WOMEN RELATED ISSUES, CHALLENGES,

AND WELFARE SCHEMES

Introduction

 India has a 48.20% female population compared to a 51.80% male

population. They make up half of India’s population.
 Over the years we have seen women grow in public life- working in
offices, representing in international sports, in bureaucracy, politics,
international organizations, and much more.
 This change is positive and is happening at a pace faster than ever
before.

The role of Indian women has evolved over different periods

of time in the following ways:

Rig Vedic period:

 Rig Vedic Women in India enjoyed high status in society and their condition
was good.
 Even the women were provided with the opportunity to attain high intellectual
and spiritual standards.
 There was no Sati system or early marriage.
 They enjoyed the freedom and even they enjoyed freedom in selecting their
male partner.
 Widows were permitted to remarry.
 Women were given complete freedom in family matters.
 They were given an education on an equal footing to men.

Later Vedic period:

 But from enjoying free and esteemed positions in the Rig-Vedic

society, women started being discriminated against since the Later-Vedic
period in education and other rights and facilities.
 Child marriage, widow burning, the purdah, and polygamy further worsened
the women’s position.
Women in the Buddhist period:

 The status of women improved a little during the Buddhist period though
there was no tremendous change.
 Some of the rigidities and restrictions imposed by the caste system were
relaxed.
 Buddha preached equality and he tried to improve the cultural, educational,
and religious statuses of women.
 During the benevolent rule of the famous Buddhist kings such as
Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Sri Harsha, and others, women regained a
part of their lost freedom and status due to the relatively broadminded
Buddhist philosophy.
 Women were not only confined to domestic work but also they could resort to
an educational career if they so desired.
 In the religious field, women came to occupy a distinctly superior place.
 Women were permitted to become “Sanyasis”. Many women took a leading
role in Buddhist monastic-life, women had their sangha called the Bhikshuni
Sangha, which was guided by the same rules and regulations as these of the
monks.
 Their political and economic status however remained unchanged.

Status of women in Medieval India:

 The Medieval period proved to be highly disappointing for the Indian

women, for their status further deteriorated during this period.
 When foreign conquerors invaded India they brought with them their own
culture. For the women were the sole property of her father, brother, or
husband and she does not have any will of her own.
 This type of thinking also crept into the minds of Indian people and they also
began to treat their own women like this.
 They were not allowed to move freely and this leads to the further
deterioration of their status.
 These problems related to women resulted in a changed mindset of people.
Now they began to consider a girl as misery and a burden, which has to be
shielded from the eyes of intruders and needs extra care.
 All this gave rise to some new evils such as Child Marriage, Sati, Jauhar, and
restriction on girl education
 Better status of women in Southern India comparatively Northern India
 The status of women in Southern India was better than in North India. While
in Northern India there were not many women administrators, in Southern
India we can find some names that made women of that time proud.
 Priyaketaladevi, queen of Chalukya Vikramaditya ruled three villages.
Another woman named Jakkiabbe used to rule seventy villages. In South
India, women had representation in each and every field.

Position of the woman during east India Company:

  During the period of the East India Company, many social reformers such as
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Jyotiba Phule had
struggled for the improvement of the status of women in Indian society.
 Peary Charan Sarkar had firstly started a girl’s school in India in 1847 at
Calcutta.
 During this period Raja Ram Mohan Roy with some support from the British
had succeeded to abolish the Sati system from India.
 Women played a significant role in the freedom movement as well.

Independent India:

 Women in India now participate in all activities such as education, politics,

media, art and culture, service sectors, science, and technology, etc.
 The Constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equality (Article
14), no discrimination by the State (Article15(1)), equality of opportunity
(Article 16), equal pay for equal work (Article 39(d)).
 In addition, it allows special provisions to be made by the State in favour of
women and children (Article 15(3)), renounces practices derogatory to the
dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)), and also allows for provisions to be
made by the State for securing just and humane conditions of work and for
maternity relief, (Article 42).

Modern Indian Women

 The status of women in modern India is a sort of paradox.

 If on one hand, she is at the peak of the ladder of success, on the other hand,
she is mutely suffering the violence afflicted on her by her own family
members.
 As compared with the past women in modern times have achieved a lot but in
reality, they have to still travel a long way. The women have left the secured
domain of their home and have become part of the corporate culture.
 The position and status of today’s Women in India are considerably changed
in modern Indian Society.
 Indian Laws are being made without discrimination against women, as a
result, Indian women are enjoying a high position in our society.
 But in India still, the sex ratio of India shows that Indian society is still
prejudiced against females, sexual violence, safety issues still concern them.

