SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter III9. The achievement of gender and caste equality is considered a crosscuttingtheme to be mainstreamed in all sectoral development policiesIn India, the advancement of women has been aimed at in different spheres, within the framework ofthe democratic polity, and the conceptualisation of empowerment has been refined since the 5th Five-Year Plan. The dimensions of power, which are not specifically considered under the 10th Plan butare important in the context of women’s empowerment in India, relate to their collectivisation, greaterparticipation in political processes, especially panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) as the most importantgrassroots institutions. Another aspect not mentioned in the 10th Plan but needs to be highlighted whileelaborating the concept of empowerment relates to cultural parameters, e.g. respect of rights of indigenouspeople and inclusion of their knowledge and practices. An important caution in dealing with women’sempowerment, and women’s issues in general, is to be able to allow for diversity, and the representationof multiple views and interests, thereby not treating ‘women’ as one monolithic category, but allowingfor the preferences of different castes, ethnic groups and classes to be articulated.The 11thPlan endorsesall the areasemphasisedin the 10thPlan and hasexpandedthe conceptfurther, buthighlightedthree keyelements ofgender equity– women asdiversifiedgroups forplannedintervention,inclusivedevelopment,and a fiveprongedinterventionfor womenfor sustainedlong-termimpact.‘Empowerment of Women’ as agents of social change and development was continued in the 10thPlan. Towards this a sector-specific three-fold strategy based on Social Empowerment, EconomicEmpowerment and Gender Justice was adopted based on the National Policy for Empowerment ofWomen. This approach was criticised for its omission of cultural aspects, and a more elaborate view ofempowerment, which accounts for views of CSOs. This also needs to be revised to account for thesynergies between different aspects of empowerment. The 11th Plan endorses all the areas emphasisedin the 10th Plan and has expanded the concept further, but highlighted three key elements of genderequity – women as diversified groups for planned intervention, inclusive development, and a five-prongedintervention for women for sustained long-term impact. The last aims toa. provide women with basic entitlements;b. address the reality of globalisation and its impact on women;c. ensure an environment free from all forms of violence against women;d. ensure the participation and adequate representation of women at the highest policy levels, particularlyin Parliament and Assemblies;e. strengthen existing institutional mechanisms and create new ones for gender mainstreaming andeffective policy implementation.This has also led to the 11th Plan widening the basic strategy net for women’s empowerment- economicempowerment through employment, social empowerment and engendering social change; politicalempowerment; strengthening mechanisms for effective implementation of women-related legislations;and creating institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming and strengthening delivery mechanismsfor effective implementation of women-related programmes, by strengthening the Women‘s ComponentPlan (WCP), and universalising gender budgeting and gender outcome assessment in all ministries/departments at the Centre and the states.72The 11th Plan has prioritised engendering of national policies, tackling the issue of food security, andaddressing the issue of globalisation, and its impact on women, especially those who are most marginalised.It seeks to curb the increasing violence against women, and ring in an era of zero tolerance for castebaseddiscrimination against SC/STs and women. It also claims to support, strengthen, and qualitativelyimprove the microcredit regime in favour of women, based upon a comprehensive national-level reviewof SHGs and microcredit policies from a gender perspective.72These ambitious plans are to be achieved by continuing some old schemes and launching many new ones.The major lessons from Swayamsidha and the first phase of Swashakti will be integrated into STEP, a