Ensuring the safety and security of women is crucial for India's economic and social progress. Unfortunately, India has regressed in its gender gap closure, now at 64.1%, due to declines in political empowerment and education, with only marginal improvements in economic participation and opportunities for women.
While India’s economic parity score has trended upward for the past four editions; it would need a further 6.2 percentage points to match its 2012 score of 46%. (Global Gender Gap Report, World Economic Forum, 2024). This situation is exacerbated by persistent violence against women within a patriarchal framework marked by structural and systemic inequalities.
Violence in India manifests physically, sexually, economically, and emotionally, often stemming from minor issues like cooking styles, infertility, or the birth of a girl child. This violence is rooted in societal conditioning from childhood, enforcing rigid gender roles and harshly punishing deviations.
Impact on Economic Participation
The societal framework and fear of violence severely affect women's physical and emotional well-being and hinder their economic participation. Many women work in fields as labourers, and the threat of violence or harassment restricts their economic progress.
According to NFHS-5 data, 31.2% of women in India experience violence, with limited community-level mechanisms to counter it. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this situation, as lockdowns intensified domestic violence due to unemployment and frustration.
Legal and Institutional Responses
Despite significant legal progress, such as amendments to criminal laws, the Domestic Violence Act 2005, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, fear of reporting due to stigma remains high. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 defines domestic violence to include physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, and economic abuse.
Survivors can obtain protection orders to prevent the abuser from committing further acts of violence. It allows the victim to reside in the shared household or seek alternative accommodation. It provides for compensation and maintenance for the victim and her children, grants temporary custody of children to the survivor, and orders for counselling the abuser and victim.
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 protects children (below 18 years) from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. It has led to the establishment of Special Courts for the speedy trial of offences. It has ensured that the investigation and trial are conducted in a child-friendly manner to avoid re-traumatisation, mandates reporting of sexual offences against children by any person aware of such incidents, and maintains the confidentiality of the child’s identity during the investigation and trial.
One-Stop Sakhi Centres and Panchayat Initiatives
One-stop Sakhi centres, initiated by the Women and Child Development Ministry, provide services like counselling, short-term stays, and rehabilitation for violence victims. Panchayat Raj has also declared indicators for women-friendly panchayat and is working to ensure safety through help desks. One-Stop Crisis Centres (OSCC) provides integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence. 24/7 Services including access to medical, legal, and psychological support, temporary shelter for victims, immediate police help for victims of violence, and psychological and social counselling for victims are extended.
Panchayat Level localised help desks are created to assist women and children in rural areas which provide information about legal rights and available services. Anganwadi Workers are mandated to report CSA and DV. Anganwadi workers are trained to recognise signs of CSA and DV.
These legal instruments and initiatives collectively aim to address and mitigate various forms of violence and abuse, ensuring the protection and empowerment of vulnerable populations, especially women and children. However, effective implementation remains a challenge, necessitating ongoing efforts to raise awareness, address social norms, and overcome structural barriers.
To enhance awareness of the community and women, NRLM has integrated gender in livelihood programmes and developed institutionalised mechanisms to address gender issues from the SHG and its federations like the Gender point person and social action committee at the village organisation and cluster federation level. This would bridge demand generation and system delivery.
Gender Resource Centres (GRC)
Gender Resource Centres (GRCs) have been developed as apex bodies to institutional mechanisms at the block/cluster federation level, owned and managed by Cluster Level Federations by Advisory of National Rural Livelihood Mission. Unresolved issues from self-help groups, Village Organisations, and cluster-level federations are escalated to the GRC. These centres address demands related to entitlements and rights violations, working with departments like Women and Child Development (WCD), police, and legal services to resolve issues. GRCs are supported technically by cadres and have intensive capacity-building programs on gender concepts, legal aspects, and government programs.
Convergence and Coordination
Dialogue between ministries is essential for convergence between different programs. Coordinated efforts between GRCs of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), one-stop centres, and panchayat-level help desks can lead to comprehensive solutions. This would enable streamlining access to grievance redressal mechanisms seamlessly and ensure the enhancement of the collective agency of women.
Addressing the safety and security of women requires both legal and societal interventions. Strengthening institutional mechanisms like GRCs, enhancing the effectiveness of legal frameworks, and fostering collaboration between ministries and local bodies are vital steps toward creating a safer and more equitable environment for women in India.
Pathways to create safety and gender-embedded frameworks, curriculum, processes, and indicators are required to enhance women’s access and control over assets, resources, and decision-making in livelihoods. Transform Rural India has endeavoured to integrate gender in entrepreneurship by working with CLFs and having a gender-embedded curriculum, and inspirational dialogues with successful woman entrepreneurs to motivate rural women entrepreneurs, linkages to credit, and mentoring support and this has led to an enhanced number of women entrepreneurs. Skilling in non-traditional sectors for women also would generate further economic progress.
[Seema Bhaskaran is the Lead for Gender, Inclusion and Diversity at Transform Rural India. She will be anchoring the Mind the Gap - Imperatives to Women Labour Force Participation in Rural India session on the August 8 finale of the India Rural Colloquy 2024. Views are personal.]
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