Q: Does "economic empowerment" automatically bring about "substantive empowerment" for women ? Briefly describe the main issues in women empowerment in India.

Model Answer:

Relationship between Economic and Substantive Women’s Empowerment in India

Economic empowerment refers to women’s access to paid work, income and productive assets, while substantive empowerment implies real control over resources, decision‑making, bodily autonomy and voice in family, community and state. In a deeply patriarchal society like India, this distinction is crucial for understanding the limits of current development strategies.

Economic empowerment does not automatically translate into substantive empowerment.
Naila Kabeer sees empowerment as a process where resources must convert into agency and achievements. Paid work can:

– Enhance bargaining power within the household (Amartya Sen’s idea of “cooperative conflicts”).
– Provide “exit options” from abusive marriages.
– Increase mobility and public visibility, as seen in SHGs, Kudumbashree or women’s participation in MGNREGA.

Yet, several constraints block substantive change:

– Male control over women’s earnings and property; Bina Agarwal shows that without land/asset rights, bargaining power remains weak.
– “Patriarchal bargains” (Deniz Kandiyoti) make women accept subordination in return for protection, even when they earn.
– Persistence of domestic violence, dowry and son preference among working and even affluent women.
– Double burden of paid work plus unpaid care work (Ann Oakley’s gendered division of labour).
– Low unionisation and informal, insecure jobs that do not challenge Sylvia Walby’s “public patriarchy” in state and market.

Thus, economic empowerment is necessary but not sufficient; it must be accompanied by changes in norms, law, education and politics.

Major issues in women’s empowerment in India include:

– Structural patriarchy: patrilineal inheritance, patrilocal residence, dowry, control over sexuality, declining child sex ratio.
– Economic marginalisation: low and falling female labour force participation, wage gaps, over‑representation in informal work, invisibilised care work.
– Violence and bodily autonomy: domestic violence, marital rape not criminalised, honour killings, workplace harassment despite legal safeguards.
– Education and health deficits: gender gaps in literacy, high dropout, early marriage, anaemia and maternal mortality.
– Political under‑representation: reservations in PRIs with “proxy” women; limited presence in higher legislatures despite recent reforms.
– Intersectionality: Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim and rural women face compounded exclusion.
– Weak implementation of progressive laws and inadequate gender‑sensitive institutions.

Way forward lies in integrating economic opportunities with rights‑based education, property reforms, legal enforcement and transformation of patriarchal norms within family, market and state.