Women Empowerment

Abstract: “You can tell the condition of the nation by looking at the status of women.”Jawaharlal Nehru.Women's empowerment is vital to sustainable development and the realization of human rights for all. When women are empowered, whole families benefit, and these benefits often have ripple effects to future generations. But the study of women’s empowerment has raised a lot of concerns and issues that are associated with other demographic and health outcomes. The WHO constitution states: "The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic and social condition. " A major obstacle to enjoying the right to health is being born female. Women’s health is of crucial importance, which is greatly affected by the ways in which they are treated and the status they are given in the society as a whole. Studies have indicated that women are biologically a...

This India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. With second highest population India is one of the nations which have extremes of economic classes. On one hand India has a long list of multi millionaires on another a major portion of the country's population is fighting for the basic requirements of survival.

With the economic position of women in Muslim countries being a regular focus of public attention and a fiercely debated topic amongst academics, few systematic, detailed descriptions and analyses are available. This book presents a new and nuanced exploration of the topic, introducing a theoretical framework that accommodates both women's individual agency as well as cultural, economic, religious, and political forces shaping their position. Collating research findings involving more than 300,000 women in 383 provinces in 28 Muslim countries ranging from the Middle East via Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia to Indonesia in Southeast Asia, the book, based on this wealth of data, shows how many women earn a living outside agriculture, how big the differences in employment likelihood really are, and how these differences can be explained. In doing so it addresses topical debates on the role of Islam, modernization, globalization, neocolonialism, educational inequalities, patriarchy, household hierarchies, and more. This is a sample chapter.

Women and girls are almost half the world's population and they are on the fronts that's why often more intensely impacted than other genders by poverty, weather change, food uncertainty, lack of healthcare, and worldwide economic crises. Their contributions are central to outcomes. With the new global 2030 roadmap and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advised by UN Member States on 25 September 2015, included aspects on how women are affected by each of the 17 proposed SDGs, as well as how women and girls can be key to achieving each of these goals.

This article elaborates on an action research undertaken by three researchers from a business school of a leading university in the Philippines on the contribution of non-formal education programs in poverty alleviation, aimed to initiate women empowerment and youth development among selected women and youth in the parishes they belong to. Non-formal education programs such as home-based livelihood program, parenting for women, leadership, character building, values clarification, and priority setting for women and youth were administered as a way to reduce the selected parishioners’ vulnerabilities arising from poverty. Using outcome mapping as a project cycle management tool, changed behaviours, attitudes, and values were identified not as final indicators but as an indicator of progress in empowerment and development to which the non-formal education programs contribute.

The article reports on the participation of women in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in South African municipalities towards attaining Sustainable Development Goal Number 5 (Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls"). Drawing from the critical theory on women empowerment in ICTs, the article examined how gender equality could benefit or deter women participation in ICT towards achieving SDG 5. Whereas public Information Communication Technology (ICT) hotspots and centres are being set in South African municipalities, women's participation in ICT is marginally low. This is due to digital illiteracy and the digital divide which are deterrents for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 in South Africa. The article seeks to strike a balance between ICT and gender disparities to promote women equal participation in ICT which is crucial for women emancipation in the digital age. The article draws from an interpretive paradigm where qualitative research methods mainly documents and expansive literature sources were employed as data collection techniques. Findings for the article have shown that gender inequalities exist in the provision of ICTs among women in South Africa. Women are confronted with the digital divide, discrimination, lack of digital expertise, poverty and inequalities, negative perceptions and patriarchal slavery. The conclusions drawn for this article emphasis more on stakeholder inclusion to support women in ICT in South Africa. More training and funding for women to access ICT education remains a key imperative for the achievement of SDG 5. For women to thrive in the male-dominated ICT space, they need to shift the status quo by participating in ICT development. The government of South Africa should enact policies and laws that promote capacity building and women inclusion in ICT for the achievement of SDG 5.

State policies and programs in the Philippines have paved the way for more women to participate in the peace and security sector, particularly in the military, in recent years. These policies are incorporated in the larger gender and development (GAD) policy of the government. This article assesses whether the GAD policies and programs actually translate to the retention of female military personnel in the Philippine Navy, one of the three branches of service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It measures the satisfaction of female military personnel on policies on women empowerment and protection against sexual violence, together with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and evaluates whether these factors have an effect in their decision to stay or leave the military profession. The revised gendered model shows that the most significant factor affecting the intention of female soldiers of the Philippine Navy to stay is organizational commitment while job satisfaction has more direct and significant positive effect on organizational commitment, with satisfaction on women empowerment and participation having a direct positive effect on both organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The female soldiers' experience of sexual harassment in the organization lowers their level of satisfaction on the organization's programs on women empowerment and participation.

