Legal Powers and Duties of Local Authorities in Relation to the Essay

Legal Powers and Duties of Local Authorities in Relation to the Protection of Children - Essay Example This research will begin with the definition of safeguarding as the process of ‘protecting children’ from such harms as neglect and keeping them safe from impairment of health in order to ensure that they successfully enter adulthood. Admittedly, The United Kingdom’s childcare system is diverse and is offered by private, voluntary, and other independent providers. The country’s childcare offerings include both full day-care and care on a session basis. Private, voluntary, and other providers work in association with children centers and schools in order to deliver flexible and quality services. The UK government has been trying to improve child protection through various rules and regulations which give specific attention to the nation’s increasing child abuse issues. In fact, Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 is the very basis of the responsibilities of the local councils. It points out that the councils are responsible to initiate inquiries if th ey find that a child in their area is probably suffering, or is likely to suffer harm. If it is found in enquires that there is potential harm, the local authority should conduct a discussion with other concerned agencies to initiate a core assessment which leads to procedures to protect the child. Sections 8, 9, and 10 of the Childcare Act 2006 provide local authorities with a set of powers in order to efficiently fulfill their duties, which have been defined under sections 6 and 7 of the Act.... They may provide short term as well as long term financial assistance to providers. In addition, local authorities are given the power to extend their services to families in need; for instance, families with disable children. The authorities can determine the type of assistance to be offered to those families. Section 8(3) specifies certain criteria for providing childcare for a particular child or group of children. As per this section, a local authority must not offer childcare unless it is convinced that there is no one to provide childcare or another person is not willing to do so4. At the same time, section 8(4) of the Act exempts childcare provision under the control of a maintained school from the limits of the section 8(3). The section 8(5) states that subsection 3 is not applicable to childcare provision guidelines defined under section 18(1) or (5) of the Children Act 19895. According to section 9 of the 2006 Act, when local authorities make arrangements with a childcare p rovider by offering financial assistance, they have the power to impose certain requirements on that provider in order to ensure quality of the childcare provided6. In addition, the local authority may require repayment of the whole fund if the provider fails to meet the requirements. Section 10 of the Act provides local authorities with the power to charge for any childcare services they provide; given some exceptions. According to the provisions of the 2006 Act, local authorities do not have any restriction in offering different types of assistance to providers. When there are no possibilities for local authorities to deliver childcare services in partnership with private, volunteer, and

Wu zholiu's orphan of asia and taiwanese students studying in japan Essay

Wu zholiu's orphan of asia and taiwanese students studying in japan - Essay Example This one is a masterpiece that Taiwanese literature shall always cherish. The Taiwanese Literature, as we know it today, developed in 1920s. The writers during that period reflected on Japan’s role as a colonizer, Wu Zhouliu does the same. The Taiwanese literature was as influenced by the culture of Japan, which was forced by Japan, as by the need to voice its identity. The Taiwanese literature was trying to break the image of Taiwan as ‘extended Japan’ while at the same time most of the works were in either Japanese or usually had element of Japanese. Wu Zhouliu, too, was much better in Japanese than in Chinese but his works were rebellious, indicating Japanese as oppressors of Taiwanese. The Taiwanese literature was a means for peaceful rebellion, after the violent methods to drive Japanese out of their land failed, and the task is successfully carried forward by Orphan of Asia. Thus, the work not just adds on to the main reason for evolution of Taiwanese literature-rebellion against their colonizer, but it also takes up the task of representing Taiwan under Japan as it was to the future generations. Taiwan was occupied by Japan from China for fifty years (1895-1945) before it was handed over to China again. As long as Taiwan was the colony of Japan, Taiwanese remained neither Japanese nor Chinese. Their identity as Taiwanese was all too obliterated. This situation of Taiwanese is well depicted in Orphan of Asia, where the protagonist-Tai-ming was confused about his identity. The writer uses the word ‘orphan’ to indicate that with no identity of its own Taiwanese were orphan, they had been separated from their mother-China, and their colonizers never accepted them as one of them. Not just were they separated from their roots (China), but also their roots never accepted them back. Tai-ming believes that his roots are in China and hence is ready to make any sacrifice for his roots but it is ironic that he shall not disclose

Emerging Workplace Trends that Challenge the Organization

Emerging Workplace Trends that Challenge the Organization The role of the Human Resource Professional is evolving with the change in competitive market environment and the realization that Human Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire consequences, as their competitors may be outplaying them in the strategic employment of their human resources. With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organizations must become more adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR professional has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organizations big picture and be able to influence key decisions and policies. In general, the focus of todays HR Manager is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR professionals will be coaches, counselors, mentors, and succession planners to help motivate organizations members and their loyalty. The HR manager will also promote and fight for values, ethics, beliefs, and spirituality within their organizations, especially in the management of workplace diversity. This paper will highlight on how a HR professional can meet the challenges and Trend of HR Professional, how to motivate employees through gain-sharing and executive information system through proper planning, organizing, leading and controlling their human resources. II. Review of Literature and Studies Organizations have entered a new era characterized by rapid, dramatic and turbulent changes. The accelerated pace of change has transformed how work is performed by employees in diverse organizations. Change has truly become an inherent and integral part of organizational life. Several emerging trends are impacting organizational life. Of these emerging trends, five will be examined: globalization, diversity, flexibility, technology, and networks. These five emerging trends create tensions for organizational leaders and employees as they go through waves of changes in their organizations. These tensions present opportunities as well as threats, and if these tensions are not managed well, they will result in dysfunctional and dire organizational outcomes at the end of any change process. Globalization To stay competitive, more organizations are embracing offshore outsourcing. Many functions are being shifted to India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries for their low labor costs, high levels of workforce education, and technological advantages. According to the 2002-2003 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Workplace Forecast, companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Nestle employ more people outside of their headquarters countries than within those countries. Almost any company, whether in manufacturing or services, can find some part of its work that can be done off site. Forrester Research projects that 3.3 million U.S. service- and knowledge-based jobs will be shipped overseas by the year 2015, 70 percent of which will move to India. Communication and information sharing are occurring across the globe in multiple languages and multiple cultures. Global competition and global cooperation coexist in the new world economy. One major consequence of globalization is greater mobility in international capital and labor markets. This creates a global marketplace where there is more opportunity, because there are more potential customers. However, there is also more competition, as local companies have to compete with foreign companies for customers. According to Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, the processes associated with the global integration of markets for goods, services, and capital have created two sources of tensions. First, reduced barriers to trade and investment accentuate the asymmetries between groups that can cross international borders, and those that cannot. In the first category are owners of capital, highly skilled workers, and many professionals. Unskilled and semiskilled workers and most middle managers belong in the second category. Second, globalization engenders conflicts within and between nations over domestic norms and the social institutions that embody them. As the technology for manufactured goods becomes standardized and diffused internationally, nations with very different sets of values, norms, institutions, and collective preferences begin to compete head on in markets for similar goods. Trade becomes contentious when it unleashes forces that undermine the norms implicit in local or domestic workplace practices. Diversity According to Thomas (1992), dimensions of workplace diversity include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience. The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena (Cox, 1993), which must be one of the important organizational goals to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors. This is especially true for multinational companies (MNCs) who have operations on a global scale and employ people of different countries, ethical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, a HR professional needs to be mindful and may employ a Think Global, Act Local approach in most circumstances. The challenge of workplace diversity is also prevalent amongst Singapores Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With a population of only four million people and the nations strive towards high technology and knowledge-based economy; foreign talents are lured to share their expertise in these areas. Thus, many local HR professional have to undergo cultural-based Human Resource Management training to further their abilities to motivate a group of professional that are highly qualified but culturally diverse. Furthermore, the HR professional must assure the local professionals that these foreign talents are not a threat to their career advancement (Toh, 1993). In many ways, the effectiveness of workpla ce diversity management is dependent on the skilful balancing act of the HR Professional. One of the main reasons for ineffective workplace diversity management is the predisposition to pigeonhole employees, placing them in a different silo based on their diversity profile (Thomas, 1992). In the real world, diversity cannot be easily categorized and those organizations that respond to human complexity by leveraging the talents of a broad workforce will be the most effective in growing their businesses and their customer base. In order to effectively manage workplace diversity, Cox (1993) suggests that a HR Profesional