Over time, empowerment has been a vague concept to people. For many people, there is always a different meaning to the term. For some, empowerment is about the female gender. For others, it is all about the less privileged. Everyone has a different approach to what empowerment means.
However, empowerment encompasses all. It can mean supporting people to gain knowledge and developing skills that enable them to overcome obstacles in their personal and professional lives. It gives people direct control of their lives and enables them to be the drivers of their destinies.
Also, empowerment does not necessarily mean the distribution of food or clothing materials; it equates to something much bigger and important.
Self-empowerment is the most important part of empowerment; it is the development of a more positive and strong sense of self-worth. Without a strong feeling of self-worth, every other form of empowerment is like trying to fill a basket with water.
Once self-worth has been discovered, the next step to sustainable national development through empowerment is grassroots empowerment. Grassroots empowerment is the education and enlightenment of people at the grassroots level. Every developed country owes most of its development to education.
How does education apply in this instance? Education enables the people to have a better understanding of their civil and political rights, their democratic obligations and the important rules to know for a better society.
What comes next after grassroots empowerment? The intermediate empowerment. How does this form of empowerment work? By now, the citizens are armed with the knowledge of their socio-political powers. The next step is to hand them the required skills or education to develop themselves professionally.
This form of empowerment directly targets youths and middle-aged people. For promising students, there should be merit-based scholarships to enable them to finish school and attain their full potential without stress. On the other hand, there should also be financial aid for students who show signs of a promising future but can not afford it.
Not everyone has the dream of going to school. Some people sway to skill acquisition. For youths who do not find much success in school and for adults who believe they are too old to go to school, skill acquisition programmes are the ideal empowerment alternative. With several skill acquisition programmes, unemployment levels would drop significantly and crime rates would be reduced.
The final piece of the puzzle is national empowerment. National empowerment is a piece of cherry on the cake of sustainable national development. National empowerment can be referred to as the impact the government makes regarding social issues.
The government is in the position to create numerous jobs to end unemployment. Another role of the government in national empowerment is the introduction of friendly taxes. National empowerment also includes the establishment of more schools, skill acquisition centres and youth development centres.
Though there are many other ways to empower people like poverty alleviation schemes, women empowerment schemes, food donations, grants and many others, self-empowerment, grassroots empowerment, intermediate empowerment and national empowerment are sure tools for sustainable national development.
