National Seminar on Women Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment concluded

Men fear that they will lose the privileges that they enjoy if women were given equal rights: Prof. Thorat

Psychological tendencies, beliefs and discriminating norms are the reasons of gender disparity: Prof. Thorat.

31 January 2017: Jaipur: A two days National Seminar on “Women Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment: Sustainable Pathways to Egalitarian Society” organized by The Centre for Research, Innovation & Training (CRIT) of The IIS University in collaboration with Indian Institute of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi concluded on Tuesday. In the inaugural ceremony, Mr. Sukhdev Thorat, Chariman, ICSSR was the Chief Guest while Prof. Arvind Kumar, President, Indian Commerce Association present as the Guest of Honour.

Dr. Ashok Gupta, Vice-Chancellor, The IIS University welcomed the guests, delegates and the resource persons who all are attending the seminar. Dr. Subhash Gupta, Dean & Director, CRIT Dr. Subhash Garg while acquainting the audience with the aims and objectives of the seminar said that the seminar has been planned to achieve various objectives such as discussing the government policies and societal efforts to promote women entrepreneurship and employment, exploring the new avenues of employment of women in service sector and addressing the social and economic issues pertaining to women empowerment.

“The seminar has witnessed 200 participants from various parts of the country including New Delhi, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal to name a few. Over 94 research scholars have presented their research papers in the seminar, Dr. Garg said.”

Prof. Arvind Kumar in his deliberation declared the various reasons like gender inequality, women education, and violence against women to name a few as the catalyst that create hindrance for women empowerment. He cited the examples of successful women namely Indira Nooyi, Naina Lal Kidwai, Kiran Majumdar, Ritu Kumar, Oprah Winfrey who came out from all odds to reach where they are today.

On the other hand, Prof. Thorat discussed the need of making policies for women. Prof. Thorat expressed the need of creating dual policies one for the individual and the other for the group because the group policies differ from the individual ones.

He blamed the psychological tendencies, beliefs and discriminating norms that are prevailing in our societies as the reasons for gender inequality and disparity.

“There are discriminating norms in the society like how man should behave with women, Prof. Thorat asserted.”

Prof. Thorat has discussed various theories of eminent theorists and found one thing in common. “One thing which is common in the theories that I have discussed here is that that we discriminate because we have prejudice against them, Prof. Thorat added.”

While raising a point that why these prejudices prevail, Prof Thorat concluded that prejudice is the psychological feeling with the individual. “Men fear that they will lose the privileges that they enjoy if women are given equal rights, he said.