Women Empowerment- Women Empowerment Schemes, Challenges, Latest News for UPSC!

Women constitute around half of the total population of our country but if we talk about their participation in economic education and other formative activities their share is much less than the halfway mark which is a result of long-standing discrimination faced by women on various front of life starting even before their birth, which calls for an urgent need for women empowerment. In this article, we will discuss in detail various aspects of women’s empowerment including the types of women empowerment difficulties towards women empowerment and a list of multiple women empowerment schemes in India.

Women’s Empowerment is an important topic from the UPSC IAS Exam perspective and is covered under the Social Justice section of the General Studies Paper-2 Syllabus of the UPSC Mains Exam. Join Online UPSC coaching today and realize your IAS dream.

Download the PDF on Women Empowerment notes for UPSC Exam here.

About Women Empowerment

Women empowerment simply means providing equal opportunities to women for increasing their participation in various walks of social life. Women empowerment aims to empower women to an extent to which they can independently take resistance to their life including education, health, Lifestyle career, etc. The aim of women’s empowerment is that all women members of society shall ultimately acquire the rights, status, and power equal to that of men.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024, India ranks 129th out of 148 countries, indicating persistent gender disparities. While economic participation shows marginal gains, political empowerment and educational parity remain weak, dragging the country down globally.

Latest News on Women’s Empowerment in India

Recently the Women’s India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI) organized a Vasant Utsav seminar at Chandigarh to celebrate women’s empowerment. WICCI aims to build and boost women’s entrepreneurship.

India Is hosting the G20 summit in the year 2023 and the economic empowerment of women forms the heart of India’s G20 agenda. The Prime Minister at the G20 summit in Bali in 2022 remarked that “Global development is not possible without women’s participation”.

Types of Women’s Empowerment

Women empowerment is a broad area of exploration and it has various dimensions which can be classified as follows:

Social Empowerment

Social empowerment is the most important dimension of women’s empowerment as it forms the base on which all other dimensions of women empowerment rests. Women have faced social inequalities the world over in general and in India in particular for a long time.

If we talk about India the caste system, evil customs like Sati, patriarchal social outlook, polygamy, etc are some of the widely prevalent mistreatment met to women which resulted in making them second-class citizens in a society heavily dependent on men.

Social empowerment of women is focused on making women independent in making choices regarding various social aspects including their health, family, marriage, childbirth, etc.

Having the power to make independent decisions regarding all the above aspects will be an instrumental way to give social empowerment to women.

Educational Empowerment

• Education is the basis of our civilization. It is the most prominent aspect which decides the direction of one’s personal and professional life. Ironically women were kept from acquiring education for a long time and were instead considered to be made for doing household chores.
• Today there is an urgent need to provide quality Universal education to women to help them acquire an equal and respectful social and economic status in today’s society.
• India must address lower-than-average female literacy rates across the country, especially in states like Rajasthan and Bihar and the women’s education model of Southern Indian states like Kerala must be promoted.
• Educating a woman not only changes her personal life but also transforms the lives of her entire family. Educated women understand their rights and duties better and therefore can contribute towards nation-building as well. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is the right policy intervention by the Government of India in this regard.

Read an article on the POCSO Bill here!

Economic Empowerment

• Money is the basis of all the physical and material needs in present-day society. Financially independent women are the torchbearers of an economically developed society.
• For the economic empowerment of women, it is needed to provide them with equal opportunities for working and better access to the market.
• Women are great managers and their management potential can create wonders in the business. In the country even today working women are unacceptable.
• Financially independent women can take the other decisions of their life including education and lifestyle in a better and more assertive manner.
• The government and many other organizations have realized the potential and importance of economic empowerment of women and therefore are working in a mission mode to achieve it. The economic empowerment of women is an integral part of India’s 2023 G20 agenda.

Political Empowerment

• Politics is widely regarded as an instrument of social change. Entry of more women into active politics on higher levels will speed up the process of women’s empowerment as a woman can better understand the condition and requirements of all women in society. And therefore can potentially make better decisions regarding policy formulations concerning women.
• Moreover, women politicians can actively raise the issues concerning women in the Parliament, legislatures, and various other public forums and platforms.
• One-third of women’s reservations in the Panchayati Raj Institutions and Municipal bodies is a welcome step.
• But there is an urgent need for the introduction of Women’s reservations in the legislature and the Parliament by passing the Women’s Reservation Bill pending in the Parliament to increase the representation of women in political forums and contribute towards the political empowerment of women.
• The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, known as the Women’s Reservation Act or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, mandates one‑third of seats for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, including SC/ST quotas. However, its implementation hinges on a future delimitation exercise post-census, likely around 2029.

