Women and Education Women and Health Women and Economy Women and Politics A woman’s lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of her children.  For instance, a recent survey in India found that infant mortality was inversely related to mother’s educational level

1. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA
PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES
Dr. M. Madhavan
Assistant Professor Of Economics
Arignar Anna Government Arts College
Namakkal
COURSE : BA ECONOMICS
SUBJECT : WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
UNIT : III

2. Topics
Covered
Women
and
Education
Women
and
Health
Women
and
Economy
Women
and
Polity.

3. Women Education
in India

4. Introduction
The Indian government has expressed a strong commitment towards education for all,
however, India still has one of the lowest female literacy rates in Asia.
In 1991, less than 40 percent of the 330 million women aged 7 and over were literate,
which means today there are over 200 million illiterate women in India.
This low level of literacy not only has a negative impact on women’s lives but also on
their families’ lives and on their country’s economic development.
Numerous studies show that illiterate women have high levels of fertility and mortality,
poor nutritional status, low earning potential, and little autonomy within the household.
A woman’s lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of
her children. For instance, a recent survey in India found that infant mortality was
inversely related to mother’s educational level
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

5. Introduction (Contd … … …)
Involvement of women in all sectors has increased India’s growth rate. Now
women are taking over every sector of society. That, in turn, is helping to
expand our countries’literacy rate.
Women’s education is a major step toward success. Furthermore, from the day
of the independence of women’s literacy rate is increasing.
From 8.6% it is now at 65%. The success rate of the country in women’s
literacy is quite high. But still, there are some reasons women are not able to
emerge in a proper manner.

6. Setbacks of the Women Education
System in India
Women’s literacy rate is increasing day by day but still
due to some reasons the growth is hampering.
The main reason for this is a crime against women.
Various crimes against women take place every day.
Because of which women are not able to roam freely on
the roads.
Crimes like Rape, women trafficking, murders, abortion
of a girl child are a shame for the country.
Furthermore, these crimes are prevalent, though being us
in the 21st Century. This is a huge setback for the growth
of India.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

7. Setbacks of the Women
Education System in India
(Contd … … …)
In small villages, girls are not allowed to go to school. They are
confined at home to take care of the house. Because the people
there still consider that women are only made to take care of the
house by staying back at home.
Gender discrimination and male superiority are still common.
One of the main reasons for the reduced women literacy rate is
the population of women in the entire country. In a recent survey,
for 1000 men there were only 936 women. This represents the
scarcity of female gender in our society.
However, there are many steps that the government is taking to
promote women’s education.

8. Methods to Promote Women’s
Education in India
The promotion of women’s education should begin from the rural
areas.
Awareness to educate a female child in different villages should
take place.
Diverting the mindset of the parents towards the education of
women.
If high quality schools got constructed in villages., the female
child may feel safe and have to travel for shorter distances.
Proper security for the women should be there so that the women
may not hesitate in coming out of their houses.
Also, strict actions and punishment should be there for any crime
against woman. So that the criminals may think of committing any
crime. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

9. Steps taken by government
to Promote Women’s
Education in India
Union Human Resource and Development Minister
Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday, June 27, 2019
has presented number of schemes supporting girl
students to take up higher studies. The University
Grants Commission (UGC) has two specific
schemes for promotion of Women's Studies in
universities and colleges:
1. Development of Indian Studies in Indian
Universities & Colleges
2. Capacity Building and Women Managers in
Higher Education.

10. Schemes Under Which Girl
Students Can Avail Special
Scholarship
1. Post-Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single
Girl Child
2. Swami Vivekananda Single Girl Child Scholarship for
Research in Social Science.
 UGC has special schemes for promotion of women
hostels in universities and colleges and establishment
of day care centres.
 UGC has provided support for eight exclusive women
universities.

11. Scholarship for Technical
Education
The All India Council for Technical Education is
implementing the PRAGATI scholarship scheme for
assistance of girls pursuing technical education.