In developing countries poultry rearing has been practiced for many years. The study focused on revealing the level of empowerment of rural women and food assurance through poultry farming especially chicken. Data was collected from one hundred and one respondents through semi structured interview form Chakwal city. The research was conducted over a period of six weeks. The data was entered and then analyzed by correlating it through SPSS. Scope of the study was to observe the effects of poultry rearing on the life of rural women and the way it has contributed to her empowerment and food security at household level. It was observed that poultry rearing at household level has not much enhanced the overall household income yet plays role in contributing to sustain household economy. Besides being healthy and nutritious source of food, it somehow contributes in securing dietary needs especially of the young ones. It has made the women self-employed, more confident, socially empowered and more valued not only in their families but also in their community.

Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”. Tackling issues with Respect to Women’s access to information and opportunity remedies, and a way forward for ascertaining women’s social protection, public services and investments in sustainable infrastructure.

The study of socio-economic condition of domestic women workers is important to formulate policies regarding human resource development and women empowerment. Punjab is one of the richest states of India as per the gross state domestic product per capita, and is rich in culture and tradition. Informal sector constitutes a pivotal part in Punjab economy. Current study aims at understanding the socio-economic condition of domestic women workers in Punjab. To fulfil the objective a sample of 160 domestic women workers collected from different areas of Sangrur district has been studied. The results have shown that the condition of domestic women workers is vulnerable in Punjab. The wage rate they get is very low compared to their marginal productivity. The reasons for their vulnerable condition are caste difference, unequal gender relations, poor economic background, irregular work, very little or no bargaining power, lack of credit facilities, drug addiction of their male partners, death of husband and lack of assets. Given the vulnerable status of domestic women workers of Punjab at home or at work, an increase in their wage rate is inevitable. But increased wage rate alone will not be enough. Their economic empowerment needs to go along with political empowerment, which could improve their bargaining power both at work and in home.

Empowerment women have the strong correlation to sustainable development goals: Gender Equality, with one of its global goals, is reduce the violence against women and children. The implementation is focusing on the regional level because of Regency and City Government are the spearhead of SDGs realization. In the study, it was found that local governments already have legal products and some efforts to empower and protect women and children. This was in accordance with Presidential Instruction No. 5 of 2014 on the National Movement of Anti-Crime against Children. In addition, cooperation between stakeholders such as women crisis center, police department, hospital, philanthropy and also mass media help to implement, monitor and evaluate the course of SDGs. Without their active role, SDG will only fail or can be achieved no more than 50%. Because success at the regional level can be a benchmark of the country's success in running SDGs.

Keywords: Sustainable development, gender equality, violence, women crisis center, local
governments, Indonesia

Toxic masculinity could also make the assumption that all males are heterosexual as well as dominating gender, implying that this is how they should be, which obviously not the case is. It's worth noting, though, that toxic masculine qualities can exist in gay and Tran’s males as well. In film, toxic masculinity is portraying very spontaneously regarding the purpose and financial success. It can be seen that children are affected by toxic masculinity related entertainment in films. Above and beyond, this study purposes to discover repetition of toxic masculinity in children's films and its effects on their future life. Besides, this research monograph has engaged with expanded interviews through questionnaires, and relevant contents analysis for data collection. Collected data’s have taken by using qualitative and quantitative method, also analyzed purposefully. Apart from this, this paper has been covered the each proper information about the topic “The Importance of Portrayal: How Toxic Masculinity in Children's Films is Shaping Future Generation". Moreover, the shows that how toxic masculinity impacts on children's psychology through children's film. Most importantly, the result of this research given a phenomenon of how toxic masculinity in children's films which is shaping future generation.
Keywords: Toxic Masculinity, Heterosexual, Dominating Gender, Children are Affected by Toxic Masculinity, The Importance of Portrayal, Toxic Masculinity Impacts on Children's Phycology, and Shaping Future Generation.

