation in decision making, and also at the level of material security) and internal qualities (viz. self awareness and self confidence) [Human Development in South Asia (2000) as quoted by Mathew (2003)]. UNDP (1990) for the first time introduced the concept of Human Development Index (HDI) that evolved initially as a broader measure of socio-economic progress of a nation but it became popular as a measure of average achievements in human development for both the sexes. Contrary to the general belief that development is gender neutral, statistics show that women lag behind men all over the world including India in almost all aspects of life. It is for this reason that the focus on human development has been to highlight the gender dimension and continuing inequalities confronting women since 1995 (UNDP 1995). The Report noted that without empowering women overall development of human beings is not possible. It further stressed that if development is not engendered, is endangered. To bring out the facts and figures relating to deprivation of women two indices, namely, Gender related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) were introduced. While GDI measures the achievements in the same dimensions and variables as the HDI, it also takes into account inequality in achievement between women and men (Anand and Sen, 1995). The greater the gender disparity in human development, the lower is country’s GDI compared to its HDI. The GDI is the HDI adjusted downwards for gender inequality. On the other hand, GEM indicates whether women are able to actively participate in economic and political life. Theoretically, the index can take values between zero and infinity, with a value of unity reflecting an absolute equality in the respective attainments of males and females. A value higher than unity would imply that females have better attainments than males. 2 Construction of GDI As we know HDI is a composite index of three basic components of human development such as knowledge (Education Index), longevity (Health Index), and standard of living (Income Index) where: I1 ? Education Index ? , I 2 ? Health Index ? are constructed by (1) I 3 ? Income Index ? by (2) : (1)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. I j ? X ij ? Min( X ) Max( X i ) ? Min( X i ) Log ( X ij ) ? Log ? Min? X i Log ? Max? X i ? Log ? Min? X i (2)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I 3 ? To construct GDI the following three steps are involved: Step-I: For each dimension of education and health, indices are constructed for males and females separately using the formula (1) and for income index by formula (2); Step-II: For each dimension, Equally Distributed Index (EDI) is constructed using the formula (3) as follows: ? Male population Share Female Population Share ? (3)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ EDI ? ? ? Dimension Index for Male ? Dimension Index for Female ? ? ? ? ? 1 Step-III: GDI is calculated by combining the three equally distributed indices in an un-weighted average using the formula (4): 1 (4)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. GDI j ? ( EDI1 ? EDI 2 ? EDI 3 ) 3 Construction of GEM Gender Empowerment Measure as we know focuses on women’s opportunity rather than their capabilities. It captures gender inequality in three key areas such as (a) Political participation and decision making power as measured by women’s and men’s percentage shares of parliamentary seats; (b) Economic participation and decision making power as measured by two indicators: (1) Women and men’s percentage shares of position as legislators, senior officials and managers; and (2) Women and men’s percentage shares of professional and technical positions; and (c) 3 Power over economic resources as measured by women’s and men’s estimated earned income. You read "Women Empowerment in India" in category "Papers" For each of these three dimensions, an Equally Distributed Equivalent Percentage (EDEP) is calculated as a population weighted average according to the general formula (5): ? Female Popn. Share Male Popn. Share ? (5)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ EDEP ? ? ? ? Male Index ? ? Female Index ?1 The EDEP for political participation and economic participation are each divided by 50 to construct the corresponding indexed EDEP whereas for economic resources simple EDEP is taken into consideration. All these three indices are averaged to construct the GEM. Planning Commission (G. O. I. , 2002) used a third index, namely, Gender Equality Index (GEI) in the National Human Development Report. The methodology for construction of GEI is the same as that of HDI. The point of departure involves expressing the index as a proportion of attainment level for females to that of males. Secondly, in estimating the index, the economic attainments for males and females have been captured by taking the respective worker-population ratio, unlike the use of per-capita monthly expenditure as in the HDI. This has been done, primarily, to avoid taking recourse to apportioning consumption or income, between males and females at the household or at an individual level, using criteria that could always be debated. Educational and health attainments have been captured using the same set of indicators as in the case of HDI. Besides these three indices, a number of other socioeconomic and political indicators are being widely used to measure women empowerment (G. O. I. , 2005-06). Review of Literature A number of studies have been undertaken on women empowerment at the global level and in India. Some studies dealt on methodological issues and some on empirical analysis. Moser (1993) focused on the interrelationship between gender and development, the formulation of gender policy and the implementation of gender planning and practices. The work of Shields (1995) provided an exploratory 4 framework to understand and develop the concept of empowerment both from a theoretical and practical perspective with a particular focus on women’s perception of the meaning of empowerment in their lives. Anand and Sen (1995) tried to develop a measure of gender inequality. Pillarisetti and Gillivray (1998) mainly emphasized on the methodology of construction, composition and determinant of GEM. Bardhan and Klasen (1999) criticized GEM as an inadequate index of measuring women empowerment at the aggregate level. Malhotra et al (2002) in their paper prepared for the World Bank highlighted methodological issues of measurement and analysis of women empowerment. Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2001) in their paper used a policy of political reservation for women adopted in India to study the impact of women’s leadership on policy decision. They found that women were more likely to participate in policy making process if the leader of the village community was happened to be women. Mahanta (2002) sought to explain the question of women’s access to or deprivation of basic human rights as the right to health, education and work, legal rights, rights of working women’s, besides issues like domestic violence, all the while keeping the peculiar socio-cultural situation of the North East in mind. A workshop organized in 2003 by the Institute of Social Sciences and South Asia Partnership, Canada addressed the issues like â€Å"Proxy Women† who after being elected to Panchayat bodies were merely puppets in the hands of their husbands, relatives and other male Panchayat members; and emphasized on training programme for their capacity building. Assam Human Development Report (Govt. of Assam, 2003) threw some light on inequality in the achievement between men and women of Assam in different spheres of life. The report viewed that poverty, violence and lack of political participation were the main issues of concern for South Asian Women, and Assam was no exception. The study of Kishor and Gupta (2004) revealed that average women in India were disempowered relative to men, and there had been little change in her empowerment over time. Parashar (2004) examined how mother’s empowerment in India is linked with child nutrition and immunization and suggested women to be empowered simultaneously along several different dimensions if they and their children were to benefit across the whole spectrum of their health and survival needs. Sridevi (2005) in her paper 5 provided a scientific method to measure empowerment. Study of Cote de Ivoire revealed that increased female share in household income leads to increased spending on human development enhancing items (as quoted by Ranis and Stewart, 2005). Blumberg (2005) viewed that economic empowerment of women was the key to gender equality and well being of a nation. This would not only enhance women’s capacity of decision making but also lead to reduction in corruption, armed conflict and violence against females in the long run. Karat (2005) in her works discussed the issues of violence against women, their survival, political participation and emancipation. Panda and Agarwal (2005) focused on the factor like women’s property status in the context of her risk of marital violence and opined that if development means expansion of human capabilities, then freedom from domestic violence should be an integral part of any exercise for evaluating developmental progress. Desai and Thakkar (2007) in their work discussed women’s political participation, legal rights and education as tools for their empowerment. Deepa Narayan (2007) made an attempt to measure women empowerment for different countries and regions by using self assessed points on a ten steps ladder of power and rights, where at the bottom of the ladder stood people who were completely powerless and without rights and on the top stood those who had a lot of power and rights. Figueras (2008) in her work studied the effect of female political representation in State legislature on public goods, policy and expenditure in the context of India and opined that politician’s gender and social position matters for policy. Barkat (www. goodgovernance. rg) while discussing the present status of women in Bangladesh opined that although women as mothers are held in high respect at the individual level, there was an unclear understanding of empowerment of women as a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation in decision making and control over her own life. Thus, from the above review of literature it is evident that quite a number of studies have already been undertaken on women empowerment and related issues. Entire gamut of literature has centered mainly around conceptual and measurement issues and the constraints to women empowerment. The present study in this respect is 6 an attempt to highlight the status and trend of women empowerment in India by taking into consideration various dimensions of it. The Case of India As far as India is concerned, the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Constitution and finds a place in the Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women but also empowers the States to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. Historically the status of Indian women has been influenced by their past. There is evidence to show that women in the Vedic age got most honored positions in the society (Seth, 2004). They had the right to education. They were free to remain unmarried and devote their whole life to the pursuit of knowledge and self realization. The married women performed all the works and sacrifices equally with their husbands. They were educated in various disciplines of knowledge such as astrology, geography, veterinary sciences and even in martial arts. There were instances of women taking part in wars and fights. They were highly respected within and outside home. Gradually due to several socio-political changes, especially during the middle age, the glorious status of women declined. The urge for equality on the part of Indian women started getting momentum during the colonial times. Noted social reformers and national leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Annie Besant, Sorojini Naidu and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar made selfless efforts to create awareness among women about their status and were quite successful in removing various social evils such as sati pratha, child marriage, and polygamy. They also encouraged widow remarriage and women education. The reformers were successful in creating a base for development of women and theirs strive for equality. In course of time Indian society got transformed from traditional to a modern one. Consequently women became more liberal and aware of various ways of life. Since they are quite capable of breaking the traditional barriers imposed by the society are now challenging the patriarchal system though in a limited scale. Since independence, the Government of India has been making various efforts to empower women. In various plan periods, the issues regarding women empowerment has been given priority. From fifth five year plan onwards there has 7 been a remarkable shift from welfare oriented approach of women empowerment to development approach. The National Commission for women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights’ of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India provided opportunity to women to take part in active politics. The year 2001 was declared as the year of women’s empowerment for enhancing their status. To achieve the goal, the government introduced different programmes, identified strategies, established different institutions and made various legal provisions. In spite of all these efforts and actions, women in India still lag behind the men. According to 2001 Census, female literacy rate in the country was 54. 