needs to change from an ethnocentric view (our way is the best way) to a culturally relative perspective (lets take the best of a variety of ways). This shift in philosophy has to be ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her planning, organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources. Flexibility Globalization and diversity trends are forcing organizations to become more flexible and adaptable. To be able to function globally and to embrace diversity, HR Professional in organizations have to become more flexible and develop a wider repertoire of skills and strategies in working with diverse groups of people in the workplace as well as in the marketplace. The response to increased diversity has, in many cases, been increased organizational flexibility. Some organizations allow workers to have very different work arrangements (e.g. flex-time) and payment schedules. Some organizations (and workers) have found it convenient to treat some workers as independent consultants rather than employees. In certain occupations, advances in communication and information technologies have enabled telecommuting -working at home via computer. One consequence of this is the blurring of boundaries between work and home, and where and when work occurs. The benefits of greater flexibility may be countered by the negative consequences of working 24/7 including higher stress and burnout. The response to increased competition, however, has resulted in a tension generated by the demands to be flexible and yet maintain some stability as changes are implemented in organizations. To stay competitive, organizations are constantly changing and restructuring to increase flexibility and decrease costs. Business process reengineering, business process out-sourcing, job redesign, and other approaches to optimize business processes have been implemented to increase operational and process efficiency while reducing the costs of doing business. Changes in business and operational processes need time to stabilize for employees to learn the new processes, become familiar with them, and be able to operate effectively and efficiently. Yet, competitive pressures can cause organizations to go through a series of changes without giving employees adequate time for learning and training, and for the benefits of the change to be fully realized in the organization. This tension is well-captured by Columbia Business School professor Eric Abrahamson in his book, Change Without Pain (2004) in which he discussed how organizations can go through change overload and how employees can experience change fatigue and burnout. Professor Abrahamson proposes creative recombination as an alternative approach to the highly destructive, destabilizing and painful changes caused by creative destruction. Technology A Human Resource Management System (HRMS, EHRMS), Human Resource Information System (HRIS), HR Technology or also called HR modules, or simply Payroll, refers to the systems and processes at the intersection between human resource management (HRM) and information technology. It merges HRM as a discipline and in particular its basic HR activities and processes with the information technology field, whereas the programming of data processing systems evolved into standardized routines and packages of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. On the whole, these ERP systems have their origin on software that integrates information from different applications into one universal database. The linkage of its financial and human resource modules through one database is the most important distinction to the individually and proprietary developed predecessors, which makes this software application both rigid and flexible. The function of Human Resources departments is generally administrative and not common to all organizations. Organizations may have formalized selection, evaluation, and payroll processes. Efficient and effective management of Human Capital has progressed to an increasingly imperative and complex process. The HR function consists of tracking existing employee data which traditionally includes personal histories, skills, capabilities, accomplishments and salary. To reduce the manual workload of these administrative activities, organizations began to electronically automate many of these processes by introducing specialized Human Resource Management Systems. HR executives rely on internal or external IT professionals to develop and maintain an integrated HRMS. Before the client-server architecture evolved in the late 1980s, many HR automation processes were relegated to mainframe computers that could handle large amounts of data transactions. In consequence of the low capital investmen t necessary to buy or program proprietary software, these internally-developed HRMS were unlimited to organizations that possessed a large amount of capital. The advent of client-server, Application Service Provider, and Software as a Service or SaaS Human Resource Management Systems enabled increasingly higher administrative control of such systems. Currently Human Resource Management Systems encompass: 1. Payroll 2. Work Time 3. Benefits Administration 4. HR management Information system 5. Recruiting 6. Training/Learning Management System 7. Performance Record 8. Employee Self-Service The payroll module automates the pay process by gathering data on employee time and attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes, and generating periodic pay cheques and employee tax reports. Data is generally fed from the human resources and time keeping modules to calculate automatic deposit and manual cheque writing capabilities. This module can encompass all employee-related transactions as well as integrate with existing financial management systems. The work time gathers standardized time and work related efforts. The most advanced modules provide broad flexibility in data collection methods, labor distribution capabilities and data analysis features was outdated. Cost analysis and efficiency metrics are the primary functions. The benefits administration module provides a system for organizations to administer and track employee participation in benefits programs. These typically encompass insurance, compensation, profit sharing and retirement. The HR management module is a component covering many other HR aspects from application to retirement. The system records basic demographic and address data, selection, training and development, capabilities and skills management, compensation planning records and other related activities. Leading edge systems provide the ability to read applications and enter relevant data to applicable database fields, notify employers and provide position management and position control not in use. Human resource management function involves the recruitment, placement, evaluation, compensation and development of the employees of an organization. Initially, businesses used computer based information systems to: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ produce pay checks and payroll reports; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ maintain personnel records; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ pursue Talent Management. Online recruiting has become one of the primary methods employed by HR departments to garner potential candidates for available positions within an organization. Talent Management systems typically encompass: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ analyzing personnel usage within an organization; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ identifying potential applicants; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ recruiting through company-facing listings; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ recruiting through online recruiting sites or publications that market to both recruiters and applicants. The significant cost incurred in maintaining an organized recruitment effort, cross-posting within and across general or industry-specific job boards and maintaining a competitive exposure of availabilities has given rise to the development of a dedicated Applicant Tracking System, or ATS, module. The training module provides a system for organizations to administer and track employee training and development efforts. The system, normally called a Learning Management System if a stand alone product, allows HR to track education, qualifications and skills of the employees, as well as outlining what training courses, books, CDs, web based learning or materials are available to develop which skills. Courses can then be offered in date specific sessions, with delegates and training resources being mapped and managed within the same system. Sophisticated LMS allow managers to approve training, budgets and calendars alongside performance management and appraisal metrics. The Employee Self-Service module allows employees to query HR related data and perform some HR transactions over the system. Employees may query their attendance record from the system without asking the information from HR personnel. The module also lets supervisors approve O.T. requests from their subordinates through the system without overloading the task on HR department. Many organizations have gone beyond the traditional functions and developed human resource management information systems, which support recruitment, selection, hiring, job placement, performance appraisals, employee benefit analysis, health, safety and security, while others integrate an outsourced Applicant Tracking System that encompasses a subset of the above. Networks Organizations that flatten tend to encourage horizontal communication among workers. Rather than working through the organizational hierarchy, it is often faster for workers who need to coordinate with each other simply to communicate directly. Such organizations are highly networked. Another meaning of networked organizations refers to their relations to other organizations. Organizations that have downsized to just their core competencies must then outsource all the functions that used to be done inhouse. To avoid losing time and effort managing contracts with suppliers, organizations have learned to develop close ties to their suppliers so that social mechanisms of coordination replace legal mechanisms, which are slow and costly. In many industries, such as the garment industry in Italy, strong relationships have developed between manufacturers and suppliers (and other manufacturers), so that considerable work is done without a contract and without even working out a firm price. For these networked organizations to work, high trust and social capital between organizations are key elements. Networked organizations are particularly important in industries with complex products where technologies and customer needs change rapidly, such as in high technology industries. Close ties among a set of companies enables them to work with each other in ways that are faster than arms-length contracts would permit, and yet retains the flexibility of being able to drop the relationship if needed (as opposed to performing the function in-house). The trend towards networked organizations and structures create a new tension between interdependence and independence. The forces of aggregation and disaggregation throw up new challenges for organizations, for example, the use of independent contractors, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and alliances even with competitors. One advantage of networks is that organizations have greater flexibility and thus they can become more competitive in the global marketplace. Another advantage is that organizations do not require that many resources such as employee benefits, office space, and financing for new business ventures. On the other hand, networks have distinct disadvantages. Organizations may find it more difficult to control quality of goods or services as they now have to