12. Steps to Increase the
Enrolment of Girl
Students
To improve female enrolment in the Indian Institute of
Technology (IITs), the government has decided to
increase female enrolment in BTech programmes of IITs
from the current 8% to 14% in 2018-19, 17% in 2019-20
and 20% in 2020-21 by creating supernumerary seats.
The Government has also decided to increase female
enrolment from existing 14% to 20% over a period of 2-
4 years by creating supernumerary seats in
undergraduate programmes of National Institute of
Technology and Indian Institute of Engineering Science
and Technology, Shibpur

13. Women and Health

14. Women and Health in
India - Introduction
Women’s health refers to the branch of medicine that
focuses on the treatment and diagnosis of diseases and
conditions that affect a woman’s physical and emotional
well-being.
Health is an important factor that contributes to human
wellbeing and economic growth.
Currently, women in India has to face numerous health
issues, which ultimately affect the aggregate economy’s
output. Addressing the gender, class or ethnic disparities
that exist in healthcare and improving the health outcomes
can contribute to economic gain through the creation of
quality human capital and increased levels of savings and
investment.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

15. Women’s Health in
India
India is one of the few countries in the world where women and men have nearly the same life
expectancy at birth.
The fact that the typical female advantage in life expectancy is not seen in India suggests there
are systematic problems with women’s health Indian women have high mortality rates,
particularly during childhood and in their reproductive years
The health of Indian women is intrinsically linked to their status in society. Research on women’s
status has found that the contributions Indian women make to families often are overlooked, and
instead they are viewed as economic burdens.
There is a strong son preference in India, as sons are expected to care for parents as they age.
This son preference, along with high dowry costs for daughters, sometimes results in the
mistreatment of daughters.
Further, Indian women have low levels of both education and formal labor force participation.
They typically have little autonomy, living under the control of first their fathers, then their
husbands, and finally their sons. All of these factors exert a negative impact on the health status of
Indian women.

16. Health
issues of
women in
India
Malnutrition,
Lack of maternal health,
◦ diseases like AIDS ,
◦ breast cancer,
◦ domestic violence and
◦ many more.

17. Fertility Intertwined With
Women’s Health
Many of the health problems of Indian women are related
to or exacerbated by high levels of fertility.
Overall, fertility has been declining in India; by 1992-93
the total fertility rate was 3.4.
Utter Pradesh, the most populous state in India, has a
total fertility rate of over 5 children per woman.
On the other hand, Kerala, which has relatively high levels
of female education and autonomy, has a total fertility
rate under 2.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

18. Over 100,000 Indian Women Die Each
Year From Pregnancy-Related Causes
Maternal mortality and morbidity are two health concerns
that are related to high levels of fertility. India has a high
maternal mortality ratio—approximately 453 deaths per
100,000 births in 1993.3 This ratio is 57 times the ratio in
the United States.
India’s maternal mortality ratio is lower than ratios for
Bangladesh and Nepal but higher than those for Pakistan
and Sri Lanka
The high levels of maternal mortality are especially
distressing because the majority of these deaths could be
prevented if women had adequate health services
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

19. Pregnant Women and Prenatal
Care
National Family Health Survey (NFHS) found that 37 percent of all
pregnant women in India received no prenatal care during their
pregnancies (IIPS, 1995).
The proportion receiving no care varied greatly by educational level
and place of residence.
Nearly half of illiterate women received no care compared to just 13
percent of literate women.
Women in rural areas were much less likely to receive prenatal care
than women in urban areas (42 percent and 18 percent, respectively).
Most women who did not receive health care during pregnancy said
they did not because they thought it was unnecessary.

20. Place of
Births
Place of birth and type of assistance during birth
have an impact on maternal health and mortality.
Births that take place in nonhygienic conditions or
births that are not attended by trained medical
personnel are more likely to have negative
outcomes for both the mother and the child.
The NFHS survey found that nearly threequarters
of all births took place at home and two-thirds of
all births were not attended by trained medical
personnel. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

21. Mother’s
Education
and
Children’s
Malnutrition
Mother’s education, according to the NFHS,
is highly correlated with the level of
malnutrition among children.
Children of illiterate mothers are twice as
likely to be undernourished or stunted as
children whose mothers have completed at
least high school.
The differentials are even larger when
severely undernourished children are
considered.

22. Women and
Economy in
India
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

23. Women and economy: The Indian
perspective
Women play a major role in the economy of a nation,
including housewives. Housewives are the largest
workforce in the world, the most underpaid and
receive undue scoff.
If she is paid the role of a housewife’s duties can
amount to billions of dollars annually.
A woman purchases household goods not limited to
food items, but clothing, accessories, and many daily
use items as simple as a scrub to wash dishes.

24. Women and economy … …
She is the dictator of large companies producing goods in
manifold, she purchases the chips and cold-drinks for her child
consumes and treats guests with, she decides which commodities
will be used and in what quantity.
Most shopping outlets are directed towards women. Women are
ultimately the largest consumers in the market, especially so in the
Indian market where culture is upheld by women, where it’s the
wifely duty to ensure all goods are stocked in the house and family
members are able to work without a hiccup.
Yet women are the most overlooked consumer of the market, and
the corporates which target female-consumers lack the female
workforce within their company.

