Woman Empowerement

It is often said that the status and position of women in a society is the best way to understand a civilization, its progress and short comings. Indian women have come a long way from " no man" ages and scholars in Rig Vedic period to women in armed forces, IT sectors, politics, industry and other significant areas while balancing their role as a daughter, wife and mother. This journey towards modernization has not been easy. Women had to fight the traditional Indian male dominated society to emerge as stronger and independent entities. While all these are positive developments, case of rape, harassment, abuse (oral and physical) at work and dowry death are rampant. Illiteracy of ignorance all their rights are still prevalent among a majority of the woman. It is in this background this write-up lays stress on the evolution, status, development of women and their importance in India from a historical print to cultural trends.

There is no denying the fact that the condition of women in India isn’t as it was ages back. There has been immense amount of progress in the condition of women since independence.

Even the women have to suffer from a number of evil practices against them. It is pathetic to know that India ranks 29th among 146 countries in gender equality index. India’s male dominant society resists the empowerment of women and the country on the whole Swami Vivekananda rightly said, there is no chance for the welfare of the country until women are not given their rights just like birds can’t fly with only one wing. Therefore it is important to add this topic of women empowerment to the most important goals of nation.

Women empowerment means removing the social, economical, political, caste related, gender discrimination biasing. It means greeting women with the freedom to take their life decisions. A woman is a human being with scenes, thoughts and feelings and therefore she should be given the right to use them and express her views. A woman should be given equal rights as men are given. They should be given equal salary as men are given for a particular job. Woman should be empowered educationally too. It means empowering them with knowledge skills and self confidence to contribute to the development. Woman should be given a better quality of life. It means they need not depend on men for living their life. They should be self dependent. The political system should contribute to the woman development by following woman participation in decision making and governance.

The condition of women deteriorated in the late Vedic civilization. Women were denied right to education and widow remarriage. They were denied the inheritance and ownership of property. Social evils like child marriages, female feticide, and dowry system existed. During Gupta dynasty the condition of the women worsened. Dowry practices and sati pratha increased immensely.

During British raj, social reforms like Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar fought for empowerment of woman and against many evil practices. Their efforts abolished sati practice and formed the widow remarriage act. As the result of their efforts, the condition of the woman began to elevate in Indian society. Today, because of the campaigns started by our forefathers, we can see social, economic and political rights provided to the woman in the constitution. Woman in India now participate in education, sports, politics, service sector, art and culture, and technology.

But because of mentality of Indian society, women are harassed, humiliated, victimized, tortured, and exploited. Even almost after seventy decades of independence woman are subjected to discrimination in social, economic and educational field. Even though government introduced many cultural and social schemes for woman, complete development of woman is not seen. Government started the right to equality Act, equal pay for equal work act, dowry prohibition Act, domestic violence act, sexual harassment of women at work place act, etc… to provide for the development of woman.

Even then woman have to face atrocities such as rape, dowry killing, acid attacks, woman trafficking etc… it is a shame to know that India has been considered as fourth most dangerous country in the world for woman.