The document discusses various aspects of women empowerment including definitions, principles, and areas like education, health, nutrition, housing, environment, science and technology, women in difficult circumstances, and violence against women. It defines women empowerment as increasing spiritual, political, social or economic strength of women. Key aspects discussed include women's right to make their own reproductive choices, treat reproductive health issues as part of everyday life, and ensure women have information and authority over their own reproductive decisions.

1. Presented by:
Harsh Rastogi,
Nursing Tutor,
M.S. Institute of
Nursing, Lucknow

2. Women
Empowerment
•The term Women Empowerment
refers to the increasing of the
spiritual , social, political or
economic strength of all women.
•It is frequently seen that the
empowered in their capacities
develop confidence.

3. Cont…
Empowerment of
women is conceivably
the sum of total of the
points listed below or
parallel capabilities:
•Having the power of
making decisions for self.
•Having access to
resources and
information for proper
decision making.

4. Cont…
•Having numerous options to
choose from (instead of
yes/no, either/or),
•Ability of showing
assertiveness while making
decisions collectively.
•Ability to think positively to
bring about a change.
•Ability of developing new
skills for group power and self-
improvement.

5. Cont…
•Ability of using democratic means
to change perceptions of others.
•Adopting changes and a growth
process that are self-initiated
and never ending.
•Overcoming stigma and
staying focused on increasing
positive self-image.

6. Need & importance of
women empowerment
•Families will be well developed and small if women
are also given proper work and environment for work.
•For empowering women it is important that they be
given an opportunity to receive better and higher
education.

7. Cont…
•As a result fertility rates will decrease as will mortality rates
of infants. For literate women there are many options in life
other than marriage and later motherhood, they can
become a part of some workforce.
•A delayed marriage means that a woman has fewer fertile
years left and it automatically decreases the number of
children she can bear.

8. Cont…
•They also seem to be more knowledgeable about options
related to family planning.
•Not just literacy but religion also plays a very big part in a
woman's family planning decisions.
•In a poor family living in under developed countries a
literate woman becomes much more than only a mouth
that has to be fed.

9. Cont…
•Instead of considering
them as a liability and
marrying them off at an
early age, women
should be treated as
bread winners and an
asset to the family.
•For an individual
empowerment provides
the opportunity of
making choices for
oneself, an old tradition's
worthiness can be
challenged and a woman
can seek opportunities
further away from her
villages and family.

10. Definition
•Women empowerment
refers to increasing the
spiritual, political, social or
economic strength of women.
•It often involves the
empowered
developing confidence
in their own capacities.
•Women empowerment refers
to women invest with power,
especially legal power or
official authority.

11. Principles
•Women have the right to autonomy and
reproductive choice.
•Women' have the right and social responsibility to
decide whether, how and when to have children and
how many to have; no woman can be compelled to bear
a child or prevented from doing so against her will.
•Men also have a personal and social responsibility for
their own sexual behaviour and fertility and for the
effects of that behaviour on the health and well-being
of their partner & children.

12. Cont…
•Reproductive health issues should be addressed in the
way women & men experience them; not as isolated,
biomedical phenomena or matter of public policy, but
as an integrated part of everyday life.
•The fundamental sexual and reproductive rights of
women cannot be subordinated against a woman's will
to the interests of partners, family members, policy-
makers, or any other acts.

13. Cont…
•Women must be respected
to make their own
reproductive decisions they
must have both the
information & the authority
to make decisions about
reproduction & the services
that will enable them to
satisfy their reproductive
health needs.

14. Social
Empowerment of
Women
• Education
• Health
• Nutrition
• Housing & shelter

15. Cont…
• Environment
• Science & technology
• Women in difficult
circumstances
• Violence against
women

16. Education
•Equal access to education for
women & girls will be ensured.
•Special measures will be taken to
eliminate discrimination, universalize
education, eradicate illiteracy; create
a gender-sensitive educational
system, increase enrolment and
retention rates of girls and improve
the quality of education to facilitate
life-long learning as well as
development of occupation/
vocation/ technical skills by women.

