To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves. - Jawaharlal Nehru. Discuss this statement in the present context.
Based on 28 evaluated answers to this question on CollectorBabu: here is what aspirants most often missed, the mistakes that cost marks, and a model answer.
What most aspirants missed
- Unpaid care work: women do roughly three times more unpaid care work than men, the everyday barrier that blocks awakening despite policy push.
- Concrete schemes linked to awakening: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, DAY-NRLM SHGs, PMJDY and Ujjwala, each explained as a mechanism, not just named.
- Constitutional backing: Article 15(3), the 73rd Amendment reservation and the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023.
- Economic data showing potential versus reality: female labour force participation around 37 per cent against the McKinsey estimate of gains to GDP.
- Specific grassroots examples such as SHGs (JEEViKA), Kudumbashree, SEWA and women panchayat leaders changing village priorities.
- Barriers tied to awakening: son preference, safety concerns, mobility restrictions and the digital divide, each linked to how they stop the chain.
Common mistakes
- Restating the quote and then writing generic material on women's rights without tracing the chain from woman to family to village to nation.
- Listing schemes and statistics without explaining how they actually awaken women.
- Treating the family as equal to the nation and ignoring institutions, governance and the economy.
- Using loaded or unexplained terms and stretched citations, such as Article 21 or unrelated sports examples, that do not serve the theme.
What the better answers did
- Structuring the answer around the quote's chain, with one concrete example at each level: individual, family, village and nation.
- Using precise, current data such as PLFS figures, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam and SHG coverage, with exact figures stated correctly.
- Balancing achievements with barriers such as unpaid care work, safety and the digital divide.
- Ending with a way forward that links education, finance and leadership to the act of awakening.
Introduction
Open by explaining in one line why the woman is the fulcrum of the chain Nehru describes, instead of simply restating the quote.
Conclusion
Close by naming what must happen next, education to work, finance to enterprise and representation to policy, so the nation moves link is earned rather than asserted.
Model answer
Nehru's dictum rests on a simple sociological insight: the family is the first school of values, and a woman is its primary educator and manager. Her awakening through education, income and voice travels outward to the household, the village and eventually the nation. India's experience shows both the promise and the gap.
Why women are the fulcrum
- Women shape child health, nutrition and schooling decisions within households, so their agency changes the next generation.
- Education is the first catalyst. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (2015) has helped shift norms on girls' schooling, though child marriage persists in pockets.
Economic awakening
- Self Help Groups under DAY-NRLM have mobilised crores of women. Bihar's JEEViKA shows SHG members moving from savings to credit, enterprise and collective bargaining.
- Kudumbashree in Kerala and SEWA in Gujarat show that women's collectives can move village economies, not just households.
- Yet female labour force participation is about 37 per cent (PLFS 2022-23). McKinsey estimates that equal participation could add about 770 billion dollars to India's GDP by 2025, which shows the cost of the gap.
Political awakening
- The 73rd Amendment reserved one-third of seats and chairpersons' posts in panchayats. Women leaders have often prioritised drinking water and sanitation.
- The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 reserves one-third of seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, yet women's share in the 17th Lok Sabha is only about 14 per cent.
Legal and social barriers
- Article 15(3) enables special provisions for women. The Vishaka Guidelines (1997) and the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 give workplace protection.
- Unpaid care work, safety concerns, patriarchy and the digital divide block awakening. Women do far more unpaid work than men, so policy must reduce this burden.
Nehru's insight is therefore a governance principle as much as a moral one. Awakening must move from schemes to outcomes: education that leads to work, collective finance that leads to enterprise, and representation that leads to public priorities. Only then does the village move and the nation follow.
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