25. Women and economy … …
As women are the largest consumers in the market,
any product targeted towards them will surely
become a success.
Yet India’s largest economic benefit from women is
achieved by the cultural values bestowed.
India achieved a savings rate of 33 per cent of the
GDP, of which 70 per cent comes from household
saving and 20 per cent from the private corporate
sector and 10 per cent from public sector.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

26. Women and economy
… …
The staggering 70% of household saving is the fuel of the economy,
with a tendency to have extra cash stacked away hidden from the
family but no spending at all, the Indian culture seems to drive the
Indian economy positively.
International Women’s day on March 2017 saw large scale strikes by
women, the theme this year was ‘A Day Without a Woman’.
If women in India were to take a day off then the economy would face
a serious setback, teachers in schools are mostly women and children
would face a difficult time learning, household chores would not be
done which would bring down the productivity and ease with which this
patriarchal regime thrives upon, even though the private sector sees
only a small percentage of women in the workforce that is still enough
to create a loss.

27. Contribution of Female
Entrepreneurship
The female entrepreneur are those women who think of a business enterprise, initiate it,
organize and combine the factors of production, operate the enterprise, undertake risk and
handle economic uncertainties involved in running a business enterprise. With education and
training, the female entrepreneur can gained confidence to do all work, which was the
prerogative of man and do it excellently, The most important role played by an average female
entrepreneurs include the following (Hafsat, S.2013).
$Exploring the possibilities and prospects of starting a new business venture.
$Risk taking and handling of economic uncertainties involved in running a business venture.
$Serving as agents of innovations and imitations of innovative tendencies.
$Coordinating all factors of production, administration and control of their businesses.
$Supervision and effective leadership style.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

28. Enhancing women's contribution
to the economy
Enhancing women's contribution to the economy involves factors influencing women's productivity.
Women workers comprise the majority of those classified as workers with "family responsibilities" by
the ILO. They are faced with the need to reconcile their dual tasks at work and at home. Given the
fact that women still have to perform their domestic duties, factors which increase the burden of
domestic duties make it more difficult for women to be efficient at work, they are classified into two
broad groups i.e. access to resources and socio-cultural constraints.
Access to resources includes affordable education, credit facilities, technology, land, extension
services, transportation and marketing services.

29. Obstacles to Female
Entrepreneurs
In Adequate Access to Finance
Multiple Responsibilities
Inadequate Education
Social and Family Background
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

30. INDIAN WOMEN AND
POLITICS
The term 'political participation' has a very wide meaning. It is
not only related to 'Right to Vote', but simultaneously relates
to participation in: decision-making process, political activism,
political consciousness, etc. Women in India participate in
voting, run for public offices and political parties at lower
levels more than men.
Political activism and voting are the strongest areas of
women's political participation.
To combat gender inequality in politics, the Indian
Government has instituted reservations for seats in local
governments.

31. INDIAN WOMEN AND
POLITICS (Contd … … …)
Women turnout during India's parliamentary general
elections was 65.63%, compared to 67.09% turnout for
men. India ranks 20th from the bottom in terms of
representation of women in Parliament.
Women have held the posts of president and prime
minister in India, as well as chief ministers of various
states. Indian voters have elected women to numerous
state legislative assemblies and national ministry for many
decades.

32. Constitutional
rights of
women
The Constitution of India establishes
a alimentary system of government,
and guarantees its citizens the right to
be elected, freedom of speech,
freedom to assemble and form
associations, and vote.
The Constitution of India attempts to
remove gender inequalities by
banning discrimination based on sex
and class, prohibiting human
trafficking and forced labor, and
reserving elected positions for
women.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

33. Constitutional rights of
women (Contd … … …)
The Government of India directed state and local
governments to promote equality by class and gender
including equal pay and free legal aid, humane working
conditions and maternity relief, rights to work and education,
and raising the standard of living.
Women were substantially involved in the Indian
independence movement in the early 20th century and
advocated for independence from Britain.
Independence brought gender equality in the form of
constitutional rights, but historically women's political
participation has remained low.

34. Your best quote that
reflects your
approach… “It’s one
small step for man,
one giant leap for
mankind.”
- NEIL ARMSTRONG

35. manimadhavan@gmail.com mmadhavan@aagacnkl.edu.in +91-9865210146
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