Women Empowerment in Developing India

Introduction: Since the older times, women have been treated as second rate citizens of all
across the globe. Women have been relegated to secondary position despite the fact that they
numerically constitute about half the world population today.
This situation has caused immense loss to their self-dignity as human beings and also their
independent entities, associated with men, apart from other matter, in context with intellectual
and professional capability.
In the very beginning of civilization, women enjoyed a respectable position in society-at par with
men. They actively participated in social, religious affairs as well as in warfare. The social,
religious ceremonies were considered incomplete unless women participated in them. However,
it was their physical constitution which acted as hurdles on the way to doing their various
different difficult tasks.
Gradually, they became dependent on men for food, protection for their other necessities. It was
due to the strong built-up of men they risked their lives in course of hunting and food collection.
It is really ironical that superiority is not accorded to the fair sex who are responsible for carrying
forward lives on this planet but to men who have muscle power with the help of which they can
subjugate others.
During the course of social development, the position of women also changed. When society was
formed, patriarchy was established. Gradually, males became dominant in society. They were to
write the codes for all times and obviously women were given a subordinate position. A
prominent feature of hegemonic ideologies is the projection of the dominant viewpoint as
universally true.
The architect of Indian Constitution was of the opinion that unless and until women are
empowered, nothing was going to bring about any change in their destiny. At that time, the
women, in the name of sansakaras were tied up with the bondage of superstitions, which they
had to carry till the last breath of their lives. They were considered just a matter of joy and a
source of amusement. She was, according the Hindu Shashtra, the bonded slave of her father
when she was young, to her husband when she was middle-aged and to her son when a mother.
All the epigrams, aphorisms, proverbs, platitudes and truism have been naked truth about the
stature of women in India.
It does not mean that efforts have not been made to bring dignity in the life of women. There has
been a long tradition of social reforms by our saints and social reformers which include: Raja
Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Mahadev Govind Ranade, and Jyotiba Phule, to
name a few, who tried their best to bring changes in the life of women.
Their efforts, however, bore fruit to some extent, but did not make too much difference to the lots
of the masses. In this direction, Dr. Ambedkar tried to break down the barriers in the way of
advancement of women in India. He laid down the foundation of concrete and sincere efforts by
codifying the Common Civil Code for the Hindus and the principle is capable of extension to
other sections of the Indian society. Besides, he also made provision in the Constitution to ensure

a dignified social status to women. He, by codifying Hindu Law in respect of marriage, divorce
and succession rationalized and restored the dignity of women.
Even in ages of strict dominance by males, society has thrown up women of calibre, who could
match, even surpass, the skills of men. They made great progress in various fields of life and
gained significant achievements as teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists, explorers, soldiers and
pilots. This achievement is really plausible because they have been achieved in a highly adverse
situation and at the cost of severe social criticism, indeed even ostracism. The need for womens
empowerment arises from the subordinate position they have been accorded for a long time.
It is hard to fathom how slow moving the culture exchange of the world is when you find out that
there are several places across the country where harmful customs of the ancient world coexist
with modern appliances and thought. However that may come as hardly any surprise to one who
has lived in India.
It is only in India that glaring and brutal gang rapes occur frequently in a state that is headed by a
woman Chief Minister. Gender discrimination is the least of worries for women in India, known
otherwise as the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women. Other instances of
violence against women has an astonishing and grim variety to it with acid throwing, domestic
violence stemming out of dowry, rape, harassment and an assortment of others.
Challenges Prevalent in India: There are several challenges that are currently plaguing the
issues of womens rights in India. A few of these challenges are presented below. While a lot of
these are redundant and quite basic issues faced across the country, these are contributory causes
to the overarching status of women in India. Targeting these issues will directly benefit the
empowerment of women in India.
1) Illiteracy: While the country has grown from leaps and bounds since its independence where
education is concerned, the gap between women and men is severe. While 82.14% of
adult men are educated, only 65.46% of adult women are known to be literate in India.
Not only is an illiterate women at the mercy of her husband or father, she also does not
know that this is not the way of life for women across the world. Additionally, the norms
of culture that state that the man of the family is the be-all and end-all of family decisions
is slowly spoiling the society of the country. Eradicating this gap and educating women
about their real place in the world is a step that will largely set this entire movement
rolling down the hill to crash and break the wall of intolerance, negligence and
exploitation.
2) Poverty: About a third of the countrys population lives on less than 1.25USD per day. The
GINI index keeps rising slowly over the years, indicating that the inequality in the
distribution of wealth in the country is increasing. Poverty is considered the greatest
threat to peace in the world, and eradication of poverty should be a national goal as
important as the eradication of illiteracy. Due to abject poverty, women are exploited as
domestic helps and wives whose incomes are usurped by the man of the house.
Additionally, sex slaves are a direct outcome of poverty.
Andhra Pradesh accounts for nearly half of all sex trafficking cases in India, the majority
involving adolescent girls. According to police estimates, a shocking 300,000 women and girls
have been trafficked for exploitative sex work from Andhra Pradesh; of these just 3,000 have

