Women Empowerment

Over the past few years, India has done exceedingly well in the field of empowerment of women. Give arguments For and Against this view. Traditionally, women are socially backward and are not consulted during the process of important social and economic decision-making in the family. Such traditions are continuing even today. In addition, crime rate against the women is relatively high, they suffer from several social and religious disabilities and are generally considered to be dependent on their male spouses. India is also no exception in this regard. The participation of the women in the economic activities is low and their percentage in the total representation in the government jobs is also low. Participation of the women in the political governance also needs improvement. But it is felt by many that despite the above handicaps, the country has done very well in the field of women empowerment during the past few years. Arguments For the View (a) Since independence, there has been a lot of improvement in the status of the women particularly in the urban and sub-urban areas. (b) One of the outstanding strides in the field of women empowerment was achieved by the country through 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment when at least one-third of the seats in the Panchayati Raj Institutions and the Urban Local Bodies were reserved for the women. (c) India is among a few countries of the world where women have held the post of Prime Minister as well as the President of the country. (d) With improving socio-economic indicators like the female literacy, as well as increasing proportion of working women, the status of women has been on the increase since independence. Arguments Against the View (a) In the rural areas where most of the women population lives, a lot more needs to be done for the status of women to improve. (b) There is an utter lack of political will to improve the status of the women. For the last more than a decade, the Women Reservation Bill has been hanging fire and many political parties have tried to scuttle or postpone it on one pretext or the other. (c) Indicators like the maternal mortality rate, female literacy rate, adverse sex ratio in most States of the country reflect the low empowerment level. (d) The increasing crimes against the women, particularly in the cities and towns, reveal the true picture of our achievements in this regard.