Women Empowerment in India – Actions to Empower Women

Women empowerment is empowering the women or giving them the power to decide their own fate and destiny. The rights which are granted to women to earn their own living and making their place in society. According to the United Nations, women empowerment mainly has five components: 1. Generating women’s sense of self-worth; 2. Women’s right to have and to determine their choices; 3. Women’s right to have access to equal opportunities and all kinds of resources; 4. Women’s right to have power to regulate and control their lives within and outside homes; 5. Women’s ability to contribute in creating a more and just social and economic order. Thus, women empowerment is nothing but giving the basic human rights and authority to women to become as competent as men in creating a better social environment.

1. To find out the actions taken in India to empower women. 2. To give some innovative suggestions to improve condition of women in India.

The paper is descriptive in nature. The data is mostly based on secondary sources like research papers, websites, and journals.

1. Dr. B. Nagaraja (2013) in his paper. “Empowerment of women in India: A critical analysis” has focussed on various approaches in empowerment of women which are the success indicators in this effort. 2. Dr. Rajeshwari M. Shettar (2015). “A Study on Issues and Challenges of Women Empowerment in India” has highlighted the efforts made by government to improve condition of women in society. 3. Esther Duflo (2011). “Women’s empowerment and economic development”, working paper 17702 ,NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, research is based on the areas in which women empowerment will affect economic development of nations. 4. Kavita Sethuraman (2008). “The Role of Women’s Empowerment and Domestic Violence in Child Growth and Under nutrition in a Tribal and Rural Community in South 5. Dr. D. Kumuda (2014). “Women Empowerment in India-A changing Scenario”, has explored the changing situations in India in the field of condition and position of women in India.

India is a very complex country. We have lots of diversities and variations in the customs, traditions, cultures and position of women in India. Women hold a very important place in India since the ancient times as we worship female goddesses and our daughters, mothers, sisters have great value in families. But at the same time Indians are famous for ill treatment of the women in numerous ways like early marriages, practice of dowry, sexual harassment, female infanticide, domestic violence, etc. The reasons behind such acts is narrow minded group of people who feel that men are superior than women and the lives of women are wholly dependent on the men. Some ignorant women also have a place in this group because they do not pay attention to the rights provided to them and become the victims without doing any efforts to protect their interest. Such women become puppets in the hands of men by serving them and asking nothing in return. Many efforts are being made in order in improve the condition of women in society by developing a sense of worth in them and giving various opportunities to develope their skills in different fields. Many laws were enacted by the Parliament in order to provide women a sense of security and empowerment. India is also a part of various international conventions and treaties which are committed to secure equal rights of women.

The efforts which are made towards gender equality and women’s empowerment are: 1. Strengthening opportunities for post-primary education for girls while at the same time meeting commitments to universal primary education. 2. Guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights. 3. Invest in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girl’s time burden. 4. Guarantee women’s and girl’s property and inheritance rights. 5. Eliminate gender inequality in employment by decreasing women’s reliance on informal 6. Increase women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local governmental bodies. 7. Combat violence against girls and women. 8. Build self – esteem and confidence to speak in front of groups n sharing their views. 9. Build networks which will help women to have more support and greater opportunities to effect change in their communities. 10. Create public leaders by providing leadership training for women to increase their presence in the public sphere. 11. To ensure women’s safety some mobile based applications are being launched like “HIMMAT” and ideas like SMART police (smart but sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsible, tech-savy and trained) are implemented. 12. Introduction of new trains by western railways of India especially for women. It is the first ever train in the world.

1. It is very important to do the counselling of girls regarding marriage and other commitments. 2. Orthodox Parents of girls must be given proper knowledge of the benefits of higher education and self-dependency of girls. 3. Various relaxations must be provided to girls who want work after their higher secondary. 4. Different departments for problems of women and girls must be made in schools, colleges and police stations. 5. More liberalised societies should be developed so that sufficient freedom and opportunities are provided to girls for their education. 6. Financial help should be provided for young women entrepreneurs by the government to motivate them. 7. Moral and ethical values regarding respect for women must be given to men from the time of their schooling.

Thus, Women Empowerment is an issue which needs due attention in order to promote women of India and gender equality. As all the countries around the world

organisations and various associations need proper space, resources, social approval, self-motivation in order to promote their own development, bring about social transformation that remove the constraints, fulfil the potential, and guarantee the rights of women in all countries. The dedication and mettle in this concern will bring about great opportunities for women and will pave the way towards that future which is full of prosperity and progress.

Dr. Kumuda D. (2014), “Women Empowerment in India-A changing Scene”, International journal of scientific research, volume 3, issue 8. Dr. Nagaraja B. (2013) in his paper, “Empowerment of women in India: A critical analysis”, Journal of humanities and social sciences, volume 9, Issue 2. Dr. Shettar Rajeshwari M. (2015), “A Study on Issues and Challenges of Women Empowerment in India”, Journal of business and management, volume 17, issue 4. Dulfo Esther (2011), “Women’s empowerment and economic development”, Working paper 17702, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES. News24online.com Sethuraman Kavita (2008), “The Role of Women’s Empowerment and Domestic Violence in Child Growth and under nutrition in a Tribal and Rural Community in South India”, UNU-WIDER, Research paper no.2008/15. www.abplive.in www.globalurban.org www.naarijyoti.com www.quora.com

Research Scholar, Barkatullah University, Bhopal