Constitutional safeguard for Women in India

 Article 14:
 It guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of
law within the territory of India.
  Article 15:
 It prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste,
sex, place of birth. According to article 15(3), the State can
make special provisions for the benefit of women and
children.
 Article 16:
 Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to
employment. No citizen can be denied employment on
grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth
residence, or any of them.
 Article 39:
 Article 39(a) provides for an adequate means of livelihood for
all citizens.
 Article 39 (b) has provisions for equal pay for equal work for
both men and women.
 Article 39 (c) has provisions for securing the health and
strength of workers, men and women, and not to abuse the
tender age of children.
 Article 42:
 It guarantees the just and humane conditions of work and
maternity relief.
 Article 42 is in accordance with Article 23 and 25 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 Article 325 and 326:
 They guarantee political equality, equal right to participate in
political activity, and the right to vote, respectively.
 Article 243 (D):
 It provides for the political reservation to women in every
panchayat election.
 It has extended this reservation to elected office as well.

The various issues faced by women and their solutions

Violence against Women

 According to a WHO report, one in every three women and girls

experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime most
frequently by an intimate partner.
 As per the NCRB data in India cruelty by a husband or his relatives
accounted for the highest number of cases recorded in the crime
against women category in 2017.
 The safety and security of women have been accorded top priority
by the govt in India and several steps have been taken over the
years to tackle this issue.
  Statistic:
 1 in 3 women and girls experience physical or sexual violence
in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner.
 Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their
own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use, and
health care.
 Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today
were married before their 18th birthday; while 200 million
women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation
(FGM).
 1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or
family in 2012; while only 1 out of 20 men were killed under
similar circumstances.
 71% of all human trafficking victims worldwide are women
and girls, and 3 out of 4 of these women and girls are sexually
exploited.

Legal Provisions:

 POCSO:
 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) law was
enacted to protect minors.
 This is one of the first laws which is gender-neutral.
 IPC:
 The Indian Penal Code(IPC) has many stringent provisions in
itself.
 After the Nirbhaya case, amendments were made in the code
in 2013 on the recommendations of the Justice Verma
committee.
 The amendments have made the code further stringent.
 POSH Act:
 The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention,
Prohibition, and Redressal) Act (POSH Act) was enacted in
2013
 It is comprehensive legislation that provides a safe, secure
and enabling environment, free from sexual harassment to
every woman at the workplace.

Suggestions:

 Gender sensitization:
 About gender equality and women’s rights should be instilled
in boys and girls from a very early age in order to bring about
a change in the mindset of the future generation.
 In families, there should also be a relationship of authority and
respect between parents and their children.
 Women should be respected at home. When women are
respected at home, then children also learn about the
 importance of respecting women. Parents cannot treat their
sons and daughters differently.
 Stop stigmatization:
 The stigma attached to victims of violence should be removed
by concretizing the community through outreach programs.
 Encouraging and adopting family-focused practices that
promote equal access for both girls and boys to high-quality
education, and ensure opportunities to successfully complete
schooling, and to making educational choices
 Legal literacy:
 Camps should be conducted on a regular and systematic basis
at the local community level.
 People should be made aware of Zero FIR.
 Proper Counseling
 Special court with a woman judge and magistrate in each
district to handle domestic violence cases
 The government should ensure proper enforcement of existing
laws.
 Police should be trained and sensitized to be respectful and
courteous to women in distress.
 Others:
 Media should be used to sensitize the officials and the public
about violence so as to develop a positive attitude towards
women in general, and women victims, in particular
 Strengthen the research capacity to assess interventions to
address partner violence.

Education

 As per the census of India 2011, an increase in the pace of female

literacy in the rural areas has been noticed (from 46.13% in 2001 to
58.75% in 2011) but, still, rural women are facing a lot of
inequalities in terms of educational opportunities as compared to
those of men.
 While the literacy rate of men is 82.14%, the female literacy rate is
65.46%, i.e, a gap of 16.95 between male & female literacy rate.
 According to a survey report by NCERT, it has been reported that
women formed only 23% of the primary teachers in rural areas
compared to 60% in urban areas. Thus it clearly shows that there is
an acute shortage of competent and eligible women teachers,
especially in rural India.
 Although the enrolment ratio among girl students is rising but still,
the high rate of dropout among them continues to be a major
problem.