depend on their partners in the networks to deliver the quality that is desired. Legal and contracting expertise as well as negotiation expertise will also be important for networks. Alternative forms of control may need to be developed to control quality. Alternative mechanisms for coordination may also need to be developed to manage the growing constellation and sometimes tenuous nature of other partner organizations in the network. All the five trends produce result in greater organizational or system complexity for HR Professional in organizations. The tensions produced by these trends cannot be solved. They have to be managed. Effective approaches in organizational change will involve not one strategy but many alternatives and will require leaders and employees to develop greater resilience in confronting these tensions. III. Reaction True enough that the HR Professional is phasing a lot changes and trend that encouraged huge change in any organization. HR Professional must accept this trend in able to for them to grasp in never ending change. This 5 trend are now being embrace by many organizations. Globalization trend, may organization specially here in the Philippines are using outsourcing instead of hiring a HR Professional. Example: Instead of hiring Payroll and Time Keeper, may company are using electronic time captured device that allow the outsourcing company to time and payroll. This trend are creating advantages and this advantages Advantages: There will be no HR professional will focusing this area, there are strategic allocations for HR Professionals and HR professional will be focusing on Human Development. In the contrary it also has disadvantages: since time keeping and payroll are being done by the outsource company there would be a possible problem when it comes to employee satisfaction, Time keeping problems such us: failure to finger scan, un computed time, wrong computation due to time discrepancies and not all organization can embraces this trend . Diversity trend May organization here in the Philippines are owned by Koreans, Japanese, American and other foreign investor. This could be one factor that added cultural diversity in industries. Local plus foreign differences that could be resulted in a mixed local-foreign diversity. For instance an organization made of ilocano, batangeà ±o and manileà ±o could create cultural and social diversity. HR Professionals must learn how to adopt the differences because they are mainly the model in accepting diversity thus it must be reflected by HR Professional because they are creating human development that include diversity acceptance. Flexibility Because of Globalization and Diversity may HR Professional are now flexible. They can easily adopt changes. This characteristic must be posses by all HR Professional to become more successful to handle big responsibility. Technology evolution of technology is very fast. It changes the way of life. HRIS is one of the products of technology; before we are doing 201 file (we will need a lot of folders, paper and other staff) but because of HRIS we can make this thing eliminated. We can now create paperless 201 file and also we can now file are absences, leaves, overtime online. But the problem is, not all company can buy this thing. They still using traditional method and this really affect HR professional because they are being left behind. The role of the HR Professional must parallel the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional must learn how to manage effectively through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training. I.V Reference 1. SHRM Workplace Forecast: A Strategic Outlook 2000-2003. Alexandria: Society for Human Resource Management. 2. Earley, P.C., Soon Ang, and Joo-Seng Tan. CQ: Developing Cultural Intelligence in the Workplace. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. 3. John M. Ivancevich.: Human Resources Management. Mc Graw-Hill International, 2007 This paper will highlight on how a HR manager can meet the challenges of workplace diversity, how to motivate employees through gain-sharing and executive information system through proper planning, organizing, leading and controlling their human

J.D. Salingers Catcher In The Rye :: J.D. Salinger Catcher Rye Essays

J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye The passage of adolescence has served as the central theme for many novels, but J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, long a staple in academic lesson plans, has captured the spirit of this stage of life in hyper-sensitive form, dramatizing Holden Caulfield's vulgar language and melodramatic reactions. Written as the autobiographical account of a fictional teenage prep school student Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye deals with material that is socially scandalous for the times (Gwynn, 1958). As an emotional, intelligent, inquisitive, and painfully sensitive young man, Holden puts his inner world to the test through the sexual mores of his peers and elders, the teachings of his education, and his own emerging sense of self. Throughout the years, the language of the story has startled some readers. Salinger's control of Holden's easy, conversational manner makes the introduction of these larger themes appear natural and believable. (Bloom, 1990). At the time of the novel through today, Holden's speech rings true to the colloquial speech of teenagers. Holden, according to many reviews in the Chicago Tribune, the New Yorker, and the New York Times, accurately captures the informal speech of an average intelligent, educated, northeastern American adolescent (Costello, 1990). Such speech includes both simple description and cursing. For example, Holden says, "They're nice and all", as well as "I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything." In the first instance, he uses the term "nice" which oversimplifies his parents' character, implying he does not wish to disrespect them, yet at the same time he does not praise them. At best he deems them as "nice and all." Holden further cuts short his description, but in a more curt manner, when he states he will not tell his "whole goddam autobiography or anything." From the start the reader picks up Holden's hostility and unwillingness to share his views strictly by his use of language (Salzman, 1991). From the last two examples, another colloquialism can be seen. Holden has a habit of ending his descriptions with tag phrases such as "and all" or "or anything." (Salzman, 1991). Not only does Holden speak like this in the beginning of the novel, but throughout the book, making this pattern a part of his character. One could imagine Holden frequently ending his sentences with "and all," realizing it is a character trait since not all teenagers used that phrase. So the "and all" tag to Holden's speech served to make his speech

Compensation Strategies Essay

Executive Summary This report will look at 3 different compensation systems that our company can develop and roll out within our company for our employees and future employees. Compensation is one of the most important and rewarding factors for our employees. Employees rely on their compensation to pay their rent or mortgage, food for their family, vacations, education for their children, and prepare for their retirement life. How compensation is paid can determine the quality of employee you obtain and how long you retain them. This report provides information on different compensation strategies to attract/recruit good talent, improve employee production and retain valued employees. Annual merit increases help companies to continue being competitive in the work force. Research shows employees want to work for employers that are competitive with salaries. By moving to an annual merit increase system employees will continue to increase production and meet business objectives to receive more compensati on. Employees look at merit increases as entitlement and production can remain flat. Our company can increase productivity across the board by tying business goals to merit increases. In order to get the production needed, communication from management will need to take place to set expectations of achieving goals and what the potential merit increase the employee can receive by hitting those goals. Healthcare benefits can be a deciding factor for many people on whether or not they consider working for our company or if they decide to leave our company. Health benefits provided by the employer shows they care  about the employee and it helps get the employee back to work quicker which helps to be more productive. Healthcare is not only a benefit to the employee but also part of their compensation. Communication and training by management should be conducted annually to go over the employees full Comprehensive Compensation Package to show the total monetary amount received by the employee from the employer. The last type of compensation we will consider for the employees as a company is a 401(k) plan. 401(k) plans are growing with the number of employers that are providing options for their employees. As the research shows, the cost of losing an employee in the long run due to not providing a 401(k) plan can create higher turnover and training costs. We want to recruit and keep top employees and based on the research shown, providing a 401(k) plan will do what we need. My recommendation is to implement the annual merit system, health care benefits and a 401(k) plan. For the compensation packages to be a success we will create compensation statements for every employee to review and train all managers with direct reports so they can deliver the great message we have to share. Also, goals and expectations will be implemented as early as possible during the year to establish a strong foundation for performance. Our compensation plan is intended to attract key talent, increase employee engagement, incent and retain high-performing managers who will enhance the profitability of our company and create value for our shareowners. Introduction Compensation is an important element of our company. Employees rely on their compensation to pay their rent or mortgage, food for their family, vacations, education for their children, and prepare for their retirement life. How compensation is paid can determine the quality of employee you obtain and how long you retain them. This report provides information on different compensation strategies to attract/recruit good talent, improve employee production and retain valued employees. Also, with sales volume goals to increase, technology and innovation changing so quickly, and the quality of service customers are expecting, employers have to come up with ways to be better than their competition. The way to be better than your competition is through the people who work for the company. And one the best  ways to attract those employees are to have a better compensation packages for your employees. The goal for this research will show you the positive impacts to the company by offering Annual Merit Increases, Healthcare Benefits, and 401k plans to the employees. These compensation benefits are important to high quality employees our company’s trying recruit, retaining high producing employees, as well as, increasing motivation and production with all other employees. By implementing these actions our company will be able to show our employees our commitment to be the best company to work for and to show how valuable our employees are to the company. Research Findings Merit Pay Increase According to Towers Perrin’s Global workforce study, competitive base pay is the most important factor that attracts UK workers to an employer, with almost six-out-ten (59%) respondents stating that this would influence their decision (â€Å"Competitive base pay,† 2007, p.16). Not only is it important to attract workers but retaining high performing employees and keeping them motivated to increase and maintain