2 per cent as against 75. 9 per cent in case of males (G. O. I. , 2001). The situation was much worse in the rural and remote areas of the country. In spite of women going for higher education they face exclusion from their male counterparts and are alienated in various positions in governance. The incidence like early marriage, female feticides and infanticide, dowry, bride burning, rape, molestation, kidnapping etc are very frequent. In recent times, the record of crime against women indicates an increasing trend. The position of women in the country in the social, economic and political fields is by no means equal to that of their male counterparts. Besides low female literacy, there are many other factors that have contributed to gender biasness. Girl child is still given less priority in certain parts of India. Past studies indicate that it is the people’s perception in general that the birth of a girl child is less desirable and evokes less happiness than that of a boy child (Seth, 2005). It is ingrained in the Indian psyche, cutting across religion, caste and region. Since her birth she is victimized in all spheres including education, employment, nutrition and social status. The World Economic Forum (2005), in its first gender gap study placed India at 53rd position among 58 nations, which shows a significant gap in male and female achievements. In the same study, the rank of India in terms of political empowerment was 24th at both primary and grassroots level. The National Population Policy 2000 specifically identified the low status of women in India as an important barrier to the achievement of goals towards maternal and child welfare (G. O. I. 2000). 8 Indicators F Life Expectancy Adult Literacy Gross Enrolment Seats Share in Parliament Share of Professional Technical Persons Gender related Development Index Gender Empowerment Measure 1990 M NA 57 NA NA NA F 1995 M F 2000 M F 2005 M 2007-08 F M NA 29 NA NA NA 60. 4 60. 3 63. 3 62. 5 65. 0 61. 8 65. 3 62. 3 35. 2 63. 7 43. 5 67. 1 47. 8 73. 4 47. 8 73. 4 45. 8 63. 8 46. 0 61. 0 56. 0 64. 0 6 0. 0 68. 0 7. 3 92. 7 8. 9 91. 1 9. 3 NA 90. 7 NA 9. 8 NA 90. 2 NA 20. 5 79. 5 20. 5 79. 5 NA NA 0. 401 (R-99) 0. 226 (R- 101) Source: UNDP 0. 545 (R-108) NA 0. 586 (R-98) NA 0. 600 (R-113) NA UNDP in its various Human Development Reports since 1990 till 2007-08 have placed India at a very low level of development regarding the position of women in terms of various indicators such as adult literacy, gross enrolment, share of seats in parliament and the professional and technical positions held by them (as shown in the box above). Though data are not provided for GEM indicator after 1995, GDI values reveals that women are consistently lagging behind. India has been placed in the 113th rank with a GDI value of 0. 600 as against a rank of 89 with GDI value of 0. 753 in case of Sri Lanka (UNDP, 2007-08). The rank of India has also gone down from 99 in 1995 to 113 in 2007-08 and has been fluctuating from year to year National Human Development Report (G. O. I, 2002) brought out information on indices on GDI and GEM. GDI showed marginal improvement during the eighties. GEI increased from 62 per cent in the early eighties to 67. 6 per cent in the early nineties. This implies that on an average the attainments of women on human development indicators were only two-thirds of those of men. At the State level, gender equality was the highest for Kerala followed by Manipur, Meghalaya, 9 Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland in the eighties. Goa and the Union Territories, except for Delhi, had gender equality higher than the national level. In the nineties, Himachal Pradesh had the highest equality, whereas Bihar was at the bottom and witnessed a decline in absolute terms over the earlier period. In general, women were better off in the Southern India than in the Indo-Gangetic plains comprising mainly the States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the south and Haryana and Jammu Kashmir in the north made considerable progress in improving the status of women vis-a-vis men on the human development indicators. States that did well in improving their female literacy levels are also the ones that substantially improved their gender equality. On the whole, gender disparities across the States declined over the period. NFHS-III (G. O. I. , 2005-06) collected information on large number of indicators of women empowerment such as relative earnings of wives over their husbands’, control over the use of these earnings, participation in household decision making, freedom of movement, gender role attitude, freedom from domestic violence, etc. Data on some of these indicators of women empowerment are examined and findings are presented in the following paragraphs. Decision Making Power Decision making power of women in households is one of the important indicators of women empowerment. It is found that only 37 per cent of currently married women participate in making decisions either alone or jointly with their husband on their health care, large household purchases, purchases for daily household needs and on visiting their family members and relatives (Table 1). Forty three per cent participate in some but not all decisions and 21 per cent do not participate in any of the decision. As high as in 32. 4 per cent cases the decision regarding the purchase of daily household needs is taken mainly by the respondents whereas the decisions like visit to her relatives are in most cases taken alone by husbands or jointly. Decision like major household purchases is taken jointly in most of the cases. A very less number of women alone take this type of decision. About 27 per cent of total respondents take their own health care decision alone. 