Women Empowerment is a vast concept in itself with various branches which emerges through various means and process for women in establishing a strong position in the society. Women in the society still stand in the last mile away group in various sectors in the society. With the advent of Modernization, they are gradually raising their standards through various means and building an individual identity of their own in the society. Women of vulnerable community are more prone to exclusion and exploitation in the society. Tea tribe community women are more vulnerable social group in the state of Assam facing ethnicity crisis and identity crisis as women. The formation of various Self- Help Groups for women is one of the various means of empowering this vulnerable group of women in the rural society. Women Self- Help Groups are changing the dynamics of the status of tea tribe community women in both social and economic fields. They are producing social entrepreneurs from this institution of women in the rural society who are building a different identity apart from their ethnicity. Women social entrepreneurs from this vulnerable community are transforming the rural society and their community especially through these institutions. Women social entrepreneurs through Self-Help groups are representing themselves as leaders of change for all women socially and economically. Self- Help Groups provides platform for women to explore various ways or means of solving problems related to development with innovative and new methods. Similarly, this Paper, has given emphasis on the role of Self-Help Groups in producing Women social Entrepreneurs from the Tea tribe community women despite of their marginality and their contribution in the socioeconomic growth locally of Tezpur region of Sonitpur District of Assam.

The study was planned with 30 women entrepreneurs who had employed at least two employees. A pre-tested structured interview schedule was
made to get the information regarding motivating and facilitating factors, achievement motivation, analysis of their entrepreneurial understanding,
attitude towards efficient management, progress, employment opportunity provided by them, future plan and future attitude towards
entrepreneurship including their goals and efforts made by them at present to achieve those goals. Findings revealed that majority of them had
good entrepreneurial understanding, good attitude towards efficient management and had good progress of their industry. Majority of them were
moderate risk takers. Majority of them did not face any problem due to their sex role as a woman while due to their involvement in the venture
they faced major problems, lack of the time. Majority of them opined that they would like their children to become entrepreneurs in any line of
their own choice. Majority of them had future goal for self to serve the nation, while for the enterprise, they wanted to improve quality global
level, make new establishment and become most reliable and reputed unit. Majority of them opined that hard work along with good ideas is the
only way to success and advance planning with reference to time was emphasized.

Indonesia’s new Village Law states that its implementation should emphasise community empowerment and participation, rather than simply fund distribution. The empowerment and participation principles are important for identifying and addressing the basic services that are most needed by villagers, including women and marginalised groups. The empowerment and participation principles are embedded from the National Programme for Community Empowerment (PNPM), a community-driven development programme that was implemented for more than ten years in more than 60,000 villages in Indonesia. However, in two years of implementation of the new law, the practice of those principles is still questionable, especially in addressing the needs of women and marginalised groups. This dissertation examines the impact of women’s empowerment initiatives in PNPM, as well as the current role and involvement of women in the development of four communities in Indonesia. It does so by looking at the perceptions of and actual practice of women’s empowerment and participation in village development and formal political structures. The research also analyses the contributing factors that influence women’s empowerment in the villages.

The reality check approach methodology is applied to shed light on the actual practice of women’s involvement in village development by living with and listening to different groups of women and their families and relatives. Semi-structured interviews and a quantitative survey were also conducted to triangulate the findings. The findings were then analysed using the women’s empowerment framework by Sara Longwe (March et al., 1999), which argues that women’s development will be achieved through five levels of empowerment, which are welfare, access, conscientisation, participation and control. It finds that women’ empowerment is slowly progressing, pushed by affirmative actions from programmes like PNPM, levels of education as well as work and organisational experiences. However, the strong perception of the people on differentiation of women’s and men’s role in development strongly affects the achievement of women’s empowerment.

The research particularly highlighted the important role played by the PKK, a state-led women’s organisation established by the New Order regime on the 1970s, which is still very strongly institutionalised at village level.  Findings show that these older village governance structures are still highly influential on women’s empowerment in the villages that have not been changed much by the PNPM programme. This dissertation has implications for all village development interventions, especially those related to the inclusion of women. The study concludes by considering whether there is a possibility of engaging with and transforming the PKK’s role so that it becomes an agent of women’s empowerment in the village law implementation.

The paper has been prepared on the basis of available literatures. The present research paper reveals that, on one hand, the literacy rate of females have increased considerably over the years but on the other hand, crime against women is increasing every year.

The emergence of ICT has provided an unrivalled opportunity for women to exploit their capabilities to improve their quality of life as well as to contribute to the welfare of the society. Internet has also become a social and communication tool with e-mails being an efficient communication tool. Internet offers new possibilities for networking and participative democracy but feminists are failing to challenge the use of the Internet for furthering more dangerous and discriminatory agendas, including Internet crime committed against women and the proliferation of pornography. Many youth are engaging socially through common social network like WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter, msn, my space and are actually addicted to these Internet social activities, making them vulnerable to Internet crimes. The increased dependency of individual / organisations on cyberspace has led to the increase in the cybercrimes. In India we find there is minimal proper training and education regarding such devel...