productivity to compete in the marketplace is vital. One way to retain and motivate employees is through annual merit increases. If a merit pay system succeeds, it motivates employees to work harder and achieve more (Mack, 2014). In order for the merit pay system to succeed it will need to be tied in with the business strategy of the organization and not viewed as an entitlement. Merit increases can motivate employees to achieve whatever goal the company sets. For example, by finishing projects timely with high quality or rolling out new operational procedures for the company. Employees often fail to see a link between merit pay and the accomplishment of business goals because no link is being made (Heneman, 2002, p.382). In a Supervisory role is important direct reports understand how their individual goals align to organizational priorities and how merit increases are earned based on exceeding their given goals. Planning and Goal Setting is the foundation for performance management and execution of our strategies. It focuses on ensuring employees have a clear understanding of annual organizational  priorities, and defining individual employee goals aligned to their job role and those priorities. Finally, it is important that effective communication exists between employees and management and that managers have the requisite tools for administering rewards (Leritz Ph.D., 2012, p.1). Analysis: Research shows employees want to work for employers that are competitive with salaries. By moving to an annual merit increase system employees will continue to increase production and meet business objectives to receive more compensation. Employees look at merit increases as entitlement and production can remain flat. Our company can increase productivity across the board by tying business goals to merit increases. In order to get the production needed, communication from management will need to take place to set expectations of achieving goals and what the potential merit increase the employee can receive by hitting those goals. Healthcare Benefits According to â€Å"Competitive base pay most important for recruitment† (2007), â€Å"almost two thirds (59%) of staff would consider leaving their job if their employer failed to address health and wellbeing in the workplace. Business in the Community’s Business action on health campaign shows that 83% of staff considers the way that an employer looks after the health and wellbeing of staff is important when choosing a job† (p.16). Effective communication from employers about the compensation plans has a major influence on the turnover rate of the top performing employees. Because one companies benefits are better than the other doesn’t mean employees will stay. Based on the surveys conducted, companies with better communication strategies and lesser benefits had only 12% turnover compared to 17% turnover with companies that offered better benefits. Companies with excellent benefits and effective communications had only an 8% turnover of top-performing em ployees. Also, when employees were surveyed on how satisfied they were with their benefits, only 22% were satisfied with the better benefits from employers with poor communications. On the other hand, 76% of employees with lesser benefits and effective communication from the employers were satisfied with their benefits (â€Å"Better benefits  communications,† 2005, p.9). Companies must show the employees that healthcare benefits are a part of total compensation because companies that don’t effectively communicate the value have higher turnover rates for top performers. According to Kathryn Yates, global director of communication consulting at Watson Wyatt, â€Å"Employers can spend huge sums of money on benefits, but if their employees aren’t aware of the cost or don’t appreciate the value of the benefits, they aren’t going to see a return on their investment.† (â€Å"Better benefits communications,† 2005, p.9). Analysis: Research shows the importance of health benefits to employees and what it takes to retain those employees. Health benefits provided by the employer shows they care about the employee as well as it helps get the employee back to work quicker which helps to be more productive. Healthcare is not only a benefit to the employee but also part of their compensation. Communication and training by management should be conducted annually to go over the employees full Comprehensive Compensation Package to show the total monetary amount received by the employee from the employer. This communication and training on healthcare benefits are vital to keeping our top performers. 401(k) Plan The increase of matching contribution for 401(k) plans through employers has risen from 68 percent to 73 percent over the last couple of years (Plenda, 2013, p.31). In a recent survey, if another employer offered a similar job with a 401(k) plan, 40 percent of employees said they would pursue other opportunities with the new employer. It was also determined when a 401(k) plan is presented most employees work harder and stay on the job longer (Lamont, 2014, p.10). People who save money are good workers because they place greater value on future outcomes. These types of employees work more and are more conscientious of how they treat employer assets because they understand their reputations will be hurt by careless actions they take. Not only do employees stay on the job longer but companies can use 401(k) plans to attract workers that are more conscientious and productive on the job (Munnell & Sunden, 2004 pp. 3-20). Research by Bank of America Merrill  Lynch shows higher turnover rates, increase in training costs, and lower productivity and sales as a potential consequence for not offering a competitive benefits package to its employees. Employers should look at benefits as one of the most important investments they can make. These investments will attract top talent and show they are invested in their employee’s professional growth, as well as, their financial well-being to give them a competitive advantage over other employers (Brooks, 2012). Analysis: 401(k) plans are growing with the number of employers that are providing options for their employees. As the research shows, company’s not providing a 401(k) plan can lose employees’ to competitors, lose productivity and sales. We want to recruit and keep top employees and based on the research shown, providing a 401(k) plan will do what we need to help increase our advantage of attracting and keeping top talent over our competitors. Recommendations Our company’s compensation plan is intended to attract key talent, increase employee engagement, incent and retain high-performing employees who will enhance the profitability of our company and create value for our shareowners. Below are the recommendations to begin implementing merit increases, healthcare plans, and 401(k) plans to our employees. These actions will align specific goals to our organization’s priorities and enables us to execute its strategies to deliver exceptional compensation packages to our employees. Recommendation: It is recommended to establish goals and expectations every year to ensure employees have a clear understanding of annual organizational priorities and their defined individual employee goals are aligned to their job role and those priorities. Managers will meet with each of their respective employees to communicate their goals and expectations and have the employees sign and approve understanding. On February 15th, annually, managers will meet with each employee to discuss results and give feedback on achievements, strengths, areas of opportunities, and merit increase the  employee will be receiving on their March 1st paycheck. By implementing a merit increase we will increase employee engagement, incent and retain high-performing employees who will enhance the profitability of our company and create value for our shareowners. Recommendation: My recommendation is to set up health care benefits with United Health Care and contribute $500 per month towards employee’s costs. Additionally, implement a Comprehensive Compensation Package to be presented and reviewed by the manager to the employees at their annual merit increase to show them the rich compensation they have with the company. The Comprehensive Compensation package will give a personalized overview of all components of the employee’s compensation and cash value of the benefits available. By communicating with the employee’s, we will see an increase in retention and satisfaction that will decrease our company costs and increase profitability. Recommendation: My final recommendation is to set up Fidelity to manage the employee’s 401(k) accounts. In addition, the company will match 3% of the employee’s contributions and will schedule yearly financial seminars with Fidelity for financial guidance and retirement advice. During yearly reviews, managers will be present the Comprehensive Compensation Package to give an overview of all components of the employee’s compensation and cash value of the company matching. By providing a 401(k) plan and financial guidance we will attract top recruits, as well as, retain top employees. Conclusion My goal for this research is to show you the positive impacts to the company by offering annual merit increases, healthcare benefits, and 401k plans to the employees. These compensation benefits are important to recruit high quality employees, retain high producing employees, and increasing motivation and production with all other employees. By creating annual merit increases, employees are more productive and try to reach the highest increase they can get to add to their salary. Adding the company’s business objectives to the merit increases for the employees to reach will add  increased productivity to the company. Adding healthcare coverage for employees and communicating with them the value added to their compensation is important to retaining employees. Employees with healthcare also go to the doctor more often and come back to work quicker which means less down time and higher production. Lastly, introducing a 401(k) plan to the employees creates long lasting and loyal employees that are vested in the company’s success. The findings show the importance of pay to employees and the importance of attracting employees to a company. Also, employees work harder which will make the company more profitable. Planning, goal setting, communication. The importance of the findings for healthcare is employees are will to leave their company if employers don’t provide healthcare benefits. Shows communication is very important in making sure employees understand the benefits to make sure they don’t leave. Shows increase in businesses providing 401k plans and attracting hard workers.shows how important benefits are in keeping and attracting employees. Work harder and stay on the job longer How important it is to show benefits are part of compensation to show the value and keep top performers. Communication is going to be the fundamental key to getting the buy in and positive reactions to implementing these compensation benefits. The best merit increase plan, healthcare plan, and 401(k) plan can generate positive employee reactions or a negative employee reaction. The actual effect depends on whether these plans are understood and accepted and whether employees’ perceptions of the facts are positive. Finally, it is important to make sure we keep pace and understand what other organizations benefits are to their employees and we stay competitive to them, we also remember the employees must understand the benefits and buy in to them to be successful. References Better benefits communications can help to improve retention. (2005, April). Managing Benefits Plans, 5(4), 9. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=09c97eff-2de5-4526-9558-66dcdfc85554%40sessionmgr114&hid=110 Brooks, C. (2012). Monetary benefits play increasing role in luring workers. BusinessNewsDaily, Retrieved from