10 Women’s participation rate on household decision making not only varies from rural to urban areas but also gets affected by their background characteristics like age, educational status, husband’s education, employment status etc (Table 2). Urban married women are observed to be more empowered than that of the rural women. Empowerment of women increases with the increase in their age. Women who are more educated and employed are relatively more empowered. About 46 per cent of total women in the age group 40-49 years participate in all the four decisions compared to 15 per cent belonging to the age group 15-19 years. With higher spousal educational status women’s participation in decision making increases. About 21 per cent of women with no spousal education do not take part in any decision making at all as compared to 17 per cent of women with spousal education of 12 years or more. Employment also provides an advantage to women regarding their ability to decision making power. Employed women are more likely to participate in all decision makings. In urban setting and in nuclear type of family, women have more autonomy in household decision making. Freedom of Movement Free mobility of women is another indicator of women empowerment. The data reveals that about half of women are allowed to go to the market or to the health facility alone (Table 3). Only 38 per cent are allowed to travel alone to places outside the village or community. While not all women are allowed to go to these places alone, only a minority are not allowed to go at all. Compared to urban women, rural women have less mobility. Women’s mobility is also affected by their background characteristics like age, education, marital status, type of family etc. Table 4 reveals that freedom of movement increases with age though it does not vary linearly with education. Seventy per cent of the women of the highest education group are allowed to go alone to the market as against 49 per cent of women with no education. Employment is associated with greater freedom of movement. Only one in five never married women go to all of the three places compared with about one in three currently married women and two in three formerly married women. Nuclear residence and urban setting are also associated with greater freedom of movement. 11 Women of urban areas are freer than that of the rural women. Similarly as high as 37 per cent of women of nucleus families are freer regarding their movement as compared to 29. per cent in case of the non-nucleus families. Acceptance of Unequal Gender Role Women’s protest against unequal gender role in terms of their attitude towards preferences for son, wife beating etc. is another indicator of women empowerment. The data presented in Table 5 reveal that 54 per cent of women in India believe wife beating to be justifi ed for any of the specific reasons. Similarly 35 per cent women believe it to be justified if they neglect their house or children. However, agreement with wife beating does not vary much by women’s age and household structure, but decline sharply with education. It is to be noted that even among the most educated women, at least one in three agrees with one or more justifications for wife beating. In rural areas women are generally more agreeable to wife beating than in urban areas. Agreement is lower among never married women as compared to ever married women. Access to Education Women’s access to education which is one of the important sources of empowerment can be measured by gender gap in literacy rates and enrolment in different stages of school education. The literacy gap between men and women was as high as 21. 7 per cent in 2001 (Table 6). Though the gap was fluctuating from 18. 3 per cent in 1951 to 23. 9 per cent in 1971, it has been showing a marginal declining trend since 1981. Table 7 shows enrolment by stages from 1951 to 2001-02. It is clear that participation of girls at all stages of education has been steadily increasing over time. However, the overall performance of participation has not been satisfactory as it had been below 50 per cent at all stages of education Access to Employment Table 8 shows the employment and cash earnings of currently married men and women. Data reveal that only 43 per cent of women in the age group of 15-49 2 years are employed as against 99 per cent of men in the same age group. It also reveals that gender inequality exist in the arena of employment. As compared to 51% women employed for cash only, the corresponding figure for that of the males is as high as 72. 5%. Similarly a very few males are employed for kind only (3. 4%) as compared to females engaged for kind (11. 6%). Twen ty four per cent women are not paid at all for their work whereas this proportion is as low as 5% for men. For women earning cash is not likely to be a sufficient condition for financial empowerment. Employment and cash earnings are more likely to empower women if women make decisions about their own earnings alone or jointly with their husband rather than their husband alone and if these earnings are perceived by both wives and husbands to be significant relative to those of the husbands. Table 9 in this connection shows the extent of women’s control over earnings on the basis of background characteristics like age, education, place of residence, household structure etc. It is seen that women’s control over cash earnings increases with age. In the age group 15 19 years only 17. per cent women alone take decision about the use of their cash earnings as compared to 28. 3 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Similarly husband mainly takes such decision in case of 20 per cent women in the age group 15-19 years in comparison to 12. 7 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Influence of other person in making such decision decreases with the increase in age of responden ts. It varies from 18. 6 per cent in the age group 15-19 years to as low as 0. 4 per cent in 40-49 age groups. Place of residence also affects women’s control over their cash earnings. Generally women in urban areas have more control over their earnings than that in rural areas. About thirty three per cent take decision alone about the use of their own earnings in urban areas as compared to 21 per cent in rural areas Education is one of the important factors that affects greatly in women’s control over earnings. About 23 per cent women with no education have more control over their earnings whereas it is 28. 6 per cent in case of women completed 12 or more years of education. Other persons’ influence on the decision about the use of earnings reduces significantly with education. It is as high as 8. 