Married, employed… not empowered

Im not posting this latest news in support to eMpower women; but as per news and study [CHECK BOLD UNDERLINED TEXT FROM BELOW NEWS] Most of today women has independence to run home as per thier wish [Ref [1]] and Five (5) out of 6 working women are not giving money to run home, as this Biased news indirectly says only one women has no power to decide,what to do with her money[Ref [2]].

Moral of the Story…… Sorry sorry this Biased news.
5 women are eMpowered and Five Men are deprived, if these men ask money to run home, they will be charged under memtal torture and Domestic Violence.
But men has no Rights.
Indian Men have no Protection Laws.

Still Indian Government want to eMpower Women….?

News Follows…..

Sunita, is just over 16 and helps her mother in her work as a domestic employee. But she earns nothing at the end of each gruelling 10-hour day. Her mother gets the wages, Sunita admits to knowing nothing about being paid for her work. “I don’t know,” she says, “You have to ask my mother.” Things may change little, if at all, for Sunita even after she gets married.

Uma Sharma, a married consultant in an Internet start-up company, is very unlike Sunita in almost every way, except for one crucial point. “My money goes straight into a joint account with my husband. I ask him for money whenever I need it. I don’t feel the need for a separate account. All household purchases are made by me [1] but when it comes to investing, my husband knows best.

Sunita and Uma are at two ends of the societal divide. But their plight is not too different. Both are employed but are they empowered? Neither of them makes independent decisions about the money they earn. Indian women may have come a long way in terms of education and employment, but they are still far from being empowered. It is a point well made by the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The survey found that one in six of married working women had absolutely no control over the money they earned[2]; only one in ten married women were able to make even relatively insignificant decisions, such as visiting friends and family and more than a quarter of them had say on the crucial matter of their own healthcare.

However, the survey found that better-educated women, such as Uma had greater access to money and rights
to decision-making within the family and about who they could see and when. The advantage was especially pronounced for women who were employed, earning cash and with 12 years or more of formal study. But it is a pitiful freedom – and for too few – considering the survey estimates that overall, just 36% Indian women aged between 15 and 49 are employed.

Though women’s empowerment presents a dismal picture overall, there are wide variations between Indian states. Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura and Orissa, among others, constantly figure at the bottom of the heap on issues such as decision-making rights and a woman’s entitlement to spend, save or otherwise apportion her own earnings or those of her husband.

Interestingly, it is the north-eastern states, generally regarded as less-developed, that seem to empower women the most, with Tripura the exception. Among the southern states, Tamil Nadu – not Kerala, as one might expect – seems to offer women the best deal and they are worst off in Karnataka. Goa and Delhi too seem to be pretty good for women.

Ranjana Kumari, director of Delhi’s Centre for Social Research, says economic empowerment is often a mixed blessing for women because it “does not lead to any control over the money they earn because of the low status of women in the family and society.

“Ability to earn alone will not improve their lives unless their status is improved. They are regarded as objects possessed by the family and everything that belongs to them belongs to the family,” she says.

Overall, marriage, it seems, changes the way a woman lives, in more ways than one. Single women, be they never-married, divorced or separated – are seen as more “in control” of how they spend their money and on whom.

This automatic sense of control is what leads women such as unmarried senior executive Poonam Jain firmly to declare, “Of course, it is me who decides how to spend my money and on what. Who else will? Even after I get married that is unlikely to change.”

Going by the recent survey, though, everything changes once an Indian woman marries.

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