been rescued so far. The state is relatively prosperous, ranking fourth in terms of per capita GDP
in India, but it is also home to some of the poorest people in the country.
If poverty were not a concern, then the girl child will be able to follow her dreams without
concerns of sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and any work.
3) Female infanticide: Killing of the female child is still a common practice in many of the
rural areas. Further female foeticide is common in some parts of India, despite the
passage of Prenatal Diagnostic techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act in 1994. In
case they survive, they are subjected to discrimination throughout their lives.
Traditionally, since sons are thought to take care of their parents during old age and
daughters are considered a burden because of dowry and other expenses that have to be
incurred during their marriage, female children are neglected in the matters of nutrition,
education and other important aspects of well-being. The Sex ratio in our country is
abysmally low. It was only 940 females per 1000 males according to the 2011 census.
The Sex ratio is an important indicator of development.
4) Domestic Violence: During their youth, females face the problem of early marriage and
childbirth. They are not cared for properly during pregnancy leading to many cases of maternal
mortality. The MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) i.e. the number of females dying during
delivery per one lakh persons, in India is 212(as in 2012). In addition, they are subjected to
harassment for dowry and other forms of domestic violence. Further, at the work place, public
places and elsewhere, acts of violence, exploitation and discrimination are rampant.
5) Attitude of the society: It is a general perception that women from a certain class only are in
need of empowerment. But this is not true. Even the educated and those with a high social status
might not be empowered in the true sense. It needed the right Attitude and Accountability.
Preventive mechanisms should be given more focus than punitive mechanisms to ensure
immediate abatement of violence. Woman is empowered when society changes its attitude
6) Health & Safety: The health and safety concerns of women are paramount for the well being
of a country and is an important factor in gauging the empowerment of women in a country.
However there are alarming concerns where maternal healthcare is concerned. While there are
several programmes that have been set into motion by the Government and several NGOs in the
country, there is still a wide gap that exists between those under protection and those not.
Poverty and illiteracy add to these complications with local quacks giving ineffective and
downright harmful remedies to problems that women have. The empowerment of women begins
with a guarantee of their health and safety.
Women Empowerment- It is basically the creation of an environment where women can make
independent decisions on their personal development as well as shine as equals in society.
Women want to be treated as equals so much so that if a woman rises to the top of her field it
should be a commonplace occurrence that draws nothing more than a raised eyebrow at the
gender. This can only happen if there is a channelized route for the empowerment of women.
Thus it is no real surprise that women empowerment in India is a hotly discussed topic with no
real solution looming in the horizon except to doubly redouble our efforts and continue to target
the sources of all the violence and ill-will towards women.