Issues related to women education in India:

  In traditional Indian society, sons are considered assets while girls
are considered liabilities so spending on their education is not
considered a priority.
 As per the traditional Indian society, the role of woman in society is
only to look after the house and children which does not require any
schooling.
 There is concern that if the woman is educated, then she will start
earning and will become independent which might hurt the ego of a
male.
 The structure of Indian society is patriarchal in which everything
revolves around males and women is reduced to a negligible role.
 In poor families, the girl child has to look after her siblings as well as
do household chores so she could not have the luxury of money and
time to spend on education.
 Further poor sanitation in schools especially for women deters them
from enrolling in school education.
 Infrastructure issues like lack of roads, the distance of the school
from the village, etc act as a constraint for women's education.

Why educating women is important?

 Health benefits:
 Female literacy is one of the most powerful levers to improve
a society’s health and economic well-being.
 Ensuring that the girl child is educated sets off a virtuous
chain reaction; improved literacy leading to delayed age of
marriage, fewer and healthier children, and the corresponding
reduction in poverty.
 Poverty:
 Women's education help in removing families out of poverty
through employment to women.
 Women's labour force participation in India is low at 26% in
2018.
 Thus women's education is important to increase women's
labour participation.
 Also, women have fewer bad habits like drinking and they
often have a nature of saving.
 Social development:
 Woman's education will help to solve many issues faced by
society.
 Kothari commission of 1968 recommended education as a tool
for social development.
 By pacing woman education India can achieve the goal of
social development.
 Gender equality:
 The woman is part of the unprivileged section of society.
Education will help to close the gender gap in society.
 Co-education institutes will help children to give respect to
females.
  Economic productivity:
 It will bring economic gains not only to women but will also
raise the GDP of a nation.
 Reduction in infant mortality:
 A well-educated woman will have more chances of making
better decisions for her family’s health.
 Studies have shown that increased literacy among women will
bring down the infant mortality rate.
 Inclusive growth of society:
 As a developing nation, India strives for growth in each sector
for all sections of society and education is a way to achieve
this goal.
 Women empowerment:
 Education is a powerful tool for woman's emancipation and
empowerment.
 For a long woman has been deprived of her rights. By
educating herself she can achieve a place in society.
 Strengthening of democracy:
 Education will create awareness among women which will
cause increased participation in politics which ultimately leads
to the strengthening of democracy. They could secure their
rights through mobilization.

Suggestions

 Increasing awareness in society about the importance of female

education.
 In order to suit the convenience of the girl student, non-formal
education facilities should be provided.
 Increasing the number of competent and eligible female teachers
especially in the rural areas.
 The establishment and proper functioning of schools in the villages
must be insured.
 Ensuring the safety of girl students & female teachers.
 Mass media should play an active role in creating a conducive
environment in the favour of girls' education.
 Special arrangements & provisions must be made for the disabled
girl child.
 The quality of female education should also be taken care of.

