Definition-1 : Empowerment according to the Cambridge Dictionary means "the process of gaining freedom & power to do what you want or to control what happens to you".
Definition-2 : Wiki says "The term empowerment refers to measures designed to increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities in order to enable 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. To do work with power."
I prefer to stick to this definition as this gives a broader perspective.
Questions throng my head as I recently started thinking about this...the new age happening term...empowerment. What is empowerment? Is it the reflection/acceptance of being acknowledged by others as achievers? Why is suddenly this rush of getting empowered, specially women empowerment? What is so special about today's empowerment?
Of late success stories of individuals are getting highlighted as examples of empowerment. Successful entrepreneurs, sports persons, actors are given such status and there seems to a gradual unconscious or sub-conscious drift of the meaning of empowerment from Definition-2 to 1. This has been more alarming in case of women.
In the current age corporate wisdom often overshadows individual minds and actions.
Picture Courtesy : https://www.pexels.com
Talking of women empowerment we tend to forget mentioning NATURE's selection process that has chosen Women (including female species in animals) as the one to bring Life to the planet. The greatest act of creativity human beings can afford. Do we need any other stamping of Women Empowerment?
Coming to India, while being part of any event or discussion about women empowerment across the society, media, corporate world, etc I have never heard of the contribution of some of the Men who have single handedly fought and gone to take the blows to fight for women liberty. Nor I have known any female film-maker who is willing film on such Men.
Let us rewind back some time and look back at somewhere in the 19th Century in Bengal. We come across 3 significant names
1) Raja Rammohan Roy
2) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
3) David Hare
Sadly, the above 3 are rarely mentioned by any women in any forum, not even by those from Bengal. Perhaps these Men, specially the top two, have really turned the tide for Indian women. Yes, these were the MEN, the self motivated revolutionaries who stood the Test of Time, the scars inflicted by the society for the cause of women. We refer to Subhash Bose's tragic end but we forget Raja. The Man who fought for "Sati-daha" movement also did fight against polygamy, child marriage, property inheritance rights for women. Someone who took the fight to England could not return to his Motherland. The Man rests perhaps in peace in Bristol, yet he is not a martyr. Vidyasar's fight for widow re-marriage & several other social issues rarely gets mentioned on a Women's Day. David Hare, a watch mechanic from England, comes to India, understands problems, sets up schools & colleges specially for Women. I wonder (shudder would be more appropriate) where we would have been if these MEN were not there!!! We are forgetting History too fast!!!
Vivekananda, perhaps the greatest ever Indian Nationalist showed the way to Empower the youth which influenced Margaret Elizabeth Noble to come to India to become Sister Nivedita and serve a nation she had hardly known.
Mira Alfassa, popularly known as The Mother settled in Pondicherry under the influence of Aurobindo Ghosh. She created the Aurobindo Ashram & the Auroville.
Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa are such examples of Empowerment who have raised lives of others by their actions.
Individual achievements, no matter how great they are, cannot be examples of Empowerment. Empowerment is a self-less act, its derogatory to associate it with individual achievements.
Picture Courtesy : https://www.pexels.com
As the Time is changing, world is moving towards different zone. The world is moving towards a zone of sex-less society. The acceptance of people in daily life from LGBT community has improved quite a lot. In such progressive times, trying to associate Gender biasness with terms like Empowerment is no less than a SIN. In fact one of the most powerful minds of the current world Yuval Noah Harari, the author of "Sapiens" (a must read) & "Homo Deus" (a historian, a futurist, an atheist) is gay. But he has an astonishing mind. Since the time of inception he has put up his fight against the demerits of Artificial Intelligence in spite of life threats. His fight against animal farming, potential threats of AI on social fabric speaks volumes of his intellect, his thought process.
Its knowledge which ensures Empowerment. Knowledge is the door to all liberalisation, not success stories. Empowerment is not about celebrity interviews, career achievements & winning debates or pep talks. In the age of selfies & increasing self obsession it is becoming more an event of self reflection/glorification rather than any cumulative up-liftment. To end I quote what the Poet once said...
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way;
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee;
Into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom,
My Father, let my country awake."
Its very inspiring and enlightening article I must say. We , women, always cry or shout for women empowerment and mostly we believe the empowerment means living our life in our condition! E.g walking on street with our choice of dresses, going to a bar to have drink overnight, having sex with unknown, mostly depending on tinder date, attending events where so called feminists are giving gyan of democracy and empowerment...sadly we all forget these are not empowerment, these are the choices which we make to keep us happy! Empowerment means to actually stand up for a cause which can change the lives of hundreds, which is benefited to the country. Even if we can change one person's life that is called empowerment. It needs to have that guts to accept the brutal truth about the society and challenge it without fear.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Good to see the appreciation from a Woman
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