3 percent in the case of 3 respondent with no education as compared to 4. 9 per cent respondent with secondary level education. Household structure has an important role to play in affecting women’s financial empowerment. In non nuclear family structure, influence of others is more in making such decision. In case of 6. 4 per cent women in non nuclea r family, the decision about the use of their own cash earnings are taken by others as compared to 0. 6 per cent women in nuclear family. Exposure to Media Table 10 which presents data on women’s exposure to media reveals that percentage of women not exposed to media is more than double that of men. About 71 per cent of women are exposed to media as compared to 88 per cent in case of men. Twenty nine per cent of women do not have access to media regularly. Since it is an important source of empowerment, greater proportion of women without having access to media reflects the relatively disadvantageous position of women in relation to men with regards to empowerment. Domestic Violence Table 11 shows percentage of women who have experienced different forms and combinations of physical and sexual violence according to selected background characteristics. It is observed that extent of violence is not lessened by age. In the age group of 15-19 years, 22. 5 per cent women experienced physical or sexual violence in India as compared to 39 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Both types of violence are higher for ever married women than for never married women. Almost 40 per cent ever married women experienced physical or sexual violence as against 16. 9 per cent never married women. Extent of domestic violence is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas. About thirty eight per cent women in rural area faced either physical or sexual violence as compared to about 29 percent women in urban areas. Political Participation Women’s political participation is one of the important issues in the context of empowerment. In conventional analysis it means activities related to electoral politics 14 like voting, campaigning, holding party office and contesting election. But in broader sense it encompasses all voluntary actions intended to influence the making of public policies, the administration of public affairs and the choice of political leaders at all levels of government. Political interventions by women of India today range from movement for peace and good governance to protest against dowry, rape, domestic violence, food adulteration, price rise etc. [Desai et at, 2007]. However in this section we discuss participation of women in formal politics by analyzing the indicators like women voters and women elected members in the first twelve general elections in India. The following Table 2. 12 shows the voting percentage of men and women in the first twelve elections of independent India. In the very first election the percentage of women voter was significantly low (37%). Many women were left out as their names were not properly registered. The gender gap in voting though has been narrowing gradually significant gap between male and female voters still exists. Elected Women Members Many factors are responsible and decisive in the election of women candidates such as literacy, financial position, liberal family background, support of other members of the family, strong personality etc. Since most of the women lack access to these, few women get tickets and even fewer get elected from this handful of women candidates. Table 2. 13 shows the elected women Members in Lok Sabha. From the table it is clear that percentage of women members to the total members has been consistently less than 10 per cent in each Lok Sabha starting from 1st to 12th one. This shows poor participation of women in political field. Thus it can be concluded with information provided by NFHS – III and others that women of India are disempowered relative to men in respect of decision making power, freedom of movement, education, employment, exposure to media, political participation etc and face domestic violence to a considerable degree and occupy the subordinate status both at home and in the society even in the 21 st century. 5 Constraints to Women Empowerment There are several constraints that check the process of women empowerment in India. Social norms and family structures in developing countries like India, manifests and perpetuate the subordinate status of women. One of such norms is the continuing preference for a son over the birth of a girl child, which is present in almost all societies and communities. The hold of this preference has strengthened rather than weakened and its most glaring evidence is in the falling sex ratio (Seth, 2004). The society is more biased in favor of male child in respect of education, nutrition and other opportunities. The root cause of this type of attitude lies in the belief that male child inherits the clan in India with an exception in Meghalaya. Women often internalize the traditional concept of their role as natural, thus inflicting an injustice upon them. Poverty is the reality of life for the vast majority of women in India. It is another factor that poses challenge in realizing women’s empowerment. In a poor family, girls are the main victims; they are malnourished and are denied the opportunity of better education and other facilities. But if they are financially independent or they have greater control over the resources then they exhibit greater autonomy both in the household and in public sphere and are no longer victims of poverty. Lack of awareness about legal and constitutional provisions and failure in realizing it, is another factor that hinders the process of empowerment. Most of the women are not aware of their legal rights. Even women who are aware lack the courage to take the legal step. The legislation which affects women most is their situation in marriage and inheritance. As far as the rights of inheritance are concerned, women generally do not try to inherit land left by their parents if brothers are alive (Seth, 2005). The traditional belief that land should not go outside the patriarchal family operates. The provision of Act like (1) Child Marriage Resistance Act, 1930, (2) The Suppression of Immoral Trafficking of Women Act, 1987 and (3) The Indecent Exposure of Women Act, have not led to the suppression of practice indicated in them. Of these three, the first one is by and large successful in restraining child marriage. The legislation almost failed in case of immoral trafficking and indecent exposure to 16 