Health

 Women in India face heavy gender biases and are subsequently

more likely to experience disadvantages in their lives, especially
when it comes to healthcare.
 Malnutrition, lack of basic sanitization, and treatment for diseases
all contribute to the dearth of healthcare resources available to
women in India.
 Here are the important women’s health issues that need to be
addressed.
 Immunization
 Vaccinations are one of the most effective ways to
prevent the harmful short- and long-term effects of
serious but preventable diseases.
 Their importance cannot be stressed enough.
 According to UNICEF, India has 7.4 million children who
are not immunized – this is the largest number in the
world.
 Unfortunately, gender also plays a role in whether
children are immunized or not, with girls reportedly
receiving fewer vaccines than boys.
 Malnutrition
 India is thought to be among the countries with the
highest rates of malnourished females in the developing
world.
 This is especially serious in scenarios where economic
inequality is rampant, leaving poorer citizens unable to
get enough food or food with adequate nutrition.
 Being malnourished makes individuals more susceptible
to contagious diseases which, in some cases such as
pneumonia and tuberculosis, can have fatal
consequences.
 Poor nutrition also affects maternal health and the
health of babies.
 Maternal Healthcare
 Poor socioeconomic conditions in India limit a great
many women's access to adequate healthcare, resulting
in their children’s poor health as well as the mother’s
abilities to lead full, productive lives at home, in society,
or even in the economy.
 In many areas, maternal mortality is still high due to
poverty, backward practices and views, and the lack of
access to proper medical care.
 Menstrual Hygiene
 With billions of people, it’s surprising and disappointing
that only a small percentage of women in India have
access to clean hygiene when it comes to menstrual
care.
 Culturally, a large percent of the population still
associates the menstrual cycle with uncleanliness, and
women are often prohibited from going to religious
places or even preparing food when on their period.
  It is usually a taboo topic, which makes it even more
difficult for young girls and women to break out of the
vicious cycle of misconceptions.
 Even today, millions of women in India do not have
access or cannot afford to buy sanitary pads because of
their cost, relying on unhygienic methods such as cloth,
leaves, or husks. This can result in infections, rashes,
and discomfort.
 Gender bias in access to healthcare
 Gender is one of the main social determinants of health
—which include social, economic, and political factors—
that play a major role in the health outcomes of women
in India and access to healthcare in India.
 The role that gender plays in health care access can be
determined by examining resource allocation within the
household and the public sphere.
 Societal forces of patriarchy, hierarchy, and
multigenerational families contribute to Indian gender
roles.
 Men use greater privileges and superior rights to create
an unequal society that leaves women with little to no
power.
 It has been found that Indian women frequently
underreport illnesses. The underreporting of illness may
be contributed to these cultural norms and gender
expectations within the household.
 Gender also dramatically influences the use of antenatal
care and the utilization of immunizations.

Suggestions

 Improvement in the health indicators of women can significantly

contribute to the overall health of the family and the newborns.
 Since the significant amount of earnings of the underprivileged are
spent on medical treatment, improved women’s health and their
newborns can drastically reduce household expenditure.
 Access to family planning and maternal health services , as well as
education for girls, typically results in improved economic
opportunity for women and lower fertility.

Low female Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR)

 India’s female labour force participation is among the lowest in the

world.
 The Economic Survey 2017-18 revealed that women comprise only
24% of the Indian workforce.
  The global share of women in the workforce is 40%, which means
India is well below average.
 India can increase its GDP by up to 60% by 2025 by enabling more
women to participate in its workforce, a 2015 study by the McKinsey
Global Institute.

Reasons for Declining Participation of Women in Employment:

 Lack of Opportunity and Skill:

 More than half of the women who would like a job, particularly
those in rural areas, say they do not have the skills required
for the work they want to do.
 For example, leatherwork or textile manufacturing. Further,
the opportunities that exist need to be more unbiased.
 Motherhood penalty:
 Many women who join the workforce are unable to re-join
after having a child.
 The landmark legislation Maternity Benefit Act, 2017, which
entitles a woman to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, is
becoming a big hurdle as start-ups and SMEs have become
reluctant to hire them.
 Wage gap:
 On average, women are paid 34% less than men, a recent
report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has
found. 2018-19.
 A survey by Monster.com reported that nearly 60% of working
women in India face discrimination at work and over one-third
of women believe that they are not easily considered for top
management roles.
 Lack of appropriate opportunity:
 According to NSSO, urban males accounted for 16% of India’s
population but held 77% of all jobs in computer-related
activities in 2011-12.
 This shows, how gender has become a discriminatory factor
for certain white collared jobs.
 Social Norms:
 When increases in family incomes are there, due to cultural
factors, women leave the work to take care of the family and
avoid the stigma of working outside.

Suggestions:

 Non-farm job creation for women:

 There is a need to generate nonfarm based jobs in rural areas
in the industrial and services sectors
 Childcare Facility:
  Local bodies, with aid from state governments, and NGOs
should open more crèches in towns and cities so that women
with children can step out and work.
 The crèches will open employment opportunities for women .
 Education and Empowerment:
 Higher social spending, including in education, can lead to
higher female labor force participation by boosting female
stocks of human capital.
 Skill Development:
 Initiatives such as Skill India, Make in India, and new gender-
based quotas from corporate boards to the police force can
spur a positive change. But we need to invest in skill training
and job support.
 The private sector could also take an active part in training
women entrepreneurs.
 For example, Unilever’s Shakti program trained rural women
in India as micro-entrepreneurs to sell personal-care products
as a way of making its brands available in rural India.
 Equal pay:
 The principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value
that is protected by Indian law must be put into actual
practice.
 Improved wage-transparency and gender-neutral job
evaluation are required to achieve this end.
 Safety access to work:
 It is important to improve existing transport and
communication networks and provide safe accommodation for
women who travel to or have migrated for work.