Women Empowerment in India

http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=1320071 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA Purusottam Nayak and Bidisha Mahanta Email: [email  protected] co. in Web Address: www. pnayak. webs. com/ Abstract The present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of women empowerment in India using various indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, political participation, acceptance of unequal gender role, exposure to media, access to education, experience of domestic violence etc based on data from different sources.The study reveals that women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men in spite of many efforts undertaken by government. Gender gap exists regarding access to education and employment. Household decision making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with their age, education and employment status. It is found that acceptance of unequal gender n orms by women are still prevailing in the society. More than half of the women believe wife beating to be justified for one reason or the other.Fewer women have final say on how to spend their earnings. Control over cash earnings increases with age, education and with place of residence. Women’s exposure to media is also less relative to men. Rural women are more prone to domestic violence than that of urban women. A large gender gap exists in political participation too. The study concludes by an observation that access to education and employment are only the enabling factors to empowerment, achievement towards the goal, however, depends largely on the attitude of the people towards gender equality.Introduction In the last five decades, the concept of women empowerment has undergone a sea change from welfare oriented approach to equity approach. It has been understood as the process by which the powerless gain greater control over the circumstances of their lives. Empowerme nt particularly includes control over resources and ideology. According to Sen and Batliwala (2000) it leads to a growing intrinsic capabilitygreater self confidence, and an inner transformation of one’s consciousness that enables one to overcome external barrier. This view mainly emphasizes on two important aspects.Firstly, it is a power to achieve desired goals but not a power over others. Secondly, idea of empowerment is more applicable to those who are powerless- whether they are male or female, or group of individuals, class or caste. 1 Though concept of empowerment is not specific to women, yet it is unique in that and it cuts across all types of class and caste and also within families and households (Malhotra et al, 2002). Women empowerment is also defined as a change in the context of a women’s life, which enables her increased capacity for leading a fulfilling human life.It gets reflected both in external qualities (viz. health, mobility, education and awaren ess, status in the family, participation in decision making, and also at the level of material security) and internal qualities (viz. self awareness and self confidence) [Human Development in South Asia (2000) as quoted by Mathew (2003)]. UNDP (1990) for the first time introduced the concept of Human Development Index (HDI) that evolved initially as a broader measure of socio-economic progress of a nation but it became popular as a measure of average achievements in human development for both the sexes.Contrary to the general belief that development is gender neutral, statistics show that women lag behind men all over the world including India in almost all aspects of life. It is for this reason that the focus on human development has been to highlight the gender dimension and continuing inequalities confronting women since 1995 (UNDP 1995). The Report noted that without empowering women overall development of human beings is not possible. It further stressed that if development is not engendered, is endangered.To bring out the facts and figures relating to deprivation of women two indices, namely, Gender related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) were introduced. While GDI measures the achievements in the same dimensions and variables as the HDI, it also takes into account inequality in achievement between women and men (Anand and Sen, 1995). The greater the gender disparity in human development, the lower is country’s GDI compared to its HDI. The GDI is the HDI adjusted downwards for gender inequality.On the other hand, GEM indicates whether women are able to actively participate in economic and political life. Theoretically, the index can take values between zero and infinity, with a value of unity reflecting an absolute equality in the respective attainments of males and females. A value higher than unity would imply that females have better attainments than males. 2 Construction of GDI As we know HDI is a composite index o f three basic components of human development such as knowledge (Education Index), longevity (Health Index), and standard of living (Income Index) where: I1 ?Education Index ? , I 2 ? Health Index ? are constructed by (1) & I 3 ? Income Index ? by (2) : (1)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. I j ? X ij ? Min( X ) Max( X i ) ? Min( X i ) Log ( X ij ) ? Log ? Min? X i Log ? Max? X i ? Log ? Min? X i (2)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I 3 ? To construct GDI the following three steps are involved: Step-I: For each dimension of education and health, indices are constructed for males and females separately using the formula (1) and for income index by formula (2); Step-II: For each dimension, Equally Distributed Index (EDI) is constructed using the formula (3) as follows: ?Male population Share Female Population Share ? (3)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ EDI ? ? ? Dimension Index for Male ? Dimension Index for Female ? ? ? ? ? 1 Step-III: GDI is calculate d by combining the three equally distributed indices in an un-weighted average using the formula (4): 1 (4)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. GDI j ? ( EDI1 ? EDI 2 ? EDI 3 ) 3 Construction of GEM Gender Empowerment Measure as we know focuses on women’s opportunity rather than their capabilities.It captures gender inequality in three key areas such as (a) Political participation and decision making power as measured by women’s and men’s percentage shares of parliamentary seats; (b) Economic participation and decision making power as measured by two indicators: (1) Women and men’s percentage shares of position as legislators, senior officials and managers; and (2) Women and men’s percentage shares of professional and technical positions; and (c) 3 Power over economic resources as measured by women’s and men’s estimated earned income.For each of these three dimensions, an Equally Distributed Equivalent Percentage (EDEP) is calculated as a population weighted average according to the general formula (5): ? Female Popn. Share Male Popn. Share ? (5)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ EDEP ? ? ? ? Male Index ? ? Female Index ?1 The EDEP for political participation and economic participation are each divided by 50 to construct the corresponding indexed EDEP whereas for economic resources simple EDEP is taken into consideration. All these three indices are averaged to construct the GEM.Planning Commission (G. O. I. , 2002) used a third index, namely, Gender Equality Index (GEI) in the National Human Development Report. The methodology for construction of GEI is the same as that of HDI. The point of departure involves expressing the index as a proportion of attainment level for females to that of males. Secondly, in estimating the index, the economic attainments for males and females have been captured by taking the respective worker-population ratio, unlike the use of per-capita monthly expenditure as in the H DI.This has been done, primarily, to avoid taking recourse to apportioning consumption or income, between males and females at the household or at an individual level, using criteria that could always be debated. Educational and health attainments have been captured using the same set of indicators as in the case of HDI. Besides these three indices, a number of other socioeconomic and political indicators are being widely used to measure women empowerment (G. O. I. , 2005-06). Review of Literature A number of studies have been undertaken on women empowerment at the global level and in India.Some studies dealt on methodological issues and some on empirical analysis. Moser (1993) focused on the interrelationship between gender and development, the formulation of gender policy and the implementation of gender planning and practices. The work of Shields (1995) provided an exploratory 4 framework to understand and develop the concept of empowerment both from a theoretical and practical p erspective with a particular focus on women’s perception of the meaning of empowerment in their lives. Anand and Sen (1995) tried to develop a measure of gender inequality.Pillarisetti and Gillivray (1998) mainly emphasized on the methodology of construction, composition and determinant of GEM. Bardhan and Klasen (1999) criticized GEM as an inadequate index of measuring women empowerment at the aggregate level. Malhotra et al (2002) in their paper prepared for the World Bank highlighted methodological issues of measurement and analysis of women empowerment. Chattopadhyay and Duflo (2001) in their paper used a policy of political reservation for women adopted in India to study the impact of women’s leadership on policy decision.They found that women were more likely to participate in policy making process if the leader of the village community was happened to be women. Mahanta (2002) sought to explain the question of women’s access to or deprivation of basic huma n rights as the right to health, education and work, legal rights, rights of working women’s, besides issues like domestic violence, all the while keeping the peculiar socio-cultural situation of the North East in mind.A workshop organized in 2003 by the Institute of Social Sciences and South Asia Partnership, Canada addressed the issues like â€Å"Proxy Women† who after being elected to Panchayat bodies were merely puppets in the hands of their husbands, relatives and other male Panchayat members; and emphasized on training programme for their capacity building. Assam Human Development Report (Govt. of Assam, 2003) threw some light on inequality in the achievement between men and women of Assam in different spheres of life.The report viewed that poverty, violence and lack of political participation were the main issues of concern for South Asian Women, and Assam was no exception. The study of Kishor and Gupta (2004) revealed that average women in India were disempower ed relative to men, and there had been little change in her empowerment over time. Parashar (2004) examined how mother’s empowerment in India is linked with child nutrition and immunization and suggested women to be empowered simultaneously along several different dimensions if they and their children were to benefit across the whole spectrum of their health and survival needs.Sridevi (2005) in her paper 5 provided a scientific method to measure empowerment. Study of Cote de Ivoire revealed that increased female share in household income leads to increased spending on human development enhancing items (as quoted by Ranis and Stewart, 2005). Blumberg (2005) viewed that economic empowerment of women was the key to gender equality and well being of a nation. This would not only enhance women’s capacity of decision making but also lead to reduction in corruption, armed conflict and violence against females in the long run.Karat (2005) in her works discussed the issues of v iolence against women, their survival, political participation and emancipation. Panda and Agarwal (2005) focused on the factor like women’s property