Amitabh Bachchan on women empowerment

This century belongs to women. The last few years witnessed the progress of women in every sphere of life, be it corporate sector or government offices. They are no longer restricted to household chores but are increasingly playing a significant role in investment decisions. In this connection, legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan said, “This is the decade of women empowerment".

India's Aruna Roy Sizes Up Corruption Problems

Social activist Aruna Roy, founding member of the National Campaign for the People's Right to Information, helped establish a 2005 law making government practices and legal rulings more transparent to the public. Here she discusses why public information is so vitally important to the function of a society and its connection to the anti-corruption movement.

Q: Many see the right-to-information (RTI) movement as the mother of many new social movements we see today.

A: The RTI movement was significant for many reasons. First, it redefined the relationship between the people and the state. It established that there is a continuing engagement between the people, the government and the state, of which people and the state had two different but equally important obligations.

The state had the obligation to inform the people it serves about what it is doing, why it is doing it and how it is doing it.The people came to understand that in a democracy, governments, government policy and institutions do not run independent of them and so they have a role to educate, monitor and demand changes in policy, programs, the day-to-day running of activities that involve -for want of a better word -"governance."

The RTI also established two more things: One, that social policy and social security are as important to the larger well-being of India as is growth. Second, it established that the right to information is actually a transforming right because it translated all the rights under the Constitution into practice.

Q: Isn't ensuring full popular participation difficult?

A: We may never have anything like full participation in absolute terms. But participation in various parts of the process of taking decisions and creating platforms for genuine debate to deepen understanding of issues should be a part of any campaign.

The old argument that has often got framed as a feminist versus non-feminist debate is whether the process is more important than the final outcome, or whether the final outcome is more important than the process. This is a bit like the chicken and egg story. I feel this dialectic is very important for delivering a finished product; however you may want to define it.

Participation arises from the process of people getting space to articulate what they feel is the necessary bottom line of development, or of rights, or of anything else, in a systematic and logical manner. And this information will ultimately be used with understanding, with knowledge, to form instruments of governance.

Very simple things have come out of hours of listening to people's definitions and understanding their needs during the RTI campaign.

First, there was the fact that you need information up in the public domain visibly. The view that if it was there, just implicitly, that was enough came to be completely put aside. People wanted viewable, transparent governance.

Q: Does this experience inform your approach to the anticorruption Jan Lokpal Bill?

A: My approach to a Jan Lokpal is organic. Arguments for a Jan Lokpal are very simple. Because we are trying to set up a body to monitor and oversee the processes that check corruption and the denial of rights to different people, this law, by its very nature, will have to address a large number of issues.

The malaise in the system is red tape, bureaucratic corruption, the denial of equality to people outside the system, the denial, in fact, of their right to question. Creating an edifice that is bigger than the sum of the parts of the solutions we are trying to come up with would be self-defeating. One institution to oversee all three institutions of bureaucracy, judiciary and legislature would be gigantic. And being so gigantic, it will fail in the process of monitoring itself and the three others it is meant to monitor.

My mother, who used to be a student of science and was always preoccupied until she died with physics and mathematics, would always tell me that if there is a really acute problem and the solution proposed for it is very complex, then it will not be a solution. The more simple the solution, the more thought has gone into it. If you haven't seen the problem in its entirety, you can't come up with a simple solution.

Q: So how do you see the Jan Lokpal process moving forward?

A: Two things are very important. One is the framing of the Lokpal itself. The other is about corruption in a democracy.

The Lokpal will address the corruption in the system of governance, which if it functioned well will bring down some of the obvious aspects of corruption. But let's not forget that when we talk of corruption we are also looking at huge amounts of corruption outside government today. Because of the kind of economic stratagems - thanks to the dominant economic paradigm that we have accepted - much of the money and much of the decision-making has shifted from the government to the private sector. Big money and big business have come into the media, into corporations, into nongovernmental groups and many other structures, including professional groups like doctors and the like.

So you actually have to see how democracy can make equality and equal access important norms for every Indian, no matter where he or she is placed.

Given that, I think the need today is for accepting and facing issues centrally and not have these black-and-white - simplistic actually - definitions of corruption. There is also the need for the internalization of ethics, the internalization of the need to share, especially among those who are now madly following their dream of affluence.

Q: What makes you hopeful?