'Invisible' Women farmers in India

 The Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) says that if

women farmers had the same access to resources as men, they
would increase output by 20-30% which would mean a dramatic
reduction in hunger.
 This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by
up to 4%.
 Women make up about 33% of cultivators and about 47% of
agricultural labourers in rural India.
 Overall, the percentage of rural women who depend on agriculture
for their livelihood is as high as 84%.
 Women have just a dismal 12.8% of land holdings despite being
crucial to the whole production chain.

Problems faced by women farmers:

 Unrecognized:
  The work by women farmers, in crop cultivation, livestock
management, or at home, often goes unnoticed.
 Lack of support:
 Attempts by the government to impart them training in
poultry, apiculture and rural handicrafts are trivial given their
large numbers.
 Lack of representation:
 Women farmers have hardly any representation in society and
are nowhere discernible in farmers’ organizations or in
occasional protests.
 No Land ownership:
 The biggest challenge is the powerlessness of women in terms
of claiming ownership of the land they have been cultivating.
 In Census 2015, almost 86% of women farmers are devoid of
this property right in land perhaps on account of the
patriarchal set up in our society.
 Only 14% have landholdings
 Lack of credit facility:
 Systemic barriers to finance, inputs, extension services, and
land rights have limited their potential and recognition as the
mainstay of the agrarian ecosystem.
 The lack of ownership of land does not allow women farmers
to approach banks for institutional loans as banks usually
consider land as collateral.
 Less access to resources:
 Women have less access to resources and modern inputs
(seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) to make farming more
productive.
 Getting loans, participating in mandi panchayats, assessing
and deciding the crop patterns, liaising with the district
officials, bank managers, and political representatives, and
bargaining for MSPs (minimum support prices), loans and
subsidies still remain as male activities.
 Migration:
 Over the last decade, as farming became less and less
profitable and small and marginal farmers began migrating to
cities, rural jobs for full-time women daily-wage labourers.
 They are left with no choice when men move to urban areas
for work.
 Farmer suicides:
 In 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, of
8,007 farmer suicides, 441 were women.
 Also, 577 women labourers committed suicide that year.
 Lack of Mechanization:
 Designed farm tools available are mainly used by male
farmers, and rural women are left to use traditional tools and
procedures resulting in low efficiency, drudgery, occupational
health risks, and low income.
Suggestions:

 Credit Facility:
 Provision of credit without collateral under the micro-finance
initiative of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development should be encouraged.
 For example NABARD's SHG bank linkage program
 Collective Farming:
 The possibility of collective farming can be encouraged to
make women self-reliant.
 Training and skills imparted to women as has been done by
some self-help groups and cooperative-based daily activities
(Saras in Rajasthan and Amul in Gujarat).
 These can be explored further through farmer producer
organizations.
 Women-centric approach:
 Farm machinery banks and custom hiring centres promoted
by many State governments can be roped in to provide
subsidized rental services to women farmers.
 Krishi Vigyan Kendras in every district can be assigned an
additional task to educating and training women farmers
about innovative technology along with extension services.
 Agricultural extension efforts should help women improve
food production while allowing them to shift more of their
labour to export production.
 Education and Awareness:
 Changes in legal, financial, and educational systems must be
undertaken in order to enhance women’s social and economic
contributions to rural development in the long term.
 Women need direct access to information on improved
agricultural practices and links to markets.
 In today’s digital world, it is also important to think critically
about the information and communication tools that can help
women farmers who may not enjoy much physical mobility to
reach out to markets.

The political inequality of women in India

 The Economic Survey 2018 called for more representation of women

in the decision-making process in the country, saying their political
participation has been low despite them accounting for 49% of the
population.
 The Economic Survey 2018 said there are developing countries like
Rwanda which has more than 60% of women representatives in
Parliament in 2017.
 As of 17th LS, only 14% were women.

