REPUBLIC DAY: Vision of Ambedkar for Women Empowerment

Ground Report | New Delhi: Vision of Ambedkar for Women Empowerment; Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was a fighter for the dignity of women and depressed people and is known as a champion of human rights. Being a pioneer of social justice, he always functioned for the "empowerment of women". According to him, everybody should be treated equally irrespective of caste, creed, gender and religion.

Vision of Ambedkar for Women Empowerment

That is why he started work for the liberation of woman and their rights. His aim was to make a society based on social justice. He realised the gender inequality among the Indian society and raised his voice to include them in modern society.

Dr Ambedkar has given equal status to women as men by providing many provisions in the Indian constitution, for strengthening and uplifting the position of women.

"We shall see better days soon and our progress will be greatly accelerated if male education is persuaded side by side with
female education." – Dr B.R Ambedkar

Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. Empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is both a highly important end in itself and necessary for the achievement of sustainable human development.

The role played by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, as chairperson of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, has left an imprint on the social tapestry of the country after independence, and shaped the socio-political fabric of India today. He attempted to forge India’s moral and social foundations a new and tried hard for a political order of the constitutional democracy that is sensitive to the disadvantaged, inherited from the past or engendered by prevailing social relations.

It is known to all Dr B.R. Ambedkar is the father of the Indian Constitution. But after reading some books on his works and his vision towards India, it will be clear that he has a versatile genius as he was also a serious scholar, good teacher, efficient lawyer, devoted leader, committed writer, distinguished educationist, social rebel, powerful debater. He was an authoritative constitutionalist, an able administrator, liberal emancipator, master statesman, daring liberator of the downtrodden masses and a fearless fighter for human rights.

Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891, in Mhow, a city of military cantonment then Central Province India. Ambedkar was treated as ‘untouchable’ in school with other children Dalits. They were not allowed to sit with other so-called upper-caste children and were allowed to drink water from common water vessels. Ambedkar was very meritorious in their studies and after completing his early education in Bombay moved to the United States for graduate studies and research; did his graduate and doctorate from Columbia University, New York. He also studied at the London School of Economics and completed a master's and doctorate from there too.

Gender equality, gender mainstreaming, networking, leadership and financial freedom are the essential aspects of women empowerment.

Dr Ambedkar realized this at his time and was included it in the process of social reforms. The vision of Dr Ambedkar about women is explicitly depicted in the Indian Constitution. Equality of sexes is strongly backed by the constitution through articles 14, 15 and 16. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles.

He laid down the foundation of social justice and there can be no social justice without gender equality. In his paper on ‘Castes in India: their mechanism, genesis and development’, Dr Ambedkar described, how women were treated cruelly by the way of sati, enforced widowhood and girl marriages just to maintain strict endogamy in a caste. The social evils regarding women in the Hindu religion as well as in Muslim society were highlighted by him.

Dr Ambedkar extensively studied the position of women in both the religion (and also in the other religions) and threw light on denial of rights to her and ultimately the status of the individual. He stated that the consequences of the "purdah system" on Muslim women were that it deprives them of mental and moral nourishment. Dr Ambedkar was expelled just for underprivileged segments including women and accepted the dignified equal status. Dr Ambedkar denied worshipping Hindu deities, ultimately freed women from inhumane customs, rituals and superstitions and made the way for her liberation.

The Education for Women:- Ambedkar's View

“The object of primary education is to see that every child that enters the portals of a primary school does leave it only at a stage when it becomes literate and continues to be literate throughout the rest of his life.” – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Education is the only mean by which societies grow out of oppression to democratic participation and involvement. It is a powerful tool for the empowerment of individuals.
Ambedkar identified two purposes of knowledge: First, to acquire it for the betterment of others and secondly to use it for one's own betterment. Ambedkar has also argued against professional learning (The British Educational System) which aims at creating a clerical nature of workers. Ambedkar emphasized secular education for social emancipation and freedom.

Education has the sole purpose to enlighten the depressed classes so as to enhance their cause of social, economic and political upliftment. The basic theme of his philosophy of education was to inculcate the values of liberty, equality, fraternity, justice and moral character among the boys and girls of all religion, regions, classes and caste.

Ambedkar listed these three components as objectives for policymakers:

• 1. Recasting the aims and purposes of education,
• 2. Education as an instrument of substantive equality,
• 3. Women's education (Velaskar, 2012).

Dr Ambedkar considered education as an important tool for the emancipation of women. Dr Ambedkar stressed education for the progress of women and our country. With a deep faith in their emancipation, Ambedkar advised them: ‘Give education to your children. He stresses the need for the cultivation of the mind and the spirit of self-help among men and women. He wants them to realize that they owe a great responsibility for educating their children in the right way. But at the same time, he advised them: send your children to schools. To him, education is the most important factor for moulding the life of all men, women and children.

Ambedkar observes “Education is as necessary for females as it is for males. He wanted to liberate women from their suffering and economic dependency. In order to give economic rights and freedom to women, Ambedkar demanded educational rights, equality and the right to property for women. Ambedkar and Women Rights and justice

Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s approach to women’s rights is exclusively different from other social reformers like Jyotiba Phule, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Mahatma Gandhi who tried to reform the Hindu society of certain outdated customs and practices without questioning the hierarchical social order. But Ambedkar made his own view for women rights and that has been reflected in the Indian constitution. His goal was to make a society based on social justice. To secure this goal, Ambedkar has given equal status to women on par with men by providing many provisions in the Indian constitution. To him, sexual discrimination should be rooted out from society and everybody should get equal opportunity in society.

It would be worth mentioning the quote by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s “Unity is meaningless without the accompaniment of women. Education is fruit less without educated women, and agitation is incomplete without the strength of women”.

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