status in the context of her risk of marital violence and opined that if development means expansion of human capabilities, then freedom from domestic violence should be an integral part of any exercise for evaluating developmental progress. Desai and Thakkar (2007) in their work discussed women’s political participation, legal rights and education as tools for their empowerment.Deepa Narayan (2007) made an attempt to measure women empowerment for different countries and regions by using self assessed points on a ten steps ladder of power and rights, where at the bottom of the ladder stood people who were completely powerless and without rights and on the top stood those who had a lot of power and rights. Figueras (2008) in her work studied the effect of female political representation in State legislature on public goods , policy and expenditure in the context of India and opined that politician’s gender and social position matters for policy. Barkat (www. goodgovernance. rg) while discussing the present status of women in Bangladesh opined that although women as mothers are held in high respect at the individual level, there was an unclear understanding of empowerment of women as a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation in decision making and control over her own life. Thus, from the above review of literature it is evident that quite a number of studies have already been undertaken on women empowerment and related issues. Entire gamut of literature has centered mainly around conceptual and measurement issues and the constraints to women empowerment.The present study in this respect is 6 an attempt to highlight the status and trend of women empowerment in India by taking into consideration various dimensions of it. The Case of India As far as India is con cerned, the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Constitution and finds a place in the Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women but also empowers the States to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. Historically the status of Indian women has been influenced by their past.There is evidence to show that women in the Vedic age got most honored positions in the society (Seth, 2004). They had the right to education. They were free to remain unmarried and devote their whole life to the pursuit of knowledge and self realization. The married women performed all the works and sacrifices equally with their husbands. They were educated in various disciplines of knowledge such as astrology, geography, veterinary sciences and even in martial arts. There were instances of women taking part in wars and fights. They were highly respected within and outside home.Gradually due to s everal socio-political changes, especially during the middle age, the glorious status of women declined. The urge for equality on the part of Indian women started getting momentum during the colonial times. Noted social reformers and national leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Annie Besant, Sorojini Naidu and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar made selfless efforts to create awareness among women about their status and were quite successful in removing various social evils such as sati pratha, child marriage, and polygamy. They also encouraged widow remarriage and women education.The reformers were successful in creating a base for development of women and theirs strive for equality. In course of time Indian society got transformed from traditional to a modern one. Consequently women became more liberal and aware of various ways of life. Since they are quite capable of breaking the traditional barriers imposed by the society are now challenging the patriarchal system though in a limited scale. Since independence, the Government of India has been making various efforts to empower women. In various plan periods, the issues regarding women empowerment has been given priority.From fifth five year plan onwards there has 7 been a remarkable shift from welfare oriented approach of women empowerment to development approach. The National Commission for women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights’ of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India provided opportunity to women to take part in active politics. The year 2001 was declared as the year of women’s empowerment for enhancing their status. To achieve the goal, the government introduced different programmes, identified strategies, established different institutions and made various legal provisions.In spite of all these efforts and actions, women in India still lag behind the men. According to 2001 Census, female literacy rate in the country was 54. 2 per cent as a gainst 75. 9 per cent in case of males (G. O. I. , 2001). The situation was much worse in the rural and remote areas of the country. In spite of women going for higher education they face exclusion from their male counterparts and are alienated in various positions in governance. The incidence like early marriage, female feticides and infanticide, dowry, bride burning, rape, molestation, kidnapping etc are very frequent.In recent times, the record of crime against women indicates an increasing trend. The position of women in the country in the social, economic and political fields is by no means equal to that of their male counterparts. Besides low female literacy, there are many other factors that have contributed to gender biasness. Girl child is still given less priority in certain parts of India. Past studies indicate that it is the people’s perception in general that the birth of a girl child is less desirable and evokes less happiness than that of a boy child (Seth, 200 5). It is ingrained in the Indian psyche, cutting across religion, caste and region.Since her birth she is victimized in all spheres including education, employment, nutrition and social status. The World Economic Forum (2005), in its first gender gap study placed India at 53rd position among 58 nations, which shows a significant gap in male and female achievements. In the same study, the rank of India in terms of political empowerment was 24th at both primary and grassroots level. The National Population Policy 2000 specifically identified the low status of women in India as an important barrier to the achievement of goals towards maternal and child welfare (G. O. I. 2000). 8 Indicators F Life Expectancy Adult Literacy Gross Enrolment Seats Share in Parliament Share of Professional & Technical Persons Gender related Development Index Gender Empowerment Measure 1990 M NA 57 NA NA NA F 1995 M F 2000 M F 2005 M 2007-08 F M NA 29 NA NA NA 60. 4 60. 3 63. 3 62. 5 65. 0 61. 8 65. 3 62. 3 35. 2 63. 7 43. 5 67. 1 47. 8 73. 4 47. 8 73. 4 45. 8 63. 8 46. 0 61. 0 56. 0 64. 0 60. 0 68. 0 7. 3 92. 7 8. 9 91. 1 9. 3 NA 90. 7 NA 9. 8 NA 90. 2 NA 20. 5 79. 5 20. 5 79. 5 NA NA 0. 401 (R-99) 0. 226 (R- 101) Source: UNDP 0. 545 (R-108) NA 0. 586 (R-98) NA 0. 600 (R-113) NAUNDP in its various Human Development Reports since 1990 till 2007-08 have placed India at a very low level of development regarding the position of women in terms of various indicators such as adult literacy, gross enrolment, share of seats in parliament and the professional and technical positions held by them (as shown in the box above). Though data are not provided for GEM indicator after 1995, GDI values reveals that women are consistently lagging behind. India has been placed in the 113th rank with a GDI value of 0. 600 as against a rank of 89 with GDI value of 0. 753 in case of Sri Lanka (UNDP, 2007-08).The rank of India has also gone down from 99 in 1995 to 113 in 2007-08 and has been fluctuating from year to year National Human Development Report (G. O. I, 2002) brought out information on indices on GDI and GEM. GDI showed marginal improvement during the eighties. GEI increased from 62 per cent in the early eighties to 67. 6 per cent in the early nineties. This implies that on an average the attainments of women on human development indicators were only two-thirds of those of men. At the State level, gender equality was the highest for Kerala followed by Manipur, Meghalaya, 9 Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland in the eighties.Goa and the Union Territories, except for Delhi, had gender equality higher than the national level. In the nineties, Himachal Pradesh had the highest equality, whereas Bihar was at the bottom and witnessed a decline in absolute terms over the earlier period. In general, women were better off in the Southern India than in the Indo-Gangetic plains comprising mainly the States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the south and H aryana and Jammu & Kashmir in the north made considerable progress in improving the status of women vis-a-vis men on the human development indicators.States that did well in improving their female literacy levels are also the ones that substantially improved their gender equality. On the whole, gender disparities across the States declined over the period. NFHS-III (G. O. I. , 2005-06) collected information on large number of indicators of women empowerment such as relative earnings of wives over their husbands’, control over the use of these earnings, participation in household decision making, freedom of movement, gender role attitude, freedom from domestic violence, etc.Data on some of these indicators of women empowerment are examined and findings are presented in the following paragraphs. Decision Making Power Decision making power of women in households is one of the important indicators of women empowerment. It is found that only 37 per cent of currently married women participate in making decisions either alone or jointly with their husband on their health care, large household purchases, purchases for daily household needs and on visiting their family members and relatives (Table 1).Forty three per cent participate in some but not all decisions and 21 per cent do not participate in any of the decision. As high as in 32. 4 per cent cases the decision regarding the purchase of daily household needs is taken mainly by the respondents whereas the decisions like visit to her relatives are in most cases taken alone by husbands or jointly. Decision like major household purchases is taken jointly in most of the cases. A very less number of women alone take this type of decision. About 27 per cent of total respondents take their own health care decision alone. 10Women’s participation rate on household decision making not only varies from rural to urban areas but also gets affected by their background characteristics like age, educational status, husband’s education, employment status etc (Table 2). Urban married women are observed to be more empowered than that of the rural women. Empowerment of women increases with the increase in their age. Women who are more educated and employed are relatively more empowered. About 46 per cent of total women in the age group 40-49 years participate in all the four decisions compared to 15 per cent belonging to the age group 15-19 years.With higher spousal educational status women’s participation in decision making increases. About 21 per cent of women with no spousal education do not take part in any decision making at all as compared to 17 per cent of women with spousal education of 12 years or more. Employment also provides an advantage to women regarding their ability to decision making power. Employed women are more likely to participate in all decision makings. In urban setting and in nuclear type of family, women have more autonomy in household decision making. Freed om of Movement Free mobility of women is another indicator of women empowerment.The data reveals that about half of women are allowed to go to the market or to the health facility alone (Table 3). Only 38 per cent are allowed to travel alone to places outside the village or community. While not all women are allowed to go to these places alone, only a minority are not allowed to go at all. Compared to urban women, rural women have less mobility. Women’s mobility is also affected by their background characteristics like age, education, marital status, type of family etc. Table 4 reveals that freedom of movement increases with age though it does not vary linearly with education.Seventy per cent of the women of the highest education group are allowed to go alone to the market as against 49 per cent of women with no education. Employment is associated with greater freedom of movement. Only one in five never married women go to all of the three places compared with about one in th ree currently married women and two in three formerly married women. Nuclear residence and urban setting are also associated with greater freedom of movement. 