CONCEPT OF EMPOWERMENT
Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities.
This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority.
It is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights
Empowerment as action refers both to the process of self-empowerment and to professional support of people, which enables them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of influence, and to recognize and use their resources.
As a term, empowerment originates from American community psychology and is associated with the social scientist Julian Rappaport (1981).
However, the roots of empowerment theory extend further into history and are linked to Marxist sociological theory.
These sociological ideas have continued to be developed and refined through Neo-Marxist Theory (also known as Critical Theory).
In social work, empowerment forms a practical approach of resource-oriented intervention. In the field of citizenship education and democratic education, empowerment is seen as a tool to increase the responsibility of the citizen.
Empowerment is a key concept in the discourse on promoting civic engagement.
Empowerment as a concept, which is characterized by a move away from a deficit-oriented towards a more strength-oriented perception, can increasingly be found in management concepts, as well as in the areas of continuing education and self-help problems in achieving empowerment
Mere legislative enactments do not ensure effectiveness and viability of the empowerment process.
What is more important is their operationalization. The functioning of the new system of PRIs and ULBs reveal the fact that initially there were many complex problems and constraints coming in the way of empowerment of women, SCs/STs and OBCs.
One of the constraints which was witnessed was that initially the women, SCs/STs and OBCs were hesitant to come forward and contest the elections.
These classes, after all, had been subjected to exploitation for ages and thus could not break the shackle of illiteracy, poverty and tradition overnight.
As a result, at the initial stages the politically powerful made them contest elections for their own political gains (Mishra, Sweta; 2002:40).
After getting elected, they worked under the command and guidance of the males, as proxies, signing or stamping on the dotted lines.
In the elections, proxy battle for ballot was evident as there was noteworthy reservation for women candidates any many fielded their wives, daughter in laws daughters, nieces, etc., to fulfill their own political ambitions (The Hindustan Times; 1995:3).
Apart from these, the manipulations by local power-brokers made reservations for women, initially, ineffective for the most part.
In some of the villages in Haryana, it was observed that women representatives belonged to the family of the male Panchayat leaders.
It was also observed in some places a woman leader was so old that she could hardly move around. In most cases, the reservation merely strengthened the grip of the rural/city elite.
The funds meant for women’s welfare were not used for the right purpose.
Because of ignorance on the part of women about the functional procedures and their rights, coupled with improper methods of identifying and nominating women Panchayat/Municipally members, they were not accepted as equals in local bodies by men (Jhamtani; 1995:63).
The electoral outcome also showed a few instances of violence against women. While inquiring about a land deal in Kachranli village near Panipat in Haryana, an incumbent Dalit woman member, Jindan Bai, was beaten up and abused by the police.
In Madhya Pradesh, in the Harpura village of Bhind district, both the hands of a woman were broken (Kaushik, 1995:85).
Tapati Sarkar, a Forward Bloc member of the Chandpara Gram Panchayat in the Gaighata Thana area in West Bengal, was assaulted with an iron rod (The Hindustan Times; 1994).
Women belonging to the traditionally marginalized groups were at the receiving end because of upper caste atrocities.
Instances of such caste and gender-based atrocities can be cited from many states in the country.
For example, in Madhya Pradesh, the aftermath of elections to the Panchayats, held in 2001-2002 in four of its districts – Raigarh, Chhatarpur, Raisen and East Nimar, saw blatant abuses of authority.
Reports such as a lady sarpanch being paraded naked, another lady sarpanch being gang raped, an upsarpanch being tortured; and a dalit panchayat member being beaten up, have come into limelight (Mathew, George; 2003: 155-162).
Apart from these, there are some other cases of sexual harassment against them.
Bhanwari, the ‘Saathin’ from Bassi Block in Jaipur district of Rajasthan, was gang-raped for fighting against the evil practice of child marriage (Panchayati Raj Update June 1995:2).
Draupadi Bai, a woman Panchayat member of Salheona village, was reportedly stripped naked in front of the Sariya Block Development Officer, Raigarh District (Mathew and Nayak 1996: 1765).
In another incident, a woman Sarpanch of Gujarkhedi in Khandwa district was subjected to gang-rape (Panchayati Raj Update November 1995:4).
In Orissa, an Up-Sarpanch, Basmati Bara, Kutra Panchayat of Sundergarh district complained of sexual harassment by the Minister for Panchayats (Kaushik 1995: 86).
Another problem coming in the way of empowerment was that women were not permitted to enter the unreserved constituencies.
This was revealed by one of the elected women in Andhra Pradesh. She said “the quota system for women has become a policy of reservation for men” (Quoted in Palanithurai, G., 2004: 52).
She further said that beyond the onethird reservation, all other spaces are reserved”, i.e. held on for and by men.
Similarly, women leaders have complained about the roster system for reservation. The vice-president of the Zila Panchayat, Tumkur district (Karnataka), whose five-year term was over, said that “Five years ago I was in the kitchen, today I am able to chair a meeting and know how to handle administration and the public.
Tomorrow I will be back in the kitchen for the rest of my life” – because the system devised for reservation namely the roster is such that she cannot be renominated to the same constituency (Ibid.).
Another major problem read caste clashes witnessed during elections. For example, these clashes were witnessed in many districts of Tamil Nadu during the elections.
There were instances of physical assault of dalit representatives in some cases. This hampered the representation of weaker section in the PRIs and ULBs.
The powerful rural groups have not been able to come to terms with the shift in the local power structure towards depressed castes and perceive the new system as a threat to their traditional dominance and influence (Chandrashekar, B.K.; 2000: 216).
In case of Bihar, it was noticed that although, the upper backwards have extended their political support base, the upper castes or the traditional elites still retain a substantial part of the social and political power at the grassroots level (Gupta, Shaibal; 2001: 2742).
Moreover, representatives of SCS/STs found it difficult to mix up with general category representatives.
One of the hurdles in the way of empowerment is the dominating attitude of the malc collcagucs.
According to Ms. Sonkamble, the Corporator of Pune Municipal Corporation, one of the hurdles she faced in discharging her duty was the attitude of her male colleagues who expected the women to listen to them in all matters.
A comparison is always made between the performance of men and women and there also exists, a fear amongst the men that women may become more powerful, or go way ahead of men (IAWS; 2002:89).
Yet another constraint is the untrained nature of the representatives.
As a result, after getting elected, practically half the term goes by only trying to understand the job and all that goes with it.
Hence, they are not able to perform well and justify their position as clccted representatives of the people.
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