women. There are numerous incidence of indecent exposure of women in all forms of media with hardly any prosecution. Although the legal rights are in place to create an enabling atmosphere these have not been very successful in realizing women’s empowerment. Summery and Findings Various indicators of women empowerment are analyzed using the data from various sources while discussing women’s present status in India. The main emphasis is given to the indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, women’s acceptance of unequal gender roles, exposure to media, access to education, women’s experience of domestic violence etc. Women’s political participation is also analyzed by using indicators like percentage of women voters and women MPs. After analyzing the data it is found that household decision making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with age, education and employment. Freedom of movement of widow or divorcee is more than ever married or never married women. Similarly it is found that in the society the acceptance of unequal gender norms by women themselves are still prevailing. More than half of the women believe that wife beating is justified for any of the specific reasons like not cooking properly, not taking proper care of household and children, refuge to have sex with husband, showing disrespect to in-laws etc. However, this attitude is not varying much with age or household structure but decline sharply with education and places of residence. While studying women’s access to education and employment it is found that gender gap exist in both the situations. A large gender gap in literacy exists and participation of girls at all stages of education is below 50%. Similarly less than 50% of women are employed and a significant portion of them are not paid for their work. However, having access to employment does not mean that women have full control over their earnings. Fewer women have final say on how to spend their earnings. Control over cash earnings increases with age and with place of residence in urban areas and education, but not vary significantly with household structure. Women’s exposure to media is also less relative to men. Women’s experience of domestic violence shows that violence is not lessened by age. Rural women are more prone to domestic violence than urban women. Regarding women’s 17 political participation it is found that large gender gap exists in voting and less than ten per cent of total member in Lok Sabha are Women. This is because most of the women lack desired level of financial autonomy, literacy, strong personality, own decision making capacity, family support etc. Thus we see that these mutually interdependent factors reinforce each other and put women in a disadvantageous position relative to men. Various constraints in achieving the desired level of empowerment are also identified. Important among them are poverty, social norms and family structure, lack of awareness about legal and constitutional provision etc. Generally speaking the women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men. In spite of so many efforts undertaken by government and NGOs the picture at present is not satisfactory. Mere access to education and employment can only help in the process of empowerment. These are the tools or the enabling factors through which the process gets speeded up. However, achievement towards this goal depends more on attitude. Unless the attitude towards the acceptance of unequal gender role by the society and even the women themselves changed women can not grab the opportunity provided to them through constitutional provision, law etc. Till then we can not say that women are empowered in India in its real sense. 18 References ? Anand, S. and A. Sen (1995): â€Å"Gender inequality in Human Development: Theories and Measurement†, in Fukuda Parr and A. K. Shiv Kumar (eds. ) Readings in Human Development, OUP, New Delhi. Bardhan, K. and K. Stephan (1999): â€Å"UNDP’s Gender Related Indices: A Critical Review†, World Development, Vol. 27, No. 6. Barkat, A. (2008): â€Å"Women empowerment: A key to Human Development. , http://www. goodgovernance. org visited on 20th April 2008 at 4. 30p. m. Blumberg, R. L. (2005): â€Å"Women’s Economic Empowerment as the Magic Potion of Development? † Paper presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia Census of India (2001): Govt. of India, New Delhi. Chattopadhyay, R. nd E. Duflo (2001): â€Å"Women’s Leadership and Policy Decisions: Evidence from a Nationwide Randomized Experiment in India†, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Department of Economics ,MIT, and NBER Desai, N. and U. Thakkar (2007): â€Å"Women and Political Participation in India†; Women in Indian Society, New Delhi, National Boo k Trust. Figueras, I. C. (2008): â€Å"Women in Politics: Evidence from the Indian States†, Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. G. O. I. (2000): National Population Policy, Ministry of Health Family Welfare, New Delhi. G. O. I. 2001): Census Report, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, New Delhi. G. O. I. (2002): National Human Development Report, 2001, Planning Commission. G. O. I. (2005-06): National Family Health Survey – III, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. Govt. of Assam (2003): â€Å"Women: Striving in an Unequal World† in Assam Human Development Report, 2003. http://planassam. org/report/hdr2003/ HDR. html. Visited on 20th February, 2008, at 5pm. IFUW (2001): â€Å"Empowering Women†, http://www. ifuw. org/saap2001/ empowerment. htm. Visited on 10th February 2008 at 10 a. m. Karat, B. 2005): Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women’s Struggles, Three Essays Collective, Ha ryana Kishor, S. and K. Gupta (2004): â€Å"Women’s Empowerment in India and Its States: Evidence from the NFHS†, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXIX, No. 7. Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre (2000): Human Development in South Asia 2000: The Gender Question, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Mahanta, A. (ed. ) (2002): Human Rights and Women of North East India, Centre for Women’s Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 19 ? Malhotra, A. , S. R. Schuler and C. Boender (2002): â€Å"Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development† Unpublished Paper for the World Bank. www. unicef. org/pubsgen/humanrights-children/index. html. Visited on 11th January, 2008, at 5 p. m. Mathew, G. (2003): Keynote address in the workshop on â€Å"A Decade of Women’s Empowerment through Local Governance† organized jointly by Institute of Social Sciences and South Asia Partnership, Canada sponsored by International Development Research Centre. Moser, Caroline O. (1993): Gender Planning and Development: Theory Practice and Training, available from Women, Ink. ? ? Narayan, D. (2007): Empowerment: A Missing Dimension of Human Development, Oxford Poverty Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Conference, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. Panda, P. and B. Agarwal (2005): â€Å"Marital Violence, Human Development and Women’s Property Status in India†, World Development, Vol. 33, No. 5. Parasar, S. (2004): â €Å"A Multidimensional Approach to Women’s Empowerment and its Links to the Nutritional Status and Immunization of Children in India†. http://www. allacademic. com/meta/p109193index. html. Visited on 15th February, 2008 at 1 p. m. Pillarisetti and Gillivray (1998): â€Å"Human Development and Gender Empowerment: Methodological and Measurement Issue† Development Policy Review, Vol. 16. Ranis, G. and F. Stewart (2005): â€Å"Dynamic Links between the Economy and Human Development†, DESA Working Paper No. 8. http://www. un. org/esa/desa/papers. Visited on 25th December, 2007 at 5 p. m. Sen and Batliwala (2000): â€Å"Empowering Women for Reproductive Rights†, in H. B. Presser and G. Sen (eds. ) Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Processes: Moving beyond Cairo, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 15-36. Seth, Meera (2004): â€Å"Women and Development- The Indian Experience†, Sage Publication, New Delhi. Shields, Lourene E. (1995): â€Å"Women’s Experiences of the Meaning of Empowerment† Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 5, No. 1. Sridevi, T. O. (2005): â€Å"Empowerment of Women-A Systematic Analysis† IDF Discussion Paper. U. N. D. P. (1990, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2007-08): Human Development Report. World Economic Forum (2005): Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap. http:/in. rediff. com/money/2005/may/17wef. htm. Visited on 20th January, 2008 at 9. 30 a. m. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 Table – 1 Married Women’s Participation in Decision making, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Decision on/Decision by Mainly Wife Mainly Husband Urban Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family Relatives Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family Relatives Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family Relatives 29. 7 10. 4 39. 9 12. 2 26. 0 7. 6 29. 1 10. 0 27. 1 8. 5 32. 4 10. 7 39. 1 51. 5 28. 9 57. 3 Rural 33. 4 41. 2 27. 1 46. Total 35. 1 44. 4 27. 7 49. 8 30. 1 32. 2 24. 7 26. 8 6. 3 12. 0 12. 3 10. 4 1. 3 2. 8 2. 8 2. 2 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 31. 7 34. 6 26. 9 28. 9 7. 6 13. 5 13. 9 12. 1 1. 3 2. 9 2. 9 2. 9 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 26. 5 26. 8 19. 8 22. 0 3. 5 8. 7 8. 8 6. 6 1. 1 2. 5 2. 5 1. 8 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 Husband and Wife jointly Some one Else Other Missing Source: NFHS-3 21 Table – 2 Factors Affecti ng Women’s Participation in Decision making, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Background characteristics Own health care Making major househol d Purchase s 25. 1 39. 2 50. 7 60. 7 63. 6 61. 9 48. 9 51. 5 51. 4 50. 6 52. 56. 3 62. 6 53. 0 52. 3 52. 2 50. 1 51. 3 57. 3 55. 3 61. 0 45. 1 51. 1 62. 2 43. 0 Making purchase s for daily househol d needs 29. 1 44. 6 58. 7 6. 8 71. 2 68. 8 56. 2 59. 5 60. 1 58. 4 58. 3 61. 6 66. 3 61. 5 60. 5 60. 3 56. 8 58. 0 60. 2 63. 7 69. 5 53. 2 57. 4 70. 4 49. 2 Visits to her family or relative per cent who participat e in all four decisions 15. 1 25. 2 34. 3 42. 8 46. 3 45. 0 33. 0 34. 9 35. 2 35. 7 36. 2 40. 5 46. 1 36. 6 35. 7 36. 5 33. 7 36. 1 40. 6 38. 8 44. 3 29. 0 35. 1 44. 3 28. 7 per cent who particip ate in none 46. 1 31. 1 20. 4 14. 1 12. 8 13. 9 23. 4 22. 7 20. 21. 7 19. 7 16. 8 12. 1 21. 3 20. 3 20. 8 21. 8 21. 3 17. 3 19. 0 15. 0 26. 1 21. 6 13. 6 27. 7 Numbe r of women Age 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 Urban 40. 4 52. 5 62. 2 67. 7 6 9. 3 68. 8 59. 3 59. 4 61. 2 61. 0 63. 6 67. 2 73. 1 61. 6 61. 1 62. 0 59. 5 62. 5 66. 2 63. 0 67. 7 54. 6 61. 7 67. 7 56. 4 33. 5 47. 5 58. 9 67. 1 71. 6 69. 5 56. 5 57. 5 60. 4 59. 8 60. 7 65. 9 71. 6 59. 1 60. 9 59. 7 58. 3 60. 2 65. 2 69. 2 68. 0 53. 7 58. 7 68. 7 68. 7 6726 16782 18540 30952 20089 28604 64485 43931 7776 14018 10735 7704 8921 24918 8366 14793 14615 13144 17100 39835 25601 14234 53225 47851 45238 Residence Rural No education Less than 5 yrs 5-7 yrs 8-9 yrs 10-11yrs 12 or more yrs Education Husband ’s education No education Less than 5 yrs 5-7 yrs 8-9 yrs 10-11yrs 12 or more yrs Employed Employed for cash Employed not for cash Not employed Employment Household structure Nuclear Non nuclear Source: NFHS – 3 22 Table – 3 Freedom of Movement of Married Women in India, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Places Alone Urban 66. 2 60. 3 45. 5 Rural 44. 3 41. 5 34. 0 Total 51. 4 47. 7 37. 7 With somebody else 26. 8 36. 2 48. 0 40. 4 53. 0 56. 6 35. 9 47. 5 53. Not at all Total To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community 7. 0 3. 5 6. 6 15. 3 5. 5 9. 4 12. 6 4. 8 8. 5 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 Source- NFHS- 3 Table – 4 Factors Affecting Freedom of Movement of Ma rried Women, 2005-06 Percentage allowed to go alone to Market Background Characteristics 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 Urban Rural No education How to cite Women Empowerment in India, Papers

Rent Musical Analysis Essay Example For Students