The empowerment has been felt as a tool to bring about changes in their socio-economic
condition. It has been felt on the part of nation as well as individual that no society can progress
till women, a major constituent of society, lag behind.
Empowerment of women needs to begin with her participation in different spheres of life.
Tools to Empower Women:
1) Education: Education is a great determinant in this regard. To achieve empowerment women
have to be educated to be aware of their rights and privileges in a modern society. It is education
which can bring about awareness in them related to their social status, injustice and
differentiation meted out to them.
2) Co-Education: It helped students get rid of pre-conceived notions about the other gender.
3) Economic Independence: It is a major factor which can contribute in empowering women.
India in the very beginning realized this need.
It was really a first step towards the recognition and empowerment of women in India. This gives
a woman right to property, which undoubtedly strengthens her social position. Despite all these
political measures, womens empowerment remains a distant dream in India. In addition to this,
the Sharda Act is also worth mentioning. It has set the seal of authority upon the piece of social
reforms, which the heads of orthodoxy were imposing and impending. The Hindu Code Bill,
which covers issues such as right to property, order of succession to property, maintenance,
marriage, divorce, adoption, minority and guardianship, constitutes part of social engineering via
law. Needless to say, it was a revolutionary measure.
4) Political Empowerment: it is a key to development in this society. It is a must for an allaround development of women. It is the need of the hour to ensure her participation in the
decision-making at home, in community and at the national level.
5) Actions taken by govt. to empower women:i) Criminal laws: Criminal laws against sati, dowry, female infanticide and foeticide, eve
teasing, rape, immoral trafficking and other offences relating to women have been enacted in
addition to civil laws like the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, the Hindu Marriage
Act 1955 and other Matrimonial enactments. The Prevention of Domestic Violence Act has been
passed in 2005.
ii) National Commission for Women
The National Commission for Women is a Department within the Ministry of Women and Child
Development. It was set up exclusively to help women via the Constitution by reviewing Legal
and Constitutional safeguards for women, recommending remedial legislative measures, by
facilitating quick redressal of grievances and by advising the Government of India on all policy
matters affecting women. The website allows for online submission of complaints and fast
redressal exclusively for women. Additionally it is also a good resource of information for
women and the Commission is committed to helping out women in need.
iii) Womens Reservation Bill : The 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill, popularly known as
the Womens Reservation Bill which seeks to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok
Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies. The solution must envisage for a two-pronged

attack, on the one hand, on tradition which is responsible for assigning a low status for women
in the society and on the other hand, the outrages perpetrated against them.
iv) Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010: The
proposed Bill, if enacted, will ensure that women are protected against sexual harassment at all
the work places, be it in public or private. This will contribute to realisation of their right to
gender equality, life and liberty and equality in working conditions everywhere. The sense of
security at the workplace will improve women's participation in work, resulting in their
economic empowerment and inclusive growth. This is to ensure a safe environment for women
at work places, both in public and private sectors whether organised or unorganized. The
measure will help in achieving gender empowerment and equality.
v) Gender Equality: Gender disparity in the country can be tackled only through proactive
intervention in areas such as economic empowerment of women, building of adequate social and
physical infrastructure and improving womens role in governance.
vi) SEWA: SEWA is a trade union registered in 1972. It is an organisation of poor, selfemployed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labour or
small businesses. They do not obtain regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like
workers in the organised sector. They are the unprotected labour force of our country.
Constituting 93% of the labour force, these are workers of the unorganised sector. Of the female
labour force in India, more than 94% are in the unorganised sector. However their work is not
counted and hence remains invisible. Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA)
empowerment of women was the key to not only meeting the objective of gender equality but
also to eliciting full participation in nation-building.
vii) SHG: As poor women were often incapacitated to act individually, social mobilization for
their economic redemption was a critical necessity. Participatory institution building through
self-help groups has been found to be one of the most effective tools for the empowerment of
women in developing countries. As on 31st March 2012, there were around 63 lakh all-women
self-help groups in India that had combined bank savings of more than Rs. 5,100 crore. The
number of such self-help groups is increasing, with a growth rate of 9.2, 14.8 and 3.3 per cent
during 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively.
viii) Agriculture Sector: Agriculture Training is the key to empowering women. Vocational
training in agriculture is an important step towards empowerment of large sections of women in
the State. They had better self-esteem, more participation in household decision-making and
control over resources. There was improvement in economic factors such as accessibility to
credit, household income, acquisition of assets and an increase in savings.
ix) Street food as a tool of womens empowerment
In our society, cooking has been the traditional forte of women and this can be used to as a tool
for their economic upliftment. If street food vending is legalized and brought into mainstream,
this sector can be a source of sustenance for socially backward women. Street food vending can
be used to create livelihood security for marginalised women in the city. But to achieve this there
has to be better policy initiatives.
Though men stand at street food outlets, women play a major role in processing raw materials
and preparing basic ingredients, if this role is formally accepted and encouraged, their