A: If I did not have faith that people can change things, I would pack my bags and leave. There are so many beautiful examples of this, but they never get media attention so we don't know about them. The challenge is to get those small battles won every day. And I live in the middle of those people. When I see them full of hope, I have absolutely no business to nurture feelings of hopelessness.

Also one important empowerment process I have firmly believed in is the ability to understand what one wants to say, to articulate it and then fight for a platform to say it. Now this is a democracy and if the women's movement had not happened we would have been completely smothered. Of course, it doesn't end there, because people keep getting co-opted into the power system. So the process is a cyclical one. It could change from issue to issue. But it is a process that could energize India provided it is tethered to a sense of justice and fairness.

It would disquiet me as a human being if I cannot speak out about whatever I think is going wrong. I may not be able to do anything about it, but I would need to articulate it. I think that is what keeps me going. I say this with a sense of humility: Change cannot be brought about by one individual or even a set of individuals. But what every set of individuals can contribute is to make that little difference, which together with other efforts can turn many wheels, so that the larger wheel will be forced to turn.

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

One more example of Women Empowerment

Jeans-clad young women are unlikely to meet these requirements for sarpanch in rural Rajasthan. And so, Chhavi Rajawat, MBA, raised eyebrows last year, literally riding on the road through the panchayat elections and become the sarpanch of the village of soda, 60 km from here.


A year later, Chhavi raised the same thrill for 11-m Info-Poverty World Conference held at the UN. Two-day debate in the UN, on 24 and 25 March was to highlight how civil society can carry out their activities and discussed in detail the role of society in combating poverty and promoting development.


Chhavi, ex-student of Rishi Valley, Bangalore and Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi showcased changing face of rural Rajasthan at the meeting.
“If India continues to make progress at the same pace as in the past 65 years since independence, it will simply not good enough. We are no people who dream of water, electricity, toilets, schools and  workplaces. I convinced we can do differently, and do it faster, “said Chhavi, who pursued her Business Administration in Marketing and IT from Pune.


“Last year, only in Soda, rural residents, and I am led to radical changes in the country purely through our own efforts. We do not have any outside support to NGOs, not public or private assistance,” she shares on satisfaction.


From the village is largely known for its bodies of water, soda, lose them, one after another body of water dries. But, becoming a sarpanch, the first task that she undertook was desilt old body water. The number of people who joined her in the task voluntarily was another instance of its popularity there.


Perhaps the only village head MBA in the country, Chhavi spoke about the need to rethink the strategy, including new technologies such as e-services to achieve the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs), in an era when resources are limited.

Sachin Apparel Park - A better livelihood opportunity for surrounding villages

Most of the units in Sachin Apparel Park have closed due to lack of man power & transportation facilities.
‘Sarthak Creation’ & ‘Banswara Group’ have initiated the survival mission.
DRDA Surat & Shakti Foundation have landed their  hands in support.
With better transportation facilities and availability of man power we are trying to ease out the current situation.

A mutual effort for Survival
Total 20 villages from Kamrej & Palasan were selected for awareness campaign about Sachin Apparel Park.
DRDA Surat provided the staff in Taluka & Villages to make the awareness campaign more effective.
With projector, photographs, videos, presentation & Gujarati literature – SHAKTI FOUNATION tried to make women aware about the livelihood opportunities in apparel park. We tried to understand their present situation, their mentality & made them understand the importance of sustainable livelihood.

Villages visited
Kosmada village - Kamrej
Kosmadai village - Kamrej
Valan-Parab: Kamrej
Simadi : Kamrej
Haldharu : Kamrej
Makna : Kamrej
Ambheti : Palsana
Amalsadi : Palsana
Makhinga  : Palsana
Lingad : Palsana
Itadava : Palsana
Kanav : Palsana

May you gain “SHAKTI” to guide you on your journey towards wholeness

Shakti Foundation aims to inspire women with the courage. To break free from the chains of limiting belief patterns and societal or religious conditioning that have traditionally kept women suppressed and unable to see their true power.

We provide them with information, encouragement, inspiration and assistance which they can use as a guide on the journey of reclaiming their power. We encourage women to see and bring forth the strength within them, to be inspired to be the best they can be and to let their spirit shine through.

For those of you who are in challenging circumstances, we can help you find some strength to begin to turn your life around. The “change” starts with you. You only need to take small steps at a time. And remember that you are not alone.