Economic self-sufficiency is crucial for women’s emancipation because it fundamentally enables autonomy, freedom, and the empowerment necessary to make decisions. It also allows women to live beyond the limits imposed by patriarchal norms.
Equality in the workplace, along with the recognition and enforcement of women’s property rights, are vital instruments for ensuring women’s economic and financial independence.
Since 2014, under Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s socio-political discourse has shifted to the right, driven by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS’s) ideology. The unprecedented moves like the triple talaq ban, Article 370 revocation, Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC) legislation, and the Ram Janmabhoomi project reflect this shift, enabled by capturing institutions, media, judiciary, and public imagination.
Moving beyond its established role as a socio-political-cultural ideology with core philosophy of othering of those not belonging to the wider Hindu fold, Hindutva’s new phase is now possibly shaping cities and the urban lived environment, as a site for demonstrating ideology – socially, culturally and spatially. The targeted demolition of homes of Muslims as an act of collective punishment, and the recent cases of staged violence including at Sambhal mosque are only facets of a broader, emerging urban manifestation of the Hindutva ideology.
Women have long been underrepresented in discussions on military, security, arms, and hard power politics, hence thinking of their inclusion in talks on nuclear disarmament seems to be a pipe dream.
The National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) is a significant initiative aimed at empowering women in rural India.
The Scheme of Residential Education for Students in High School in Targeted Areas (SRESHTA) is a program launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to empower Scheduled Caste students by providing them with equal opportunities to quality education
Phule’s principle aspiration was to fight ignorance and the barriers of gender and caste oppression.
Jawaharlal Nehru wrote: “Reservation… will promote inefficiency and mediocracy.” I often wonder if this was a reason for denying B R Ambedkar a dignified space in the corridors of power. Did the Congress think so little of us, the Dalits? Did Ambedkar resign because he felt neglected or because he became the voice of Dalits and women?