Child bearing and rising of children are extremely important endeavours in every Women's life and are strongly related with the ultimate goals of completeness, happiness and for family integration. It is widely recognized that human existence reaches completeness through a child and satisfies the individual's need for reproduction. Unfortunately human fertility is comparatively low than other species of animal kingdom in the recent days. For women, motherhood is not only a foundation of status and power; it is the only opportunity for women to ensure their marital security. Weak marital ties did not affect men's social identity, security or power. But on women Psychosocial, social, emotional and physical consequences of infertility are harsher for women than men. The problem of infertility is a raising concern in India and the reason needs to be discovered. Limited information is available about the extent of infertility, its social impact on Women, availability of treatment and treatment (infertility) seeking behaviour of infertile women. Above all it is a costly affaire and the women those who are undergoing this treatment physically suffer a lot. This study is attempted to gain knowledge regarding the causes of infertility, the problems and the challenges of infertile women and the extent of psycho-social and economic sufferings of infertile women.

Gender is referred to as a socially constructed characteristic of both women and men, like norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It changes from society to society and can also vary sometimes. Some gender roles in some societies are more rigid than others, for instance, in Pakistan, the role of men is to decide what the lady and females should do, hence, they are seen as the main decision-makers so women aren't given the chance to talk up albeit they don’t just like the idea.

This paper seeks to analyze the National Gender Policy to seek out how best it's transformed society. Various scholarly and literature materials were consulted and used to draft this paper. Gender empowerment has been the main key for development in many countries across the planet but there are tons of nations still finding it difficult to offer the chance to women to require up certain roles in society and also to form certain decisions to assist cause development. 2018 Statistics from the World Bank show that 79% of men structure the labor force participation rate and, 64% of girls structure the labor force participation rate, obviously, this shows most girls are marginalized within the society even at the workplace.

Los medios de comunicación poseen gran capacidad de influencia para la creación de imaginarios sociales y sentidos comunes a partir de narrativas que presentan un claro sesgo androcéntrico. El análisis de la representación de las mujeres en los medios de comunicación evidencia prácticas relacionadas con la estereotipificación, la cosificación y la hipersexualización, con graves consecuencias para la salud y la autoestima de las mujeres y adolescentes. El enfoque social propuesto desde la educación mediática se convierte en el marco para la propuesta “Educomunicación para la igualdad” que tiene por objetivo el análisis de contenidos, narrativas y representaciones con una perspectiva de género en el contexto de la crítica a la ideología patriarcal que legitima las desigualdades de género. Como propuesta de acción, se incluyen sugerencias para que las niñas y adolescentes se conviertan en creadoras y productoras de contenidos como parte del proceso de empoderamiento
mediático.

Organizing rural women through Self Help Groups and equip them to earn income by the formation of microenterprises have created an economic revolution in Odisha, India. Empowerment of women through microenterprises in rural Odisha can challenge their traditional practice and culture to effectively promote their well being. The present study addresses women empowerment through microenterprises in Cuttack district of Odisha. In this research work, field data were collected from rural women based on their working pattern, economic condition, family background, education level, and size of the family. Descriptive Statistics including frequencies, percentage, mean and standard deviations were carried out to draw meaningful interpretation of the results and to find out the reasons for joining the microenterprises. The result of the study revealed that microenterprises programmes have had greater impact on both social and economical aspects of the rural women in Odisha. The successful functioning of microenterprises provides economic independence to women leading to their empowerment.

.The aim of the study is to determine the factors affecting women empowerment and the issues faced by them. The paper also reveals the status of women empowerment in India and how factors are affecting the current status of women in India. The chosen factors for this research are status, health, access to education opportunities, exposure to media, decision making power social, freedom of movement, economic and legal rights as men, adopted from past literatures and various reports. The urge for equality on the part of Indian women started getting momentum during the colonial times. Empowering women means one family is moving forward with that one village moves and the nation moves simultaneously. It is found that women in India are not empowered and treated lower status relatively to men. To overcome all the prevalent issues, many efforts have been done by government to empower women at national level across India by implementing various schemes and initiatives. This paper tries to postulates potentialities of women in various fields and initiatives undertaken by Government of India.

This study tested a parent empowerment framework using a national sample of 9,982 parents from the Parent and Family Involvement Survey (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007) to investigate relationships between parent empowerment and children’s academic performance. A multinomial logistic regression demonstrated significant relationships between parents’ competence, self-determination, community belonging, community participation, and academic performance, which differentiate among parents based on racial/ethnic, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings highlight the importance of parent empowerment interventions that consider structural barriers in schools.

