Issues of Gender Equality and locating men in

National Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2001

Consultation Meeting on Men, Gender Equality and Policy Response18 January, 2008, New Delhi

Introduction to NPEW 2001

• Was formulated during NDA regime in 2001

• Is 4700 words long

• Has three major sections, Introduction Policy Prescriptions Operational Strategies

Policy Prescriptions on …

1. Judicial Legal systems

2. Decision-making

3. Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process

4. Violence against women

5. Rights of the girl child

6. Mass media

Policy prescriptions contd.

7. Economic Empowerment of Women, including poverty eradication, micro-credit, women and the economy, globalization, women and agriculture, women and industry, and support services for women

8. Social Empowerment of women, including education, health, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation, housing and shelter, environment, science and technology, and Women in Difficult Circumstances

Operational Strategies include..– Action Plans– Institutional mechanisms– Resource Management – Legislation– Gender Sensitization– Panchayati Raj Institutions– Partnership with voluntary sector

organizations– International cooperation

Gender in NPEW 2001

• Starts with invoking the Indian Constitution which has explicit references to the promotion and fulfillment of gender equality

• The word ‘Gender is mentioned around 28 times in the policy

• The word ‘men’ is used 3-4 times

Looking at Men in NPEW• A specific objective –

• “The de-jure and de-facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men

• “Changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women.”

Other mentions of men• In the section on Health, it “recognizes the

critical need of men and women to have access to safe, effective and affordable methods of family planning of their choice and the need to suitably address the issues of early marriages and spacing of children.”

• In the section on Media – “it would be encouraged to develop codes of conduct, professional guidelines and other self regulatory mechanisms to remove gender stereotypes and promote balanced portrayals of women and men.”

Looking at Men?

• There is no analysis or explanation of the word ‘Gender’ anywhere in the document

• There is no analysis of the role played by men in women’s disempowerment

• There is no anticipation of the effects of women’s empowerment on men

~ It appears that the status or empowerment of women has very little to do with men, and will have no effect on men at all!

Women’s issues = Gender?• The word is used as – gender equality,

gender inequality, gender disparity, gender issues, gender perspective, gender discrimination, gender stereotypes, gender related atrocities, and so on.

• Also used as development jargon: gender-sensitive, gender just, gender impact, gender gap, Gender Development Index, gender sensitization, gender auditing, gender –disaggregated data, gender budgeting, gender education, etc

Looking at Gender

• There is no statement on how ‘gender’ implies women, men and persons of other genders.

• Women are seen as a homogenous gender. There are absolutely no allusions to feminized men, trans-gendered men/women, or to women in same sex relationships, or women who are more comfortable with male gender roles, or to women’s sexual rights.

Women – Gender – Feminism • No mention of the word ‘feminism’; there is an

acknowledgement to the ‘women’s movement’ which is also seen as homogenous.

• Patriarchy is mentioned only once (in the context of property rights)

• No analysis of gender power relations in the context of empowerment

• The language of rights is rarely used, except once in the objectives, and twice for references to human rights and gender education in the section on operationalizing.

• No mention of sexual and reproductive rights of women

Implementation and ImpactThe government has published information regarding

implementation in the two reports of 2005 in the Beijing Platform for Action +10 report and CEDAW 1st and 2nd Periodic Reports (combined)

• “In order to encourage men to take part in the upbringing of the children and to share these tasks, Government has provided paternity leave for men. Though there is no systematic study or data available, there is a small change with men taking active participation in the household work and in bringing up children.” (para 129)

• There has been efforts to do gender sensitization of policy makers and policy managers, judges etc

Analysis

• The policy assumes that women’s empowerment is not related to gender power relations and does not need any mention of men

• The policy does not explore gender-transformative roles for men or youth, neither does it suggest ways to work with boys and youth for a more gedner-equitable future

Recommendations • The policy needs revision to include an

analysis of empowerment in the context of unequal gender power relations

• It needs to re-examine the roles played by men in women’s ‘dis-empowerment’, and how men will be affected by women’s empowerment

• It needs to look at viable strategies by which a more gender-equal society will be created

Recommendations contd.

• It needs to provide policy prescriptions for creating gender equitable structures within social institutions

• It needs to suggest ways in which men can be encouraged/compelled(?) to adopt power-sharing and privilege–sharing behaviour that will impact on women’s empowerment

Thank you

Jashodhara

SAHAYOG

Lucknow, UP