18. Cont…
•Reduce the gender gap in secondary and higher
education would be a focus area.
•Achieve sectoral time targets in existing policies, with a
special focus on girls and women, particularly those
belonging to weaker sections including the Scheduled
Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/
Minorities.
•Develop gender sensitive curricula at all levels of
educational system in order address sex stereotyping
as one of the causes of gender discrimination.

19. Health
•Adopt a holistic approach to
women's health which includes
both nutrition and health services.
•Focus special attention to the
needs of women and the girl at
all stages of the lifecycle.
•The reduction of infant mortality
and maternal mortality need
accessibility of comprehensive,
affordable and quality health
care for women.

20. Cont…
•Educate about the vulnerability to sexual and health
problems together with endemic, infectious and
communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, and
waterborne diseases as well as hypertension and
cardiopulmonary diseases.
•Accurate registration of infant and maternal mortality,
and early marriage. Strict implementation of registration
of births and deaths would be ensured and registration
of marriages would be made compulsory.

21. Cont…
•Explain the need for population control.
•This policy recognizes the critical need of men and
women to have access to safe, effective and affordable
methods of family planning.

22. Nutrition
•The high-risk of malnutrition and
disease that women face at all the
three critical stages viz., infancy and
childhood, adolescent and
reproductive phase, focused
attention would be paid to meet
nutritional needs of women at all
stages of the lifecycle.
•This is also important in view of the
critical link between the health of
adolescent girls, pregnant and
lactating women with the health of
infant and young children.

23. Cont…
•Special efforts will be made to tackle the problem of
macro and micro nutrient deficiencies especially amongst
pregnant and lactating women as it leads to various
diseases and disabilities.
•Widespread use of nutrition education would be made to
address the issues of intra-household imbalances in
nutrition and the special needs of pregnant and lactating
women.
•Ensure Women's participation in the planning,
superintendence and delivery of the system.

24. Cont…
•Show special attention to the needs of women in the
provision of safe drinking water, sewage disposal,
toilet facilities and sanitation within accessible reach of
households, especially in rural areas and urban slums.
•Ensure Women's participation in the planning,
delivery and maintenance of such services.

25. Housing and
Shelter
•Provision of housing policies,
planning of housing colonies and
shelter both in rural and urban
areas.
•Special attention will be given for
providing adequate and safe
housing and accommodation for
women including single women,
heads of households working
women, students, apprentices
and trainees.

26. Environment
•Women will be involved
and their perspectives
reflected in the policies and
programmes for
environment, conservation
and restoration.
•The vast majority of rural
women still depends on the
locally available non -
commercial sources of
energy such as animal
dung, crop waste and fuel
wood.

27. Cont…
•Women will be involved in
spreading the use of solar
energy, biogas, smokeless
chulahs and other rural
application so as to have a
visible impact of these
measures in influencing
ecosystem and in
changing the life styles of
rural women.

28. Science and
Technology
•Programs will be strengthened
to bring about a greater
involvement of women in
science and technology.
•Motivate girls to take up
science and technology
for higher education.
•Ensure that development
projects with scientific and
technical inputs involve
women fully.

29. Cont…
•Special measures would be taken for their training in
areas where they have special skills like
communication and information technology.
•Efforts to develop appropriate technologies suited to
women's needs as well as to reduce their drudgery will
be given a special focus too.

30. Women in difficult
circumstances
•These groups include women in
extreme poverty, destitute
women, women in conflict
situations, women affected by
natural calamities, women in less
developed regions, the disabled
widows, elderly women, single
women in difficult circum stances,
women heading households, those
displaced from employment,
migrants, women who are victims
of marital violence, deserted
women and prostitutes, etc.

31. Violence
against women
•All forms of violence
against women, physical
and mental, whether at
domestic or societal levels,
including those arising from
customs, traditions or
accepted practices shall be
dealt with effectively with a
view to eliminate its
incidence.

32. Cont…
•Strengthen the assistance
for prevention of such
violence, including sexual
harassment at work place
and customs like dowry; for
the rehabilitation of the
victims of violence and for
taking effective action
against the perpetrators of
such violence.
•A special emphasis will also
be laid on programs and
measures to deal with
trafficking in women and
girls.

33. Research article on
Violence Against Women
http://www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjssr/article/viewFi
le/3863/4074

35. Its a bird, its a plane; its
SUPERWOMAN!

36. 8 March