Gender Sensitive Indian Society is Prerequisite for Women and Child Empowerment

Aisha is the Hockey player from the Jharkhand. She played Hockey for 4 years for State Jharkhand. In National competition, the National coach saw her performance and called her Delhi to Join National Camp which was set up by the Government as part of the Girl empowerment scheme. She is going to get world-class facilities and coaching tips for free. She was excited. It was dream came true for her. But, Today she left the Camp just a second month of the 6 month long schedule. She find the Schedule rigid. There is not a single free day in a month. While she can not cope up with Training schedule during her Menstruation days. She Seek Some rest during her periods but it was rejected by coach. So, She decided to left camp.

This Incident is just manifestation of the Gender insensitivity prevailing in our society. Case of the Aisha is not a isolated case but the girls and women of Our society facing such issue everyday in their life. This shows how gender sensitivity is prerequisite for the Women Empowerment. If the Management of the training camp were Gender sensitive they can understand the problem of the girl like to face during her periods day and make provide some flexibility so she can take maximum advantage of the Camp.

Empowerment is simply having more choices and freedom A girl is called empowered if she has choice to pick her school - Choose her Friend etc. A women called empower that have choices to earn live hood- Choice to select life partner- Freedom to spend her income where she want etc. In recent days, Government take up many measures like Beti bachao, Beti padhao, Stand up India , MUDRA Yojana etc for the Female empowerment.

But we frequently read news reports about the poor outcome of these efforts. The key reason is the Gender insensitivity. we Are patriarchal society where the Male Dominate society and so the male norms prevailed in society. Most of the Policy makers are also male as the Women representation in Loksbha, Highest policy maker is just 15%. In such cases, If male remains Gender insensitive, the Policy outcome likely to failure. We as society has to understand the women concerns, Need, Priorities etc.

Take a Example of the our Urban planning. If we study the Urban planning closely it becomes clear that it is Gender blind.In Delhi Metro, DMRC provide 1 coach out of 6 or 8 exclusively for women. Such step was designed to make women safe and conformable in metro ride. But the outcome is that- Even though reservation in one coach many women have travel in general coach as women population is 50% and not just 15% as 1 out of 8 coach is reserved. So the women travel in general coach feels more unconformable. Rather if there is no exclusive coach form women, Women travel equally in all coach and women feel more comfortable.

Financial freedom is the foremost important tool for the women employment. Government also recognized that and take slew of measures to empower women. One of them was the amendment in labor law which prohibit the women to work in night shift. This is really right step for the Women empowerment as it give equality to male and also increase the option to work. But the women participation remains stagnant. The reason is policy maker failed to understand the concern of women to work in night shift. She need affordable and Door to door transport facility in night hours which is not available in a single Indian city. So if the policymaker were Gender sensitive they should take cognizance of such concerns and announce a comprehensive package of scheme which provide safe and secure work environment, Transit facility etc. to the women.

In case of the girl child empowerment the education is seen as the magical stick and it;s also right. In the Knowledge economy, Education is prerequisite. The government also take many measures to improve literacy rate of the girl child. But still the Girl Drop out ration in higher education remains key issue in Girl education. Most of governments efforts remain focus on the scholarships, Free transport facilities etc. These are important but Gender concerns are more important here. When girl child enter in higher education,she also enter in her menstruation period. She need separate toilets and other facility. But most of government school lacking it. So, the girl opt to drop out rather than continue study.

Gender Norms also play role in the dis empowerment of the gild child. Girls still consider as the "Paraya dhan" in many community. So, Parents of the family spend more on the boy child and not girl child. This is one of main reason for the Mal nutrition in girl and higher enrollment gap of boy-girl in Higher education.

But as the Girl literacy improved, Outreach of the Media increased, Penetration of the internet and technology - these development improved the Gender sensitivity. Educated parents are giving equal freedom to their daughter as son to choose friends- School of her wish. Society as whole become more assertive for the women safety in the urban space and this shows the increase of the gender sensitivity.

Government also begin to address the gender concerns. As part of this, Bihar government distributing cycle to girl child which provide her more accessible and secure mode of transport for school. Maharashtra government going to give sanitary napkins to the girl students in schools.Union Agriculture ministry decided to spend 30% of the each scheme for the women farmer.These are the right step in Right direction for the empowerment.

Vivekananda rightly said that - As Bird cannot fly with one wing, Nation can not progress without the progress of women. For the empowerment of the women, What is need to do is we have to keep in mind that women consist 50% of our society. So there should be 50% say of women in policy-making - 50% share in public resources etc. We has to understand that Seat of train to staircase of the building should be such that make both male and female conformable. We have to inculcate the Gender issue in our social -political and Economic life. Yes, This is not easy but it's not impossible. As one philosopher said that every long journey start with one small step , let we as individual start to part of this process.