In this paper I will examine the representations of empowerment and sexuality through the portrayal of female sex workers in television drama. Boyle (2006, 2008, 2010) and Levy (2005) have studied the sexualisation of women in mainstream media and their findings show a constructed idea of empowered women taking control of their sexualised predestination. I would like to take this research a step further and propose that although women are shown to be empowered in these roles there is an underlying moralistic narrative that ensures that they cannot do this without consequence, thus exploring the theory of post empowerment. To do this I will examine Lady Heather Kessler, a dominatrix living in Las Vegas, from CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000 – present day) and Belle Du Jour, a high class prostitute living in London, from ITV2’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl Series 1 and 2 (2007 – 2008). An exploration of the way the characters are portrayed, their backgrounds, how they choose to live, where they choose to live and their relationship with other characters will form the basis of this paper.

The chapter deals with the global issue of advancing women's role in higher education and research (HE&R) as a mechanism for reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 5 – gender equality. Gender analysis method is employed to identify historical and current differences between women and men relative to their participation in HE&R and access to decision-making and resources therein. The focus is on the global challenge of gender disparities, including horizontal and vertical segregation, the androcentric academic culture, and the gender pay gap. The authors warn of possible contamination of AI with human gender biases, which can be detrimental to academic hiring and assessment procedures. Summarizing gender-equality policies and practices available worldwide, the authors give recommendations on women's empowerment in HE&R on the global, national, and organizational levels.

Women empowerment is an essential precondition for elimination of poverty. Many International and National bodies have stressed on women empowerment giving attention to their participation in society, decision-making, education and health. This paper is an effort to assess the role of women in women empowerment through employment and the perception of improvement in different pre-determined domains. The sample size was restricted to 10 household helpers. This paper also talks about positive improvement in all domains after they started working than they were before. Micro finance has brought tremendous change in their lives at the grass root level, women had better access to credit facilities and increased income which helped them to contribute to the house holds expenses. Thus the participants had economic security, easy credit accessibility, better decision making in family, improved family environment (relative freedom from domination), increased mobility and improved political and legal knowledge.

A true life story of facing war time conflict internally and externally to overcome extreme trauma, focusing on post lobotomy coping mechanisms and empowerment through reframing dynamics situations and sculpting the situation into your favor.

Life Insurance Corporation of India Act 1956 was passed by Indian Parliament and thus Life Insurance Corporation of India came in to existence as a statutory corporation. It was a monopolistic organisation for dealing with life insurance business in India till 2000, when life insurance sector was liberalized. There are different models in marketing insurance products like Traditional Insurance model, Banking Insurance Model and Hybrid Insurance Model. Life Insurance Corporation of India was following Traditional Insurance Model which are fully depend on the insurance agents who are appointed as commission basis. After liberalization, the corporation changed their marketing technique and included Bancassuarance, Direct marketing, Micro insurance and Chief Life Insurance Advisors Scheme. Thus the investigator tried to explore the Hybrid Insurance Model following by the corporation. The study was purely based on secondary data. The investigator tried to organize the data to know the marketing and distribution channels and its effect on sale of the life insurance products by the corporation. The major sources of data are the Annual reports of Life Insurance Corporation of India, Annual report of Vijaya Bank and Annual reports of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. The finding of the study was the major part of the new businesses which were contributed by traditional channel and the other channels that are growing faster now. Thus the traditional channel is now in the decline stage. The number of agents is also reducing now and the direct marketing method was highly accepted by the customers.  The investigator suggests that the corporation should use both traditional and nontraditional channels for some future period for satisfying the customers.

India's poor performance on critical food and nutrition security indicators despite substantial economic prosperity has been widely documented. These failings not only hamper national progress, but also contribute significantly to the global undernourished population, particularly children. While the recently passed National Food Security Act 2013 adopts a life-cycle approach to expand coverage of subsidized food grains to the most vulnerable households and address food security, there remains much to be desired in the legislation. Access to adequate food for 1·24 billion people is a multifaceted problem requiring an interconnected set of policy measures to tackle the various factors affecting food and nutrition security in India. In the present opinion paper, we discuss a fivefold strategy that incorporates a life-cycle approach, spanning reproductive health, bolstering citizen participation in existing national programmes, empowering women, advancing agriculture and better monitoring the Public Distribution System in order to fill the gaps in both access and adequacy of food and nutrition.

