Women: The Barriers Of Women Empowerment In India

Abstract: Uplifting economic, social, political status of women is very much essential to empower the women. All over the India, the economic status of women is found to be very poor due to less education among women. So, to empower them, they needed to improve their economic status by standing on her own legs and providing equal opportunity in all sphere of life. There is a urgent needs for promoting education of women, to improve economic status of women, and eliminating violence against women to empower women. This paper discuss barrier of women empowerment, steps taken by government to empower the women and suggestion to empower them.

Introduction: Nearly about half of world population is women but in India situation is adverse as

Compared to uneducated women, the women who have higher education and earnings are much better position in society. Only education makes women aware of their rights and duties.

Barriers of Women Empowerment :

Health related Issues : The most of women in rural and poor families of India suffers from malnutrition, high death rate and different medical problems. In rural and poor families in India enough food is not provided to women which is necessary for their mental and physical development. This is because health of women is not given so important as men due to gender bias prevailing in the society. The women in rural and poor families of India is most neglected, ignored and exploited.

Marriage related Issues : In most of rural and tribal areas of India girl child married too early. Due to early marriage they do not get enough time to complete their education and for self development which hinder their empowerment.

Preference Given to Boy child : In Indian society particularly in rural and tribal areas women are expected to give birth to a boy child only. If the girl child is born, then girl child face tremendous bias against boy in the

Economic Dependency on Man and Lack of Confidence : Economic independency is the prerequisite for the empowerment of the women. In India only few percentage of women is engage in earning activities. The most of Indian women is very much economically dependent on men which hinder their empowerment.

Indian society is male dominated society where female is given secondary importance in all aspect of life. The female is not given much independence and freedom in rural areas of the country. In rural areas and backward communities of India women is not permitted to go out without men, they have no right to decide style of their cloth, walk and talk. The women are given less exposure to outside environment. Due to this they have little or no confidence to communicate in the society which hinder their empowerment.

Steps taken by Government to Empower Women:

The Indian constitution provides equal right to all citizens of India. Different articles in the constitution protects women rights by giving them equal treatment at par with men.The number of steps are taken by Indian government to Empower women. Few of them are discussed as under.

Article 14 right to equality says that all citizens of India have equal right irrespective of sex, religion, class , caste, region etc.

Article 15 (1) says that there is no discrimination on the basis of