Reasons for low participation:

  Social:
 The factors such as household responsibilities, prevailing
patriarchal attitudes regarding roles of women in society, and
lack of support from family were among the main reasons that
prevented them from entering politics.
 Ahead of any election campaign in the country, sexist and
derogatory remarks start doing the rounds against women
contestants, in some cases forcing them to withdraw their
nomination.
 Economical:
 Lack of confidence and finance were the other major deterring
factors that prevented women from entering politics.

Significance of women leader:

 There is documented evidence both at the international level and at

the gram panchayat (village) level to suggest that a greater
representation of women in elected office balances the process and
prioritizations that elected bodies focus on.
 In terms of policy styles, the inclusion of women adds behind-the-
scenes discussion rather than direct confrontation on the floor of the
House.
 In terms of agenda (as measured in Rwanda), a wider range of
family issues get tackled.
 Esther Duflo and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay (NBER Working Paper
8615) showed that in a randomized trial in West Bengal, women
pradhans (heads of village panchayats) focus on infrastructure that
is relevant to the needs of rural women, suggesting that at least at
the local level outcomes can be different.

Suggestions:

 India should have an Election Commission-led effort to push for

reservation for women in political parties.
 Reservation for women in political parties is a more viable option.
 Reservation quotas for women in Parliament as envisaged in the
Women’s Reservation Bill.
 Awareness, education, and role modeling encourage women
towards politics and wipe out Gender stereotypes that perceive
women as weak representatives.
 Inclusive economic institutions and growth, both necessary for and
dependent on social empowerment, require inclusive political
institutions.
 Women’s leadership and communication skills need to be enhanced
by increasing female literacy especially in rural areas.
 They should be empowered in order to break socio-cultural barriers
and improve their status in society.
Women Reproductive Right

 The Indian state’s approach to reproductive rights historically has

focused on population control rather than enhancing individual
autonomy and removing structural barriers to reproductive health
services, which is reflected in the barriers to the provision of
services.
 As a consequence of the early adoption of family planning and
population control measures in the 1950s, India was one of the first
countries to legislate on abortion and legalize conditional abortion.
 While contraception was also made available, the focus was on
meeting targets for sterilization rather than temporary spacing
methods.
 This has shifted focus away from the universal provision of abortion
and contraception to meeting top-down targets for population
control.

Reproductive rights of women include:

1. Right to legal and safe abortion;

2. Right to birth control;
3. Freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception;
4. Right to access good-quality reproductive healthcare; and
5. Right to education and access in order to make free and informed
reproductive choices.

Concerns:

 Lack of freedom of Choice:

 Millions face structural, institutional, and cultural barriers to
using accredited abortion services—things like stigma, not
knowing the law, expense, fears about confidentiality, and
lack of access to healthcare institutions.
 Such barriers disproportionately affect poorer women, who
often live in remote, rural areas.
 Lack of awareness
 Early marriage, pressure for early childbearing, lack of
decision-making power within the family, physical violence,
and coercion in sexual and family relations lead to lower
education and in turn poor incomes for females.
 Patriarchal mindsets
 Until a requisite number of sons are born without proper
spacing between children makes her physically weak and
threatens her life.
 The fear that educated women cannot be controlled by the
husband and his family further curbs her education rights.

Suggestions:
  Healthcare and Awareness:
 A focus on the health needs of women, their nutritional status,
the risk of early marriage, and childbearing is a sensitive issue
of concern and requires urgent attention if the condition of
women has to be improved.
 At the same time, there is a need to provide health care
information to the grass-roots level through awareness
programs on a large scale.
 Legal Framework:
 There is an urge to have legislation as Reproductive Rights
(Protection) Act in order to protect and promote reproductive
rights of women and to look after all the issues of reproductive
health of women whether it is as regard to providing medical
facilities or creating awareness or having health policies and
programs concerning women.

