Empowerment of Women

Date: 16/01/2014

To:
World Pulse
1006 SE Grand Ave, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97214,USA.

From: Mr Sanjay R.Dixit,
201,Manish Towers;
5/6,Manish Nagar,
JP Road, Andheri West,
Mumbai – 400053,
India

SUB: Women Weave the Web.

Dear World Pulse and Team Members,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this campaign.

This campaign is about empowering woman and girls via the internet.
For this the following classes of women were identified –
a) Girls who are less than 18 years age going to school
MINORS
b) Girls/Women who are 18 years age and more
MAJORS

Implicit in my writing is the worldwide view.

Minors
These are just girls, small girls. They may or may not be going to school. All of them should be going to school. My understanding is that empowerment of girls/woman ought to be nurtured from minors status onwards. So, from the formative age of girls the “Empowerment of women” aspect is ensured. This pattern should be implemented for girls living in villages, towns and cities alike. Schools/colleges in all these places MUST have computers and access to internet. Also the parents of these girls should be encouraged to have computers/laptops in their homes so that girls, the new modern girls, can learn their lessons from the internet and learn lots and lots of things about the world they live in. Their curiosity about the world they live in needs to be fostered.

Majors
18 years and above; it’s now time for the girls/women to decide how they are going to live and/or earn a living in the society in which they are going to live. So, again the same pattern that is applicable for minors continues with them, but with a difference. The difference is the realization that “Empowerment is to be earned, empowerment is conditional”.

I will give you small examples –

1. The students empowered to represent their school for inter-school soccer matches. The school selects the boys who represent the best talent available in the school to participate in the soccer matches.


2. The student empowered to represent their school for inter-school chess championship. The school selects the student (boy or girl) who is the best talent available in the school to participate in the chess competitions.


3. The production supervisor of a manufacturing organization who was promoted to become a production manager – he represented the best acquired technical and managerial skills for the job of production manager. The rest of the supervisors remain less empowered.

Girls and women who are major could be –
a) Doing a job or business
b) Continuing with their education
c) Not doing any job or business or continuing with their education

Those girls and women doing job, business or continuing with their education must have access to the internet for the activities in which they are engaged in plus for acquiring general knowledge and experience. This is regardless of the type of job, business or educational activity that a girl or woman is engaged in.

For those girls and women not doing any job, business or continuing with their education, internet access for them also is a must. There are home based jobs, on-line jobs, part-time jobs or free lance jobs that they could be encouraged to take up. Here the internet is useful for acquiring self-empowerment as against institution based empowerment. For many of these girls/women, internet access can be and is a way for them to acquire more and more knowledge about the world they live in. If there are still girls/women who simply say no to work, then there is no way that empowerment for them will come on a platter.

Most of the share/stock broking companies offer the facility for on-line trading. Just by sitting at home, women can acquire a wealth of knowledge about several organizations and about their performance. They can buy and sell company stocks and make a profit and increase their bank balance. Additionally there is a wealth of knowledge available on the internet on topics that are of interest to girls/women for them to keep talking about for hours among themselves.

Women can teach their children their school subjects/lessons fro the internet.They can help their husbands to get technical information for their jobs/business.

There are many girls who get First Rank in the class of their school or college. So, there is no reason to feel that girls are less empowered at the educational level. However, when it comes to jobs girls/women may feel inadequately empowered. This is because men are expected to run their homes, raise their children and fulfill family needs. So, women feel less empowered. But if a woman were to say “Now I don’t have a husband, I raise my children and fulfill my family needs”, she will automatically get the extent of empowerment that women seek. But if a woman has a husband, then she will continue to be the supervisor who did not get a promotion unless she tells her husband (or parents) to sit at home and takes up the responsibility of running her home.

Family members, the parents and/or husband [or even a boy friend] should realize that girls/women need to be facilitated, helped and supported to acquire their own empowerment in society in order for them to realize the full potential of their talents and abilities.