11 Women of urban areas are freer than that of the rural women. Similarly as high as 37 per cent of women of nucleus families are freer regarding their movement as compared to 29. per cent in case of the non-nucleus families. Acceptance of Unequal Gender Role Women’s protest against unequal gender role in terms of their attitude towards preferences for son, wife beating etc. is another indicator of women empowerment. The data presented in Table 5 reveal that 54 per cent of women in India believe wife beating to be justified for any of the specific reasons. Similarly 35 per cent women believe it to be justified if they neglect their house or children. However, agreement with wife beating does not vary much by women’s age and household structure, but decline sharply with education.It is to be noted that even among the most educated women, at least one in three agrees with one or more justifications for wife beating. In rural areas women are generally more agreeable to wife beating than in urban areas. Agreement is lower among never married women as compared to ever married women. Access to Education Women’s access to education which is one of the important sources of empowerment can be measured by gender gap in literacy rates and enrolment in different stages of school education. The literacy gap between men and women was as high as 21. 7 per cent in 2001 (Table 6).Though the gap was fluctuating from 18. 3 per cent in 1951 to 23. 9 per cent in 1971, it has been showing a marginal declining trend since 1981. Table 7 shows enrolment by stages from 1951 to 2001-02. It is clear that participation of girls at all stages of education has been steadily increasing over time. However, the overall performance of participation has not been satisfactory as it had been below 50 per cent at all stag es of education Access to Employment Table 8 shows the employment and cash earnings of currently married men and women. Data reveal that only 43 per cent of women in the age group of 15-49 2 years are employed as against 99 per cent of men in the same age group. It also reveals that gender inequality exist in the arena of employment. As compared to 51% women employed for cash only, the corresponding figure for that of the males is as high as 72. 5%. Similarly a very few males are employed for kind only (3. 4%) as compared to females engaged for kind (11. 6%). Twenty four per cent women are not paid at all for their work whereas this proportion is as low as 5% for men. For women earning cash is not likely to be a sufficient condition for financial empowerment.Employment and cash earnings are more likely to empower women if women make decisions about their own earnings alone or jointly with their husband rather than their husband alone and if these earnings are perceived by both wives and husbands to be significant relative to those of the husbands. Table 9 in this connection shows the extent of women’s control over earnings on the basis of background characteristics like age, education, place of residence, household structure etc. It is seen that women’s control over cash earnings increases with age. In the age group 15 19 years only 17. per cent women alone take decision about the use of their cash earnings as compared to 28. 3 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Similarly husband mainly takes such decision in case of 20 per cent women in the age group 15-19 years in comparison to 12. 7 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Influence of other person in making such decision decreases with the increase in age of respondents. It varies from 18. 6 per cent in the age group 15-19 years to as low as 0. 4 per cent in 40-49 age groups. Place of residence also affects women’s control over their cash earnings.Generally women in urban areas have more control over their earnings than that in rural areas. About thirty three per cent take decision alone about the use of their own earnings in urban areas as compared to 21 per cent in rural areas Education is one of the important factors that affects greatly in women’s control over earnings. About 23 per cent women with no education have more control over their earnings whereas it is 28. 6 per cent in case of women completed 12 or more years of education. Other persons’ influence on the decision about the use of earnings reduces significantly with education. It is as high as 8. 3 percent in the case of 3 respondent with no education as compared to 4. 9 per cent respondent with secondary level education. Household structure has an important role to play in affecting women’s financial empowerment. In non nuclear family structure, influence of others is more in making such decision. In case of 6. 4 per cent women in non nuclear family, the decision about the us e of their own cash earnings are taken by others as compared to 0. 6 per cent women in nuclear family. Exposure to Media Table 10 which presents data on women’s exposure to media reveals that percentage of women not exposed to media is more than double that of men.About 71 per cent of women are exposed to media as compared to 88 per cent in case of men. Twenty nine per cent of women do not have access to media regularly. Since it is an important source of empowerment, greater proportion of women without having access to media reflects the relatively disadvantageous position of women in relation to men with regards to empowerment. Domestic Violence Table 11 shows percentage of women who have experienced different forms and combinations of physical and sexual violence according to selected background characteristics.It is observed that extent of violence is not lessened by age. In the age group of 15-19 years, 22. 5 per cent women experienced physical or sexual violence in Indi a as compared to 39 per cent in the age group 40-49 years. Both types of violence are higher for ever married women than for never married women. Almost 40 per cent ever married women experienced physical or sexual violence as against 16. 9 per cent never married women. Extent of domestic violence is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas.About thirty eight per cent women in rural area faced either physical or sexual violence as compared to about 29 percent women in urban areas. Political Participation Women’s political participation is one of the important issues in the context of empowerment. In conventional analysis it means activities related to electoral politics 14 like voting, campaigning, holding party office and contesting election. But in broader sense it encompasses all voluntary actions intended to influence the making of public policies, the administration of public affairs and the choice of political leaders at all levels of government.Political interv entions by women of India today range from movement for peace and good governance to protest against dowry, rape, domestic violence, food adulteration, price rise etc. [Desai et at, 2007]. However in this section we discuss participation of women in formal politics by analyzing the indicators like women voters and women elected members in the first twelve general elections in India. The following Table 2. 12 shows the voting percentage of men and women in the first twelve elections of independent India. In the very first election the percentage of women voter was significantly low (37%).Many women were left out as their names were not properly registered. The gender gap in voting though has been narrowing gradually significant gap between male and female voters still exists. Elected Women Members Many factors are responsible and decisive in the election of women candidates such as literacy, financial position, liberal family background, support of other members of the family, strong personality etc. Since most of the women lack access to these, few women get tickets and even fewer get elected from this handful of women candidates. Table 2. 13 shows the elected women Members in Lok Sabha.From the table it is clear that percentage of women members to the total members has been consistently less than 10 per cent in each Lok Sabha starting from 1st to 12th one. This shows poor participation of women in political field. Thus it can be concluded with information provided by NFHS – III and others that women of India are disempowered relative to men in respect of decision making power, freedom of movement, education, employment, exposure to media, political participation etc and face domestic violence to a considerable degree and occupy the subordinate status both at home and in the society even in the 21 st century. 5 Constraints to Women Empowerment There are several constraints that check the process of women empowerment in India. Social norms and family str uctures in developing countries like India, manifests and perpetuate the subordinate status of women. One of such norms is the continuing preference for a son over the birth of a girl child, which is present in almost all societies and communities. The hold of this preference has strengthened rather than weakened and its most glaring evidence is in the falling sex ratio (Seth, 2004).The society is more biased in favor of male child in respect of education, nutrition and other opportunities. The root cause of this type of attitude lies in the belief that male child inherits the clan in India with an exception in Meghalaya. Women often internalize the traditional concept of their role as natural, thus inflicting an injustice upon them. Poverty is the reality of life for the vast majority of women in India. It is another factor that poses challenge in realizing women’s empowerment.In a poor family, girls are the main victims; they are malnourished and are denied the opportunity of better education and other facilities. But if they are financially independent or they have greater control over the resources then they exhibit greater autonomy both in the household and in public sphere and are no longer victims of poverty. Lack of awareness about legal and constitutional provisions and failure in realizing it, is another factor that hinders the process of empowerment. Most of the women are not aware of their legal rights. Even women who are aware lack the courage to take the legal step.The legislation which affects women most is their situation in marriage and inheritance. As far as the rights of inheritance are concerned, women generally do not try to inherit land left by their parents if brothers are alive (Seth, 2005). The traditional belief that land should not go outside the patriarchal family operates. The provision of Act like (1) Child Marriage Resistance Act, 1930, (2) The Suppression of Immoral Trafficking of Women Act, 1987 and (3) The Indecent Expo sure of Women Act, have not led to the suppression of practice indicated in them.Of these three, the first one is by and large successful in restraining child marriage. The legislation almost failed in case of immoral trafficking and indecent exposure to 16 women. There are numerous incidence of indecent exposure of women in all forms of media with hardly any prosecution. Although the legal rights are in place to create an enabling atmosphere these have not been very successful in realizing women’s