Rent Musical Analysis Essay Rent is a rock musical that focuses on the lives of several different young artists and the relationships that bond between them. The title Rent is very fitting for this musical because the majority of the characters are impoverished and are trying to survive in the world, while making a life for themselves. The story mostly revolves around the characters Mark and Roger, as they battle loss, love and life. While Roger tries to run away from all that he is faced with, Mark tries to capture it all through film. Besides Mark and Roger, the cast includes Maureen Johnson, a bisexual woman focus on protesting, Joanne, Maurers lesbian lover, Mimi, Rorers girlfriend who is HIVE positive and an SM dancer, Tom Collins, a gay, HIVE positive computer genius, Angel, Toms HIVE positive drag queen lover, and Benjamin, a former member of the group who gained wealth through marriage and is the groups landlord who stands against everything the group is for. This musical portrays the reality of life through love in which couples continue to get together and breakup, drug abuse in which Mimi almost dies, and tragedy in which the severity of the AIDS/HIVE is shown through Angels death. Big queer themes that are exemplified in this musical are cross gender roles, homosexual relationships, Bi relationships, identity crisis, and the biggest of all AIDS/HIVE. RENT is a very interesting musical because in a society when AIDS/HIVE were strongly scrutinized and gay individuals were being hated on, it is these negative factors that brings the group together. Even though at the time, AIDS seemed to be a eases only attributed to homosexual individuals, RENT breaks against those boundaries. In the musical, homosexual individuals have AIDS, but so do heterosexual characters, such a Mimi and Roger, who attained AIDS through needles. Regardless of the AIDS epidemic and the negative implications it had on homosexual relationships, the musical is able to take the viewers from the reality of the situation by downplaying the severity of the disease. Even though many of the characters are facing AIDS, they are still able to form close relationships and love each other sugarless. Despite everything, the characters are still aware of the reality, especially when Angel dies and Mimi overdoses. It shows that life affects everyone, regardless of who they are and what they are going through. This is depicted in the song, Mimi Goat Die Sometime. This musical plays with emotions in a way that is not expected. With my experience watching the musical, I would fall in love with the characters, especially Angel and Tom, even though in society, we are told to stay away from those type of characters. We have always put homeless individuals, drug addicts and queer individuals lower on the totem pole because they did not fit the norm. In RENT, the characters are exactly those we are taught to look down upon, the outcasts, but you cannot help but love them. It made me, understand that everyone has their own baggage, but that does not make them any less of a person. Angel is a crisscrossed, but he brought everyone together. Benjamin is wealthy, but he still maintains friendships with everyone even though there are not in the same socio economic class as him. Mimi is a Junkie, but she still wants to love and be loved. Mark is an artist and he is always smiling all the time, but he still feels detached and wants to Rent Musical Analysis By Natchez queer or normal they may seem. The thing is that it is k because the audience loves them no matter what. Similar to Oz from the Wizard of Oz, even though the characters are very queer, we love them. So why is it that society tries so hard to look down on queer individuals and situations, when people subconsciously want queerness in their lives? One day, queer may become the new normal.

Business Sustainability and Ethics H&M

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Sustainability and Ethicsfor HM. Answer: Introduction The Ethical Business Strategies Implemented by HM The Swedish multinational clothing retailer is an adorable fashion brand and is aimed at mainstream consumers. The Organization undertakes various approaches to make their business operation transparent to its stakeholders (Siegle 2012). Any visitors to the website of this brand would be able to access information of the suppliers. However, it has been evident that HM has been moving away from the standard compliance auditing that encourages transparency and enables the brand to capture performance (About.hm.com 2017). The organization has also focused to assess sustainability performance of its suppliers. HM have developed large scale adoption of various tools that would create sustainability benchmark for the organization and its stakeholders. This new method was called the Higg index. The Higg index comprises of easy to access online tools or modules designed for different members from every segment of the society. HM is a member of the sustainable apparel coalition and has been r evising and improving its Higgs index. The Higgs index comprises certain questions that check the validity of sustainability. HM update this information comprehensively. It was assumed that with the help of this index, companies do not have to undergo multiple audits. This way they create a transparent analysis of their stakeholders among consumers. These ethical approaches have been effective in achieving their business strategies and reaching their corporate values. HM is proactive towards any kind of corruption challenges and conduct regular risk assessments aiming at zero tolerance to corruption. These practices reflect their policy towards their business and a clear commitment to the legal compliance and the local law and regulations. In 2006, HM has been named as the one of the worlds most ethical companies (About.hm.com 2017). There are endless CSR strategies that are undertaken by HM like fre lunch, education in the local community, lifetime contracts with employees, use of organic cotton for manufacturing and several other things. Their CSR report is transparent to all that helps the suppliers and consumers to directly have a look to their business activities. This way the Company has been successful in creating a transparent and a positive image in the business arena. These approaches can be easily regarded as the back bone of the business structure that enables the managers and leaders to make best choices to shape their future industry standard. HM can undertake a number of CSR strategies: Charity: The Company can donate money in some charity. Organizing social awareness events: Social awareness events against social discrimination or saving environment can be organized. Sponsorship: The Company can make sponsorship in local events like marathon or or any other sports event. Development of infrastructure: The Company can also contribute in improving the infrastructe of the regions where it operates. References: About.hm.com 2017 BUSINESS ETHICS Available at: https://about.hm.com/en/sustainability/sustainable-fashion/business-ethics.html [Accessed on: 11-4-2017] Apparelcoalition.org 2017 Sustainable Apparel Coalition Available at: https://apparelcoalition.org/the-higg-index/ [Accessed on: 21-4-2017] Siegle, L., 2012 Is HM the new home of ethical fashion? Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/apr/07/hennes-mauritz-h-and-m [Accessed on: 11-4-2017]