Empowerment

Pushpa Bhave

The word or concept of empowerment comes from the patriachal discourse because patriarchy has been obsessed by 'power.' Women as a group have been or are derived of that power. Although some women have been caressed by it, more often women are oppressed by it.

In the initial stages of gaining a new awareness of their situation, women have shown signs of yearning for power--it was a time when they wanted to be like men in order to be equal. But that was only a passing phase. When women started thinking critically and felt free to perceive the world through their new awareness, they established a new philosophy of life. This philosophy challenged the hierarchy of power--it challenged the tug of war for supremacy among nations, exemplified by the possession and the use of nuclear weapons. Women realized that violence, war, and a culture of hatred endangered the human values that are nurtured around the world as core cultural values. Two world wars and many other peripheral wars had devastated not only the physical structures of cities, but also the value structures of humanity. Because women have always been victims in the battles for supremacy among men, they raised their voices--together with peace-loving men--to oppose war and nuclear weapons.

But the texture of human affairs is not so simple. Ambition comes naturally in this achievement-oriented world. And the newly liberated women saw the light of the public domain as a challenge. They wanted to prove themselves--not an easy task for these women who struggled to establish themselves for the first time in the public realm. Meanwhile, men who held power--and were well accustomed to the world of bargaining--knew how a gesture to the sharing of bit of power can help in bargaining with any nonconformist. By the skillful use of power, one can easily co-opt people and create a rift among militant and dissident groups.

Gender bias continued despite the many eloquent words about equal opportunity. And among the women who were trying to stand on their own feet in a male-dominated world, there were differences of caste, creed, social class. As women achieved success in the so-called man's world, in fields ranging from education to industry and the professions, there were new differences--both natural and structural. Women's attitude towards other women who were not so successful changed and vice versa.

The male-dominated world did not like the challenge and competition posed by 'these liberated women.' Although we recognize that there were individual men who admired these women, as a group they reacted against it. So, they used women against women, creating groups like working women versus housewives--women fell victim to this game.

Similarly, economic independence has been much talked about, but not a single country has safeguarded women against tyranny in the family, domestic violence, or a subservient position in the home. The ability to earn a living, while important for women on its own, does not solve as many of the problem that it was claimed it would resolve. At the same time, being in the public realm exposed women to another set of power structures and hierarchies. Some women became a part of these power games without questioning them. Some were co-opted by the patriarchy, a process that is most evident among right-wing political parties and movements that use religious sentiment as bait. Finally, some women are even now questioning the structure from within. These three groups are not well-defined or well-established compartments.

It is not surprising that women, who as a social group had been restricted to the private world and almost invisible in the public scene, wanted to arrive by assuming positions of decision-making power. Yet, they were not free from the abuses of that power, just as no human being who is part of our contemporary world can claim to be completely innocent as far as the use of power is concerned.

Returning to the theme of empowerment, it is interesting to note that in the last decade, concept words arrive periodically on the horizon. In some years, the concept was 'structural adjustment,' but we don't hear much about that anymore. In recent years, the term has been 'empowerment.' Frequently, the true meaning of these value-ridden concept words can be found in the context in which it has been used.

Just as patriarchy has been obsessed with power, the word empowerment points to the male ego as the man sees himself even now in the role of the provider. The notion of empowerment risks extending the role that patriarchy envisions for itself (including the state) to the role of providence--a role that is trying to provide empowerment to women who are deprived and are not looked after by so-called successful city women. Empowerment is presented by many agencies as a packet that is neatly wrapped by efficient hands. But genuine empowerment is an ongoing process.

True empowerment relates to how a woman interacts with the situations around her. And how she discovers fountains of energy deep within her. A grief-filled situation might break one person while it empowers another. So, empowerment should not be viewed as an ornament offered to women to appease them. We must emphasize that real empowerment is a process from within and without. For a woman to raise her consciousness of her self, begin to shape her own worldview, and form an association with other people whose consciousness is also being awakened is genuine empowerment.

Social empowerment has been described as having three levels: personal or power within; collective or power with; social or power in relation to certain ends and/or power against certain social forces. Of course, these levels are interrelated. Examining these different levels helps to distinguish between genuine and false empowerment. Let me consider several different examples from our history.

Long ago, during the movement for India's independence, Gandhiji encouraged women to come out of the private domain by empowering them with a redefined of womanhood. In his philosophy, personal power (power that was not achievement-oriented) held an important place. What was significant in Gandhiji's approach was a new relationship forged between the poor woman in the village and the city woman (sometimes even a millionaire's wife). The use of khadi (homespun cloth) was a means to this end. The city woman discarded her fine sari from Manchester and accepted the thick homespun cloth that was spun in the village cottages. "Power with each other" was created. He convinced the women to reject gold, so there was empowerment by means of renunciation. Gandhiji's efforts at changing women's sex role was important also.

But to arrive at some more recent history, I would like to cite the example of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) or the movement for justice for people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam project. Empowerment is usually understood economically, but the social groups here were very marginalized and their passage from depravity was eased by th empowerment achieved through their collectie actions. This movement sought to stop the construction of a series of dams along the Narmada river. Their efforts have forced the World Bank and Indian governments to review this and other damn projects. They concluded that the project was ill-conceived and while the struggle against the dam project continues, it also sparked a people's movement.

The leader of the NBA, Medha Patkar, has served as a principal organizer for this movement, but many individuals' lives have changed because of NBA. So it happened that a young woman was alone in Manibeli (a village on one side of Narmada), but she had the courage to resist the police force--something that was unimaginable among poor illiterate rural communities. On the other side of the river, women who have been rejected by their husbands carry a social stigma. But, in NBA two women who were rejected by their husbands assumed positions of respect. Now when women from the NBA go to march or protest in the city, the men look after the small children and the housework. The empowerment that they have achieved by working together is, in some ways, more effective and meaningful than economic empowerment.

In the recent past, it is also important to look the phenomenon that I call, 'mock empowerment.' Using political practices and rhetoric that create majority empowerment combined with minority disempowerment, this phenomenon has been the work of rightist groups or parties that use religious sentiment to divide people and reinforce male power.

It gives women a false sense of pride that they are working for religion and in the name of religion, they are encouraged to be violent. They also work against other groups of women. In the 1992-93 riots in Bombay and elsewhere, women took an active part in the violence. These political parties and groups are not opposed to gender bias, but they have rallied large groups of women to support them. Thus, patriarchy created mass-hysteria against a certain race of people. And it can happen again.

The real empowerment is fountain of energy from within, it manifests itself in social action and aims at social change.