| Pub. Date | : October, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Management Research |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJMR021022 |
| Author Name | : Madhubanti Das |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 12 |
Helping women break the asymmetric shackles of the society, giving them the power to make the strategic life choices that will affect them, is empowering women. A company's responsibility towards the society must embrace this initiative towards this segment that has been deprived for long. West Bengal, though called a land of societal values and customs, still sees gender inequality, bias and discrimination towards women, especially in rural areas. This paper examines the relationship between a company's social responsibility initiatives and women empowerment. It studies the importance of such Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and also focuses on how companies can help strengthen the scope of women empowerment. The paper found that though gender bias still exists, it is through a company's reformatory guidelines that such disparity can be minimized, especially in terms of payment and wages.
The concept of women empowerment was first introduced in the United Nation's
Third World Conference on Women in 1985 in Nairobi, which defined it as the
distribution of social and economic powers and control of resources in favor of women.
Empowering women necessarily means equipping her with the right arms and
ammunition to face the society; equipping her with knowledge that would help her
have her own perspective and gain perception, and providing her with financial
independence that would initiate the process of making her independent. Respective
woman's right to choose and acknowledging her voice, her opinion is contributing to
the true essence of women empowerment. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in
its true sense, lies in the company's efforts towards the benefit of the society and
its subjects. Aligning the tasks of CSR with women empowerment is a progressive
step towards empowering the nation for a brighter future.
Provisions such as promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up
homes and hostels for women as included in the CSR Policy Rules Schedule VII of
the 2013 Act, subrule (iii), clearly indicate the deprived state of women in India