Bureaucracy is an organizational form that became dominant in business, government and other arenas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since then, extensive debates among sociologists and others have centered on its social impact, rationality and nature. The aim of bureaucracy is to standardize all activities within the organization and ensure that control passes from the top to the bottom. As such, owners and senior managers are allowed to control the organization in a more efficient and indirect way thus mitigating the risk of self-conflict and loss of control of the affairs of an organization. Nevertheless, excessive bureaucracy makes public organizations more arthritic and self-serving, hence, rendering them less able to achieve their core missions and less responsive to service users due to nepotism. Bureaucratic institutions are characterised by red tapism, excessive paper work, fear of innovation, poor customer service, duplication of working procedures, strict adherence to procedures, weak management practices, low morale, etc. This has resulted into many people nowadays having a negative perception of bureaucracy because it is rigid and responds slowly to environmental changes and that it relies heavily on rules and procedures.

A homegarden project was launched in 2 districts of Bangladesh (Jessore and Barishal) with the collaboration of BRAC and AVRDC funded by USAID. It was a successful project and the beneficieries were very much satisfied with the project. Different  summer vegetable and winter vegetable seeds were given to the beneficiaries and training was also given on vegetable production. This project actually enhanced vegetable producton as well as consumption in the project areas.

Women's empowerment is the process of empowering women. Empowerment raises the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment equips and allows women to take life-determining decisions. They may get the opportunity to redefine gender roles, which in turn provide them more freedom to pursue desired goals.

Women empowerment is a significant topic of discussion in development and economics. Economic empowerment allows women in controlling and getting benefit from resources, assets and incomes. It also grows ability to manage risks and improves well-being. It refers to women's ability to make strategic life choices which had been previously denied them. The worlds, Nations, businesses, communities and groups may benefit from women empowerment. It enhances the quality and the quantity of human resources available for development.

Public protests, agitations and demonstrations are part of the democratic political process. It shapes the polity of a country and transforms social, political and economic aspects. In Pakistan’s history, protest or pressure politics has played a significant role. Significant protests in Pakistan have been held against ‘election riggings’ including the recent one against 2013 general elections (presumably won by Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League N). This present study discusses the recent protest ‘popularly called Dharna’ staged by Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) under the leadership of the present Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad for 126 days against the alleged rigging of elections of 2013. This empirical study explores the causes of PTI Dharna. It is based on the Primary data collected through a random sample of interviews from students, lawyers and political activists in May-June 2019 in Lahore, Nowshera and Peshawar, Pakistan. We argue that the Dharna has multiple features long continued presence, participation of multiple groups, violence and media coverage. However, the dharna has multiple causes. The significant reason of PTI for staging protest against the Nawaz Shairf was the alleged rigging in the general elections of 2013. Other causes of this dharna are to expose corruption and alleged role of establishment for their vested political interests.

Este estudio aporta evidencia sobre el uso de estrategias digitales en la mejora de las capacidades de las mujeres de tres comunidades vulnerables del Paraguay, participantes del programa de protección social Abrazo, en el contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19. Evalúa cuatro soluciones digitales orientadas al empoderamiento económico, la protección de las mujeres ante la violencia de género, y conductas de prevención ante el nuevo coronavirus. Identifica las necesidades, barreras y oportunidades en materia de generación de ingresos; así como en referencia a la ruta de atención y respuesta frente a la violencia de género contra las mujeres. Con base en los hallazgos, señala propuestas y recomendaciones de políticas públicas basadas en las perspectivas de las mujeres, en los temas señalados.

This study provides evidence on the use of digital strategies to improve the capacities of women in three vulnerable communities in Paraguay, participants of the social protection program Abrazo, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It evaluates four digital solutions aimed at economic empowerment, protection of women against gender violence, and prevention behaviors against the new coronavirus. Needs, barriers and opportunities in terms of income generation are also identified; as well as in reference to the route of attention and response to gender violence against women. Based on the findings, it indicates proposals and recommendations for public policies based on the perspectives of women, on the issues indicated.

*Esta investigación ha sido posible gracias al trabajo colaborativo del equipo del proyecto conformado por:  Adriana Insaurralde, directora del proyecto e investigadora especialista en empoderamiento económico; José Manuel Gómez, investigador especialista en empoderamiento económico;  José Britos Rivas, investigador tutor; María Molinas Cabrera, investigadora tesista y especialista en género; Norma Ubaldi Garcete, investigadora especialista en género; Elena Cubilla, investigadora especialista en educación y soluciones digitales; Laura Morínigo, coordinadora general del trabajo de campo; Andrés Rojas, asistente de investigación. Colaboraciones especiales:  Mauricio Romero (investigador y consultor en estrategias digitales);  Victor Ortíz (técnico); Liza Fleitas (técnica del trabajo de campo); Tania Insfrán (técnica) y Mirna González Vera (encuestadora). Fundación Capital, 2021 www.fundacioncapital.org.

