Empowerment

What is empowerment? Whose empowerment and by whom? These are

the fundamental questions which this piece will discuss with reflections from three
prominent writers, Paulo Freire in his Pedagogy of the oppressed, Saul Alisnky's Rules
for Radicals and Vivek Pandit's Fearless Mind. Empowerment is defined as " enabling
another person to use their gifts and talents using respect and kindness. To do this provide
information and model behaviour as needed, rather than shame or punishment when there
is a difference in the behaviour you expect vs. what you get".

The power structure of the Indian society is adopted in such a way that
the poor people are continuously suffering .Looking at the agrarian society of India we
find that the lower caste continue to suffer .Brahmins are considered to be the upper class
in the society .They don't produce anything yet they are the richest and powerful in the
society. Power is manifested in the ability of an individual or group to decide over the
lives of other individuals or groups .In other words the power holder i.e. the oppressor
decides what the oppressed should do or should not do. This right to decide has remained
unchallenged over a long time .The power is also manifested in the ability to carry out a
decision even though there is unwillingness from the other side. There are various
reasons for what oppressed are stoped. One of the major cause for that is economic
reason. We know that the oppressors may have the limited resources to sustain their life.
In order to continue with their life they borrow money from the landlords and once they
enter into the system they are unable to come out from the clutches of the landlord. This
lead to bondage and it keeps on going from generation to generation .The second cause
for the oppressed is the caste system. The structurally organised caste structure in the
Hindu society is also responsible for that. The oppressed are taught that you must have
sinned in the previous birth .If you do your duties well in this birth you will be rewarded.
Thus the exploitation of the Dalit is continuing. There are other reasons for the
exploitation like psychological reason and fear of punishment. The victims always blame
to their fate that "I am nothing. I am poor. I am a Dalit." This kind of psychology lead to
their utter defeat. The oppressed internalize that the master is to be obeyed and it is an
offence to challenge the oppressor. They know that the moment they step out of the
present reality they will invite anger and punishment. They feel insecure to ask question
from the oppressor .This is called the fear of mind. It is this fear of mind which has to be
overcome to attain empowerment.
Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator has made significant contribution to
the understanding of oppression. For empowerment the theories of oppressive action
needs to be superseded by the theories of dialogical action.
Liberation is childbirth. However even before the child is born there is internalization of
its own insignificance, inability to think for itself, act and perform. Slowly this
continuous process is then looked upon as the will of GOD. Now there are two stages to
reach to the stage of empowerment.
First is the stage of conscientization, of the oppression under which they
live and die. This consciousness of an individual has to reach from an individual level to
the level of the oppressed class. Now when will be the end of oppression and the
beginning of empowerment? It will be when the oppressed begin to believe in
themselves. Since in the process of oppression the oppressed begin to believe like a
machine, from where their self depreciation begins. They never realize that they too
know things, they have learned in their relation with the world and with other men. The
oppressed equate himself with animals with the difference that they are freer than we are.
The struggle begins with men's recognition that they have been
destroyed. It will be when the oppressed begin to believe in themselves, involve in
organize struggle, action, not just mere activism, but must also include serious reflection.
This conviction is necessary because then they are accepting their total responsibility for
the struggle. From here will come committed involvement and the beginning of the
second stage of transformation?
An important tool for empowerment is education. The road to
revolution is eminently educational in character. But Paulo Freire critiques the education
system which is like a depositing act, where the students are the depositories and the
teacher is the depositor. Here the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as
far as receiving, filing and storing the deposits. This is called the banking concept in
which the teacher talks and the students listen meekly. The teacher knows everything and
the students know nothing. This similar power relation operates in the school, home and
in the world outside. Freire out rightly rejects this since those who are committed to the
cause of liberation cannot use the banking method in the name of liberation.
He calls for an alternate where there should be an adoption of liberating
education. Where teacher and students are jointly responsible for a process in which all
grow. There is a dialogical relationship. Dialogical theory emphasizes the need of unity
of the leaders with the oppressed in order to achieve liberation. In dialogical action
manipulation is superseded by authentic organization. This dialogue pave way for
communication which in turn elicits cooperation between leaders and people.
Saul Alinsky also mentions communication and organization as important
steps in empowerment. His concept of communication differs from Paulo Freire whereby
he says that in this two way process of communication; it must be of the level of the
oppressed. He has to understand what is being talked about. And then there can be
organization of all the people. It is a must to organize the people in order to start the
struggle for liberation. The unification of the oppressed majority is a serious threat to the
hegemony of the oppressor minority.
The oppressed always feel insecure because they are not united. This is
because they have been seeing the exploitation done to them from their ancestor. In the
ancient time the rallies were the good strategy to force the government to take appropriate
decision on behalf of them .But modern day's rally doesn't pull the attention of the
government .If we take the example of the workers union we find that for them almost
everything moves smoothly. This is because they are in group and they know the
strategy. The empowerment is a non-violent struggle therefore the time, place, day and
the date are equally important .The slogans, symbols and songs are important for moral
building and to prepare the people for action .But apart from all these there should a good
leader who should have the courage to take risk. A good leader should like the people, be
a good listener, build trust easily, works hard, doesn't get discouraged, honest, and mature
and should have the vision and work with the people and not for the people. A leader is a
man who leads a mass of people therefore he should know how to influence and
encourage the people .Then again there should be training for the people so that they
should know what they are going to do. The training will always help them to find out the
gap or fault of the strategy. They should be told the human rights which will help them to
understand what is wrong and right.
To empower the people one should have the proper tactics. It does not mean that
getting the help from other resources which are not reachable rather it means doing what
you can with what you have .In this modern era nothing is freely given. For anything we
have to pay .So the tactics is the art of how to take and how to give .For the better tactics
we should follow some of the rules .First of all we should know that power is not only
what you have but what the enemy thinks of you. One should always keep in mind that
enemy are always ready to re attack. Therefore it is good to know what the enemy thinks
of you. Secondly, we should never go outside the experience of the people. In the very
beginning we must be clear that people are not educated well and they are having the
limited knowledge. People may have the knowledge of previous experience so they
always assume that the next situation will be of the same type. Therefore it is advisable
not to go outside the experience of the people. But it is good to go outside the experience
of enemy. The people should be taught the tactics and they should enjoy it. Finally we
should pick the target and freeze it. Means we should always target the enemy .One big
problem is a constant shifting of responsibility from one place to the other or may be the
shift of power from individual to the other. In such situation bureaucrats disclaim
responsibility for particular condition.

Keeping in mind all the tactics we can work better for the empowerment. There is no
freedom without authority but there is also no authority without freedom.Empowerment
will begin with the end of the culture of silence and muteness.