potentiality can be fully tapped. To achieve this goal there is a need to provide legal recognition
to street food vending and to bring it under the fold of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), she explains.
By legalizing the profession the day-to-day threat that these vendors face from enforcement
authorities can be tackled and along with it they can also apply for financial support. Officials
should also provide designated places for these vendors to operate along with providing facilities
like proper storage facilities.
x) Millennium Development Goal
The United Nations Development Programme constituted eight Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) for ensuring equity and peace across the world. The third MDG is directly related
to the empowerment of women in India. The MDGs are agreed-upon goals to reduce certain
indicators of disparity across the world by the year 2015. The third MDG is centered towards
promoting gender equality and empowering women. While Indias progress in this front has been
brave, there are quite a few corners that it needs to cut before it can be called as being truly
revolutionary in its quest for understanding what is women empowerment. The country has
hastened progress and the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) in
primary and secondary education has risen.
xi) Ministry for Women & Child Development
The Ministry for Women & Child Development was established as a department of the Ministry
of Human Resource Development in the year 1985 to drive the holistic development of women
and children in the country. In 2006 this department was given the status of a Ministry, with the
powers to:Formulate plans, policies and programmes; enacts/ amends legislation, guiding and coordinating
the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental organisations working in the field of
Women and Child Development.
It delivers such initiatives such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which is a
package of services such as supplementary nutrition, health check-ups and immunisation. As
mentioned earlier, the empowerment of women begins with their safety and health and this
Ministry is committed to providing them.
xii) Swayamsidha Programme: An integrated scheme for the empowerment of women at a total
cost of Rs. 116.30 Crores. Core to this programme will be the establishment of womens selfhelp groups which will empower women to have increased access to all kinds of resources that
they are denied, in addition to increasing their awareness and skills. This programme will benefit
about 9,30,000 women with the setting up of 53,000 self-help groups, 26,500 village societies
and 650 block societies.
xiii) Five Year Plans: The government includes provision of allocation for the welfare of women
in the five year plans, provision of subsidized loan facilities and so on. The year 2001 has been
declared as the women empowerment year by the Government of India and 24 th January as the
National Girl Child Day.
xiv) Tax Benefits: The government is providing Tax Benefits to women employees. It had
introduced a special provision under which the basic tax exemption limit for women was pegged
higher than that for men.

xv) Employment in Defense Sector: The increasing number of women officers in Police force
and armed forces has helped in breaking the social Taboo as in this area men are considered
superior to women. Females have achieved high ranks in defense sector and the first Vice
admiral of Indian Navy was a women.
Much needed to be done to Empower Women
India as a country is still recovering from years of abuse in the time of the Raj and more years of
economic suffering at the hands of the License Raj. It is only now that globalization,
liberalization and other socio-economic forces have given some respite to a large proportion of
the population. However, there are still quite a few areas where women empowerment in India is
largely lacking.
To truly understand what women empowerment is, there needs to be a sea-change in the mindset of the people in the country. Not just the women themselves, but the men have to wake up
to a world that is moving towards equality and equity. It is better that this is embraced earlier
rather than later, for our own good.
Therefore, our efforts should be directed towards the all- around development of each and
every section of Indian women, not confining the benefit to a particular section of women in
society, by giving them their due share. It is a must to protect their chastity, modesty and
dignity and ensure their dignified position in society. Without removing social stigma, enduring
progress and development could not be achieved. For this, the governmental and nongovernmental organizations including media should come forward and play an active role in
creating awareness in society.
Mass campaigns need to be organized especially in the villages in favour of survival of the
female child and provision of human rights for her, including education and health. It is
essential to dispel the ghosts of the past and place women on an equal footing with men in
order to pave the way for their empowerment, social, economic and educational. Empowering
women and thus rebuilding the society would take the nation on a path of greater development,
as Swami Vivekananda says, Countries and Nations which do not respect women have never
become great nor will ever be in future.
Empowering Women rebuilding the society
The task is not too difficult to achieve. The honesty and sincerity on the part of those involved is
a must. If the lots of women change, definitely it will have a positive impact on society. Hence,
the womens empowerment is the need of the hour.
Swami Vivekananda once said arise away and stop not until the goal is reached. Thus our
country should thus be catapulted into the horizon of empowerment of women and revel in its
glory.
We have a long way to go, but we will get there someday. We shall overcome.

PUNEETA SHERWAL
Reference:
1) The Hindu.
2) PIB