*Esta publicación se realizó en el marco del Proyecto PINV20-273 cofinanciado por el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) con recursos del FEEI.

Challengers of Social Work Education in Sri  Lanka
Shamini  Attanayake
Director, School of Social Work
National Institute of Social Development
Introduction
The aim of this article is to discuss challengers of Social Work education and the related issues in providing this education in Sri Lanka. The social work education started in Sri Lanka in 1952. Though it has a long history the growth of social work education has been very slow and it is not expanded to all over the country yet. The Sri Lanka School of Social Work at the National Institute of Social Development, which is functioning under the purview of the Ministry of Social  Empowerment and Welfare , is the only institution that provides professional social work education in the country. The social work education is conducted at the tertiary level.
Social Work Education in Sri Lanka
Social work Education  was already mentioned that professional education for Social Work started in Sri Lanka in 1952. The Sri Lanka School of Social Work at the National Institute of Social Development (NISD), which is functioning under the purview of the Ministry of Social Empowerment and Welfare, is the only institution that provides Social Work professional education in this country up to now. This means social work education has been providing by the Sri Lanka School of Social Work for more than  60 years by now. After about 50 years it was recognized as a degree awarding institute. None of the Universities paid any attention to the field of social work until the Tsunami disaster happened in Sri Lanka in 2004. Most of the people do not understand the difference between Social Work and Sociology. Four universities have introduced some course units in Social Work in Sociology special degree courses. They are just introductory courses in Social Work. Social Work is a separate discipline, a field of study and a profession. It has its own internationally designated titles for degrees as Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work. They are the basic qualifications to be registered as Professional Social Workers in most of the countries. The NISD conducts three levels of professional courses in Social Work. They are the Diploma in Social Work, Bachelors degree in Social Work and the Masters degree in Social Work. The Diploma in Social Work commenced in 1978 as a full-time two year programme is conducted in local languages; Sinhala and Tamil. After the NISD was declared as a degree awarding institute by the UGC in 2005 it was empowered to conduct and afford Bachelor of Social Work degree. The BSW course was started in 2005 and the Masters in Social Work programme commenced in 2008.
The common features of the curricular of the three educational courses are that they consist of both theoretical learning at the classroom and the practical learning at the field. The theoretical knowledge provided in two major areas as understanding human behavior and social work methods on working with individuals, families, groups, communities and organizations. The field work is organized by the Field work coordinator of the School of Social Work. There is a cadre of local supervisors trained by the school to supervise students. The students are placed in social welfare agencies to practice case management and group work and for community work. Some students are directly sent to the communities by the school and some are through NGOs who are having community work programmes.
Role of Social Workers in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has experienced rapid socioeconomic changes during the past. The prolonged civil war was over and the country is reawakening. The society will have more changes in the future with having more emphasis in economic development. It is inevitable that people have to adapt to these changes and those who cannot adapt to the situations will have to face with problems. There could be multiple reasons for the development of the problems. It is the role of the social scientists to study these situations, analyze and interpret the situations but the role of the social worker is to intervene at the situations of human interactions to find out solutions for the problems faced by the people for their well-being. Problems could be located with individuals, families, groups and communities. They could be related with lack of availability of service delivery systems or due to absence of social policies. Sri Lanka needs thousands and thousands of social workers to work in variety of field settings. They are required to work in institutions as well as in the communities. They have to engage in curative, preventive and developmental social work. Some of the institutions which need social workers are mental hospitals, schools, prisons, camps for displaced people and resettlement villages. Some of the categories of populations which need social work interventions are disable people, children, victims of the crimes, single women headed families, workers in the industries and people living under poverty.  At present there are about 2500 social workers trained by the Sri Lanka School of Social Work. However there is no system of registration and issuing licenses for social workers in the country to identify them as professional social workers. The Sri Lanka Association of Professional Social Workers has proposed to bring legislation through a Parliamentary bill to establish a Regulatory Body for Professional Social Workers in Sri Lanka.  It is the duty of all to join hands with the association to bring it to a reality.
The Challenges
The Challenge before social work lies in the complexity of issues that Sri Lanka grapples with in the psycho social shear which is clamoring for the need for social works, conservatively estimated to be around 30,000 for a total population of 20 million.. Sri Lanka is a Developing  country, after war thousands of displaced persons, and the list of serious social problem is disturbing. There are numerous groups undergoing severe hardship, excluded from the mainstream, denied basic human dignity, betrayed by the new economic arrangements  for assistance. But the country is still not equipped to attend to these in a systematic manner as the human resource is untrained. This paper is intended to be an introduction to the hope that the teacher and the student may both benefit from the coverage of some theoretical material as these have not been made available to the Sri Lankan social workers. I have also attempted to contextualize the subject so that it may take a Sri Lankan flavor which I believe is essential. Western Social Work cannot be copied for an Asian society. Social and cultural arrangements are very different in Western models of practice. the types of social work practice even among the developed West, the relevant theory and delivery are varied Social workers role is associated with certain key terms and to name just a few, they are well being, injustice, human dignity, and exclusivity. The social worker is mostly addressing the dis economies of growth. In contemporary Sri Lankan society there are numerous individuals and group who are marginalized by the social and economic arrangements under which we all live.