Difficulties towards Women’s Empowerment in India

Women empowerment is not an easy task and has certain barriers and resistance. Important challenges and difficulties in the path of women empowerment:

Demographic Imbalance

• According to a recent study conducted under the National Family Health Survey-5 there is a welcome fall in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2.0 in 2019-20 which indicates significant progress in this regard.
  • But on the other hand, there are other issues contributing to demographic imbalance including the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) which is still 937/1000 in 2021, the sex ratio of 108.1 boys per 100 girls is also concerning.
• An unfavorable sex ratio is a long-standing issue in India that has some serious consequences and the demographic imbalance is also a reflection of the status of women in the society as the skewed sex ratio of India is a direct result of infanticide of female children and desired to have a male child by the patriarchal Indian society.
• States like Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Delhi have the most biased sex ratio in India.
• "According to the 2024 Gender Gap Index, India has closed only about 64% of its gender gap. The remaining disparities are most pronounced in political participation, where women hold just 17% of parliamentary seats, and ministerial positions, which account for only 7%.

Read an article on Child Labour in India here!

Health Problems

Women’s health is one of the most neglected aspects of Indian society. Some supporting facts in this regard are:

• 70% of adolescent girls in India are anemic and issues and problems related to their menstrual health and hygiene are largely unaddressed.
• The sex ratio at birth in India is 937 which is among the worst-performing countries.
• Maternal mortality rate in 2016-18 in India was 113.
• Around 70% of Indian women are suffering from reproductive tract infections which may cause abortions and even infertility.

These stats present a grim picture of women’s health in India which needs urgent attention to address the above-mentioned issues in an efficient and effective manner.

Neglect of Female Education

• Education of females is another major hurdle in the path of women’s empowerment. In India, the female literacy rate is 70.3% in 2022 as per UNESCO which is well short of the Global average of 79%. On the other hand, the male literacy rate stands at 84.7%. Stills like Bihar and Rajasthan are among the worst performers.
• An uneducated woman is unaware of her rights and is therefore vulnerable to exploitation.
• Whereas an educated woman is well aware of her rights and duties and can stand against any injustice or raise her voice against the exploitation met to her and even to other women.
• Female education is historically neglected in India and is a primary reason for the backward social status of women in the country.

Violence

Violence against women and girls is one of the most shameful pervasive and continuous Human Rights violations facing the entire human Civilization today. This continues to be a big obstacle to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Violence results in a negative impact on the physical, emotional, and all other aspects of women’s health.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB, there is an increase of 15.3% in crimes against women in 2021.

Read an article on National Human Rights Commission here!

Types of Violence against Women

There are different types of violence against Women given below:

Domestic Violence

It is one of the most prevalent violence types against women which includes verbal nonverbal, physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological acts of violence by an intimate partner over the women.

Female Infanticide/Femicide

It is the evil practice of deliberately killing a woman in her mother’s womb before her birth for the reason that she is a woman.

Honor Killing

Honor killing involves murdering a family member, in this case, a woman for bringing dishonor to the family.

Online Violence/Cyber Crime

It includes circulating pictures or videos of a woman online in compromising positions for ulterior motives. Stalking of women on social media or the internet also comes under this category.

Sexual Violence

Sexual violence has different forms including-

Sexual Harassment

It is non-consensual physical contact against a woman in a sexual manner. Sexual remarks, demanding sexual favors, and stalking are also included in this category.

Rape

It is a non-consensual physically penetrating sexual act.

Human Trafficking

Millions of girls are caught up in the human trafficking scandal and many of them are subjected to sexual exploitation.

Read an article to know about the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act!

Child Marriage

Marriage of a girl under 18 years of age is classified as child marriage which is a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

List of Major Women Empowerment schemes in India

According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development following are the ongoing major women empowerment schemes of the central government in India.

Read an article on Vishakha Guidelines here!

Way Forward

While moving forward in the Quest for women’s empowerment we must keep in mind the following points

Better education opportunities for women

The role of education in character career and nation-building is well known and therefore there is an urgent need to provide better education to women to ensure

• Lower dropout rates.
• Increase in enrollment in higher education.
• Career-defining vocational education and training.
• There is also a need to target young men and boys by educating them and positively changing their attitude towards girls.

Skill training and financial autonomy

Financial autonomy is a prerequisite as well as the result of women’s empowerment. It enables women to decide the direction of their careers and lifestyle and take all other important decisions in their life independently.

Proper skill training will enhance the chances of employability of women and their four in reaching financial autonomous status.

Read an article on the Samarth Scheme here!

Other measures

Some other measures to ensure women’s empowerment include

• Proper and strict implementation of rules and regulations regarding women’s safety.
• Encouraging society, families, and girls to complete basic education by means of spreading awareness and providing incentives.
• To prioritize women empowerment schemes at all levels of governance.
• To honor and award the excellent works done in the field of women empowerment in order to encourage more such acts in the future.

Read an article on the Citizens Charter here!

Conclusion

The above discussion reminds us of the grim picture of the condition of women surrounded by various hurdles and challenges in their quest to get equal rights, opportunities, and status in society. On the brighter side, change in perception is witnessed at various levels and the right policy intervention by the government club with awareness campaigns and change in societal behavior can increase the trajectory of women’s empowerment. It will also have a very positive multipronged impact on the social, economic, and cultural outlook of the Republic of India.

Hopefully, this article by testbook has answered all your questions regarding the topic of- Women’s Empowerment. Here at Testbook, we are making constant endeavors to provide you with the best quality study material with all the current updates to help you in your exam preparations. Testbook provides online classes, test series, and study notes at the lowest prices. Download the Testbook App now!