Empowerment of Women in India

In India, in spite of several welfare schemes and poverty alleviation programmes being implemented under the regime of development planning, the trickle down effect is not visible. Rural women are doubly disadvantaged as they are being located in the rural society and were not considered separately for poverty alleviation programmes until recently. They are often the victims of tradition, social and domestic violence. Gender related human development index lags behind the general human development index. Gender discrimination and gender gaps are ubiquitous. Development planners and policy makers have often failed to consider women’s needs and their viewpoint in designing the programmes for their development. Women are pivotal for development of any society. Everywhere in the world, women discharge two roles: at home as housewife and outside as wage earner, both are important for development of good society and nation as a whole. It is the woman who acts as vital agents for socio-economic activities like bearing and rearing children, providing much of the labor for household maintenance and subsistence agriculture and so on. Women make an important contribution to the economy through working in both the formal and informal sectors. Ironically women’s work is generally undervalued and the additional development it promotes is usually unrecognized. As a result, their health suffers, their children suffer and also their work suffers. Hence, development is held back. As the Third World Countries face new problems, women’s role has become increasingly central for their development.