Empowerment of women essentially mean improving the social, political and economic status of women, especially the traditional underprivileged one. It means creating an environment where women are free from any kind of physical, mental abuse, exploitation, and prejudice that they are the most vulnerable section in the society. Recognising the importance of women in the economic growth of the nation, the Government of India along with State Governments has been taking several efforts since post-independence period to uplift women from their conditions in general. Attempts were made by the Government to address the issues through employment, empowerment, labour force participation, education, gender equality and entrepreneurship. The focus of Government is progressively shifting towards promoting women entrepreneurship to motivate women to participate in the economic activities. The study examines the perspective of women who are getting benefitted through various government schemes implemented in assistance with non-governmental organizations. The impact observed is in terms of such as-financial assistance, training facilities, infrastructure and its awareness, motivation, confidence, increase in the rate of women opting for entrepreneurship. Studies have shown that such initiatives are boosting self-confidence, increasing the purchasing power and decision making power, leading to their empowerment. It, therefore, addresses the economic, socio-cultural, inter-personal, psychological, political and legal domains of empowerment. The study has been conducted in three selected village of Maharashtra. Data was collected from various NGO, Women entrepreneurs and women beneficiaries associated with various Self-Help Group's (SHG's) in the Kanave, Shahapur (Dist. Thane) and Vengaon, Karjat (Dist. Raigad) regions. The Mixed method approach has been adopted for analysis of this research. Primary data was collected from personal interviews with well-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions in both the areas.

Bangladesh is a developing country which shows continuous improvement in the area of women empowerment. Women’s economic empowerment is necessary for growth, development and stability. Women are still facing obstacles and their lives could be made easier by giving them easy access to economic opportunities through gender equality. Education and prevention of child marriage can play a role in improving the labour participation rate of women. In this paper, the changing pattern of the women’s economic empowerment is depicted based on the extant literature. Moreover, this paper argues that creating favourable and female friendly environment will enhance women’s economic empowerment in Bangladesh.

This Malayalam article attempts to make visible the phenomenon of housework, which has remained invisible in much of social life, social science discourse and policymaking. The secondary status accorded to housework and its implications for individuals, society and women as a group are analysed here. The significance of this at a national-international level, the necessity of including housework in national income accounting and the relevance of further studies in this area are touched upon.

Social attitude to the role of women lags much behind the law. This attitude which considers women fit for certain jobs and not others colors those who recruit employees. Thus women find employment easily as nurses, doctors, teachers the caring and nurturing sectors, secretaries or in assembling jobs-the routine submissive sectors. But even if well qualified women engineers or managers or geologists are available, preference will be given to a male of equal qualification. A gender bias creates an obstacle at the recruitment stage itself.

The general human tendency is to look smarter and more beautiful as compared to their friends, colleagues and family members. Variety in beauty care services has improved the overall personality of both men and women in the society. Women are very much fond of availing beauty services like facial, makeup, haircut, manicure, pedicure and so on. There are many examples of women flourishing in the beauty care industry like Shahnaz Hussain, Ambika Pillai, Vandana Luthra and many more. Beauty enhancement is an important aspect in everyone’s life which can be facilitated by the presence of more and more beauty care service units or beauty parlours. It can be seen in majority of ladies that they are very much interested in looking after their skin and hair through application of different cosmetics products available and acknowledged with the facilitation of beauty parlours. In the world of beauty, women through their continuous effort and hard work in the field of beauty care have excelled and created their separate mark. The present study has laid emphasis on exploring the social and economic status of women beauticians as entrepreneurs.