Schemes for Women

 Financial empowerment
 Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana was launched in 2015, under
which small affordable deposits are made in the bank
accounts of girls, with the benefit of the higher rate of
interest.
 Support to Training and Employment Program (STEP) is
aimed at adding new skills to women.
 Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has within two years
brought in 16.34 crore women under the banking system.
 Encouraging Entrepreneurship
 Under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, the government
has provided credit to small entrepreneurs without collateral.
 75% of these loans have been given to women, with 9.81
crore women entrepreneurs already benefitting from them
under the scheme.
 Over 47 lakh SHGs have been promoted under the National
Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).
 SIDBI has been implementing two schemes for women
entrepreneurs namely, Mahila Udyam Nidhi and Mahila
Vikas Nidhi.
 Skill development
 It is another key aspect for raising the potential of our female
workforce. Half of the certificates awarded under Pradhan
Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana have been given to women
candidates.
 To reach the yet unreached women across the country, the
ministry has recently launched the Mahila Shakti Kendra
scheme.
 Under this 3 lakh student volunteers are fanning out across
the country to directly reach women at the village level with
government schemes and services for their empowerment.
  Other efforts at promoting entrepreneurship and
innovation are:
 Stand-up India.
 Trade-related Entrepreneurship Assistance and
Development (TREAD).
 Science for Equity Empowerment and Development
(SEED).
 NITI Ayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship
Platform (WEP).
 Empowering Motherhood
 The paid maternity leave for working women to 26 weeks
empowers them as they need not fear the loss of salary or job
due to childbirth.
 In order to extend protection to the unorganized sector as
well, pregnant and lactating mothers are provided cash
incentives under the PM Matru Vandana Yojana.
 Women health
 To empower women and protect their health, the Ujjawala
scheme has been introduced, which provides free LPG
cylinders to women from BPL families to replace unclean
cooking fuels.
 Women safety
 33% reservation for women in the police force is also being
implemented.
 The Nirbhaya Fund is also being used to roll-out
comprehensive plans to make 8 major cities in the country
safer for women and also improve our forensic analysis
abilities in cases of sexual assault.
 National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) scheme
2016-17 is a combined strategy for inter-sectoral convergence
of programs for women, with the use of multiple
communication tools in advocacy campaigns.
 Women’s helpline came into existence to reach out to women
in distress.
 The issue of women’s empowerment caught the entire
nation’s imagination with the launch of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti
Padhao’ program at Panipat in Haryana in 2015, one of the
worst affected districts in the state, with the abysmally low
Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB)
 Other schemes are
 One-Stop Centre Scheme
 UJJAWALA: A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of
trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of
Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
 Working Women Hostel
 Swadhar Greh (A Scheme for Women in Difficult
Circumstances)
 Nari Shakti Puraskar
 Mahila E-Haat o Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK)
Achievement of the schemes

 The literacy rate of women has risen from a mere 9% in 1951 to

65% in 2011.
 In the workplace today, every fourth worker in India is a woman.
 With their increasing participation in a variety of fields, women’s
bargaining power in both private and public life is Elected women
representatives now make up about 46% of our panchayat
members.
 With this, the landscape of our country is changing from the ground
up.
 Institutional births have risen to an all-time high of 79% in 2014-15.
The maternal mortality rate has dropped by half in the decade
between 2001-03 and 2011-13.
 The number of women with a bank account has also increased.

Challenges

 Women still face serious dangers to their life and liberty in our
country.
 Women still contribute a disproportionate amount of unpaid work in
their homes and on farms.
 They are often not given an equal say in household or work
decisions.
 The conventional ‘one size fits all’ empowerment programs fail to
address the problems of the most marginalized women.
 Stereotyping of women continues:-
 New stories of violence or sexual harassment against women
do appear on newspapers, but often with a bias in reporting.
 Women as serious decision-makers or as hardcore
professionals are mostly being overlooked.
 Their success stories only find the place, when they have been able
to break the glass ceiling and or have reached the pinnacle of
success.

Way forward

 Strengthening the economic citizenship of women involves meeting

her personal aspirations, while she contributes to the household’s
income and is a caregiver.
 The pursuit of inclusive growth involves the role of the state as a
regulator while providing public goods and services alongside liberal
socio-cultural norms within the household/ community.
 Fiscal policies like lower taxes did not improve female employment
as the gains from it perhaps did not offset the costs involved.
 With a stagnant and low share of formal sector employment, the
announcement in the Budget 2018, that contribution by new women
recruits to EPFO be reduced from 12% to 8% to increase the wage
may neither incentivize participation nor retention rates.
 MGNREGA increased FWPR, reduced gender gaps in wages in other
markets with positive implications on poverty, child and own
nutritional status, and empowerment.
 Collection of your time use data would inform how women spend
their time in social production but also will give insights about how
men in many families share household work.
 Caregiving and breadwinning are equally important for the
improved well-being of the individuals in a nation.