What Is Empowerment?

The notion of equality (at the very basic level like equal rights, education, participation in public sphere etc.) gave way to feminist movements all over the world. At the heart of these movements remained a single intention i.e. denial of discrimination, on any ground, against any weaker group in general and women in particular. The contribution of these movements cannot be denied yet one can question their overall impact in qualitative terms. Specifically when talking in consideration to developing countries in general and India in particular, we can see women’s access in various fields owned by men till now and their presence in important departments that were appropriated by men earlier. But empowerment of some women in some spheres cannot

What does empowerment really mean? According to Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary ‘empowerment’ is an act of ‘empowering’ i.e. to give somebody the power or authority to do something or to give somebody more control over their own life or the situation they are in. The words like ‘control’ and ‘power’ states its deep relation with power and how power operates. Empowerment travels from providing power to achieve an end to achieving power as an end in itself. So it is in a way providing authority to somebody on their own life. It relates to decision making power of marginalized groups in consideration to inter-personal and intra-personal choices. In the periphery of empowerment may come social empowerment, legal empowerment, political empowerment, cultural empowerment and economic empowerment etc. as Batliwala

Here the idea of empowerment strongly suggests the assistance of powerful group to come upon in helping peripheral groups. Though one can find it uncomfortable because in a way it is ignoring the agency that is a part of supposedly dependent’s being, but for the time being, when there is lack of any kind of awareness and self-dependency, the abled groups may be called for providing their support. The empowerment program intends to make the subjected group self-dependent by securing opportunity for them and learning them skills for their livelihood. But after all these programs have been done one can realize that no one can empower any one. In spite of all the developmental programs, subjugation of women still persists. Even though they are educated and can have equal control over the resources, they fail to actualize their freedom in fullest sense. Subjugation of women is more structural than accidental and the myth of being inferior has been blended to their personality right from the first step i.e. when they start feeling and making their personality. Their strategically imposed cultural identity of being inferior is equally fatal reason that obstructs her way in actualizing their