empowerment. Summery and Findings Various indicators of women empowerment are analyzed using the data from various sources while discussing women’s present status in India.The main emphasis is given to the indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, women’s acceptance of unequal gender roles, exposure to media, access to education, women’s experience of domestic violence etc. Women’s political participation is also analyzed by using indicators like percentage of women voters and women MPs. After analyzing the data it is found that household decision making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with age, education and employment. Freedom of movement of widow or divorcee is more than ever married or never married women.Similarly it is found that in the society the acceptance of unequal gender norms by women themselves are still prevailing. More than half of the women believe that wife beating is justified for any of the specific reasons like not cooking properly, not taking proper care of household and children, refuge to have sex with husband, showing disrespect to in-laws etc. However, this attitude is not varying much with age or household structure but decline sharply with education and places of residence. While studying women’s access to education and employment it is found that gender gap exist in both the situations.A large gender gap in li teracy exists and participation of girls at all stages of education is below 50%. Similarly less than 50% of women are employed and a significant portion of them are not paid for their work. However, having access to employment does not mean that women have full control over their earnings. Fewer women have final say on how to spend their earnings. Control over cash earnings increases with age and with place of residence in urban areas and education, but not vary significantly with household structure. Women’s exposure to media is also less relative to men.Women’s experience of domestic violence shows that violence is not lessened by age. Rural women are more prone to domestic violence than urban women. Regarding women’s 17 political participation it is found that large gender gap exists in voting and less than ten per cent of total member in Lok Sabha are Women. This is because most of the women lack desired level of financial autonomy, literacy, strong persona lity, own decision making capacity, family support etc. Thus we see that these mutually interdependent factors reinforce each other and put women in a disadvantageous position relative to men.Various constraints in achieving the desired level of empowerment are also identified. Important among them are poverty, social norms and family structure, lack of awareness about legal and constitutional provision etc. Generally speaking the women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men. In spite of so many efforts undertaken by government and NGOs the picture at present is not satisfactory. Mere access to education and employment can only help in the process of empowerment.These are the tools or the enabling factors through which the process gets speeded up. However, achievement towards this goal depends more on attitude. Unless the attitude towards the acceptance of unequal gender role by the society and even the women themselves changed wom en can not grab the opportunity provided to them through constitutional provision, law etc. Till then we can not say that women are empowered in India in its real sense. 18 References ? Anand, S. and A. Sen (1995): â€Å"Gender inequality in Human Development: Theories and Measurement†, in Fukuda Parr and A. K.Shiv Kumar (eds. ) Readings in Human Development, OUP, New Delhi. Bardhan, K. and K. Stephan (1999): â€Å"UNDP’s Gender Related Indices: A Critical Review†, World Development, Vol. 27, No. 6. Barkat, A. (2008): â€Å"Women empowerment: A key to Human Development. , http://www. goodgovernance. org visited on 20th April 2008 at 4. 30p. m. Blumberg, R. L. (2005): â€Å"Women’s Economic Empowerment as the Magic Potion of Development? † Paper presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia Census of India (2001): Govt. of India, New Delhi. Chattopadhyay, R. nd E. Duflo (2001): â€Å"Women's Leadershi p and Policy Decisions: Evidence from a Nationwide Randomized Experiment in India†, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Department of Economics ,MIT, and NBER Desai, N. and U. Thakkar (2007): â€Å"Women and Political Participation in India†; Women in Indian Society, New Delhi, National Book Trust. Figueras, I. C. (2008): â€Å"Women in Politics: Evidence from the Indian States†, Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. G. O. I. (2000): National Population Policy, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, New Delhi. G. O. I. 2001): Census Report, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, New Delhi. G. O. I. (2002): National Human Development Report, 2001, Planning Commission. G. O. I. (2005-06): National Family Health Survey – III, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. Govt. of Assam (2003): â€Å"Women: Striving in an Unequal World† in Assam Human Development Report, 2003. http://planassam. org/repor t/hdr2003/ HDR. html. Visited on 20th February, 2008, at 5pm. IFUW (2001): â€Å"Empowering Women†, http://www. ifuw. org/saap2001/ empowerment. htm. Visited on 10th February 2008 at 10 a. m. Karat, B. 2005): Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women’s Struggles, Three Essays Collective, Haryana Kishor, S. and K. Gupta (2004): â€Å"Women’s Empowerment in India and Its States: Evidence from the NFHS†, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXIX, No. 7. Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre (2000): Human Development in South Asia 2000: The Gender Question, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Mahanta, A. (ed. ) (2002): Human Rights and Women of North East India, Centre for Women’s Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 19 ? Malhotra, A. , S. R. Schuler and C.Boender (2002): â€Å"Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development† Unpublished Paper for the World Bank. www. unicef. org/pubsgen/humanrights-children/index. html. Visited on 11th January, 2008, at 5 p. m. Mathew, G. (2003): Keynote address in the workshop on â€Å"A Decade of Women’s Empowerment through Local Governance† organized jointly by Institute of Social Sciences and South Asia Partnership, Canada sponsored by International Development Research Centre. Moser, Caroline O. (1993): Gender Planning and Development: Theory Practice and Training, available from Women, Ink. ? ? Narayan, D. (2007): Empowerment: A Missing Dimension of Human Development, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Conference, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. Panda, P. and B. Agarwal (2005): â€Å"Marital Violence, Human Development and Women’s Property Status in India†, World Development, Vol. 33, No. 5. Parasar, S. (2004): â€Å"A Multidimensional Approach to Women’s Empowerment and its Links to the Nutritional Status and Immunization of Children in India†. ht tp://www. allacademic. com/meta/p109193index. html. Visited on 15th February, 2008 at 1 p. m.Pillarisetti and Gillivray (1998): â€Å"Human Development and Gender Empowerment: Methodological and Measurement Issue† Development Policy Review, Vol. 16. Ranis, G. and F. Stewart (2005): â€Å"Dynamic Links between the Economy and Human Development†, DESA Working Paper No. 8. http://www. un. org/esa/desa/papers. Visited on 25th December, 2007 at 5 p. m. Sen and Batliwala (2000): â€Å"Empowering Women for Reproductive Rights†, in H. B. Presser and G. Sen (eds. ) Women's Empowerment and Demographic Processes: Moving beyond Cairo, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 15-36.Seth, Meera (2004): â€Å"Women and Development- The Indian Experience†, Sage Publication, New Delhi. Shields, Lourene E. (1995): â€Å"Women’s Experiences of the Meaning of Empowerment† Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 5, No. 1. Sridevi, T. O. (2005): â€Å"Empowerment of Women -A Systematic Analysis† IDF Discussion Paper. U. N. D. P. (1990, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2007-08): Human Development Report. World Economic Forum (2005): Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap. http:/in. rediff. com/money/2005/may/17wef. htm. Visited on 20th January, 2008 at 9. 30 a. m. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20Table – 1 Married Women’s Participation in Decision making, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Decision on/Decision by Mainly Wife Mainly Husband Urban Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family &Relatives Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family &Relatives Own Health Care Major household purchases Purchases of daily household needs Visits to her family &Relatives 29. 7 10. 4 39. 9 12. 2 26. 0 7. 6 29. 1 10. 0 27. 1 8. 5 32. 4 10. 7 39. 1 51. 5 28. 9 57. 3 Rural 33. 4 41. 2 27. 1 46. Total 35. 1 44. 4 27. 7 49. 8 30. 1 32. 2 24. 7 26. 8 6. 3 12. 0 12. 3 10. 4 1. 3 2. 8 2. 8 2. 2 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 31. 7 34. 6 26. 9 28. 9 7. 6 13. 5 13. 9 12. 1 1. 3 2. 9 2. 9 2. 9 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 26. 5 26. 8 19. 8 22. 0 3. 5 8. 7 8. 8 6. 6 1. 1 2. 5 2. 5 1. 8 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 Husband and Wife jointly Some one Else Other Missing Source: NFHS-3 21 Table – 2 Factors Affecting Women’s Participation in Decision making, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Background characteristics Own health care Making major househol d Purchase s 25. 1 39. 2 50. 7 60. 7 63. 6 61. 9 48. 9 51. 5 51. 4 50. 6 52. 56. 3 62. 6 53. 0 52. 3 52. 2 50. 1 51. 3 57. 3 55. 3 61. 0 45. 1 51. 1 62. 2 43. 0 Making purchase s for daily househol d needs 29. 1 44. 6 58. 7 6. 8 71. 2 68. 8 56. 2 59. 5 60. 1 58. 4 58. 3 61. 6 66. 3 61. 5 60. 5 60. 3 56. 8 58. 0 60. 2 63. 7 69. 5 53. 2 57. 4 70. 4 49. 2 Visits to her family or relative per cent who participat e in all four decisions 15. 1 25. 2 34. 3 42. 8 46. 3 45. 0 33. 0 34. 9 35. 2 35. 7 36. 2 40. 5 46. 1 36. 6 35. 7 36. 5 33. 7 36. 1 40. 6 38. 8 44. 3 29. 0 35. 1 44. 3 28. 7 per cent who particip ate in none 46. 1 31. 1 20. 4 14. 1 12. 8 13. 9 23. 4 22. 7 20. 21. 7 19. 7 16. 8 12. 1 21. 3 20. 3 20. 8 21. 8 21. 3 17. 3 19. 0 15. 0 26. 1 21. 6 13. 6 27. 7 Numbe r of women Age 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 Urban 40. 4 52. 5 62. 2 67. 7 69. 3 68. 8 59. 3 59. 4 61. 2 61. 0 63. 6 67. 2 73. 1 61. 6 61. 1 62. 0 59. 5 62. 5 66. 2 63. 0 67. 7 54. 6 61. 7 67. 7 56. 4 33. 5 47. 5 58. 9 67. 1 71. 6 69. 5 56. 5 57. 5 60. 4 59. 8 60. 7 65. 9 71. 6 59. 1 60. 9 59. 7 58. 3 60. 2 65. 2 69. 2 68. 0 53. 7 58. 7 68. 7 68. 7 6726 16782 18540 30952 20089 28604 64485 43931 7776 14018 10735 7704 8921 24918 8366 14793 14615 13144 17100 39835 25601 14234 53225 47851 45238Residence Rural No education Less than 5 yrs 5-7 yrs 8-9 yrs 10-11yrs 12 or more yrs Education Husband ’s education No education Less than 5 yrs 5-7 yrs 8-9 yrs 10-11yrs 12 or more yrs Employed Employed for cash Employed not fo r cash Not employed Employment Household structure Nuclear Non nuclear Source: NFHS – 3 22 Table – 3 Freedom of Movement of Married Women in India, 2005-06 (Figures in per cent) Places Alone Urban 66. 2 60. 3 45. 5 Rural 44. 3 41. 5 34. 0 Total 51. 4 47. 7 37. 7 With somebody else 26. 8 36. 2 48. 0 40. 4 53. 0 56. 6 35. 9 47. 5 53. Not at all Total To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community To the market To health facilities To outside the village/community 7. 0 3. 5 6. 6 15. 3 5. 5 9. 4 12. 6 4. 8 8. 5 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 Source- NFHS- 3 Table – 4 Factors Affecting Freedom of Movement of Married Women, 2005-06 Percentage allowed to go alone to Market Background Characteristics 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 Urban Rural No education