Women empowerment refers to increasing the social, political, and economic strength of women. It has five components: sense of self-worth, ability to make choices, access to opportunities, control over one's life, and ability to influence social change. Women in India face many issues like gender discrimination, lack of education, child marriage, domestic violence, and low participation in the workforce and decision making. Several government programs aim to empower women through self-help groups, education, skill development, microfinance, and encouraging political participation. Empowering women is necessary for overall development and realizing human rights.

1. Siddharth Singh
Ba.llb 2nd year(2014-2019)
Department of law
Invertis university , Bareilly

2. Definition
• “Empowerment is the process of increasing the
authority and responsibility of individuals or
groups to make choices and to transform those
choices into desired actions and outcomes”.

3. INTRODUCTION :
Women Empowerment refers to increasing
the spiritual, political, social, educational,
gender, or economic strength of individuals
and communities of women.
Women’s empowerment in India is
heavily dependent on many different
variables that include geographical
location (urban/rural), educational status,
social status (caste and class), and age.

4. Women's empowerment has five components:
– Women's sense of self-worth;
– Their right to have and to determine
choices;
– Their right to have access to
opportunities and resources;
– Their right to have the power to control
their own lives, both within and outside
the home;
– And their ability to influence the direction
of social change to create a more just
social and economic order, nationally and
internationally.

5. Women in India
o Total population - 1210.2 million (2011)
{Almost equal to the combined population of U.S.A., Indonesia,
Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together}
o Women population - 586.5 million (48.5%)
o Sex ratio: 943/1000 men
o Child Sex ratio: 919 /1000
12-03-2016 5

6. Shocking Facts
• According to 2013, UNDP report on Human
Development Indicators, all South Asian Countries,
except Afghanistan, were ranked better for women than
India
• It predicts: an Indian girl child aged 1-5 yrs is 75% more
likely to die than the boy child
• A woman is raped once in every 20min and 10% of all
crimes are reported to be of women abuse

7. • Women form 48% of India’s population
• Only 29% of the national workforce
• Only 26% of women have access to formal
credit

8. United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP)
• It was founded in 1965
• Headquartered in New York City
• The organization has country offices in 166 countries, where it
works with local governments to meet development challenges and
develop local capacity
• UNDP provides expert advice, training, and grant support to
developing countries, with increasing emphasis on assistance to the
least developed countries.
• UNDP also encourages the protection of human rights and the
empowerment of women in all of its programs.
• UNDP publishes an annual Human Development Report to measure
and analyze developmental progress. In addition to a global Report,
UNDP publishes regional, national, and local Human Development
Reports.

9. Gender Inequality Index
Maternal
mortality
ratio
Adolesce
nt birth
rate
Share of
seats in
parliame
nt
Population with at
least some
secondary education
Labour force
participation rate a
(% ages 25 and older)
(% ages 15 and
older)
Value Rank
(deaths
per100,0
00 live
births)
(births
per 1,000
women
ages 15–
19)
(% held
by
women) Female Male Female Male
Country 2014 2014 2013
2010/20
15 b 2014
2005–
2014 c
2005–
2014 c 2013 2013
1 Norway 0.067 9 4 7.8 39.6 97.4 96.7 61.2 68.7
8 United States 0.280 55 28 31.0 19.4 95.1 94.8 56.3 68.9
73 Sri Lanka 0.370 72 29 16.9 5.8 72.7 76.4 35.1 76.3
130 India 0.563 130 190 32.8 12.2 27.0 56.6 27.0 79.9
132 Bhutan 0.457 97 120 40.9 8.3 34.0 34.5 66.7 77.2
142 Bangladesh 0.503 111 170 80.6 20.0 34.1 f 41.3 f 57.4 84.1
145 Nepal 0.489 108 190 73.7 29.5 17.7 f 38.2 f 79.9 87.1
147 Pakistan 0.536 121 170 27.3 19.7 19.3 46.1 24.6 82.9
171 Afghanistan 0.693 152 400 86.8 27.6 5.9 f 29.8 f 15.8 79.5

10. Economic independence of women
 Work participation of women–
25.51%
 Urban: rural ratio of work
participation of women- 11.88: 30.79
 Women working in unorganized
sectors – 80%
 Women economically active at 15
years (2009) – 33%
Source : Population Reference Bureau

11. Women at decision making level
• Participation of women in
elections increased over the
years
• Proportion of women turnout for
voting – 58.2%
Source: Election Commission of India
58.2
48.0
2014 elections
Women turnout during India's 2014 parliamentary general elections was 65.63%,
compared to 67.09% turnout for men. In 16 out of 29 states of India, more women
voted than men. A total of 260.6 million women exercised their right to vote in
April–May 2014 elections for India's parliament.

12. WHY NEED OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?
• The main problems that were faced by women in
past days(and still today up to some extent):
• Gender discrimination
• Woman education
• Female infanticide
• Dowry
• Marriage in same caste and child marriage(still
existing)
• Atrocities on Women: Raped, kicked, killed,
subdued & humiliated almost daily.

13. NEED FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMNENT:
WOMEN ARE DEPRIVED OF:
• Decision Making Power
• Freedom of Movement
• Access to Education
• Access to Employment
• Exposure to Media
• Domestic Violence

14. Holistic approach to Empowerment
Health
& Nut.
Education
Water & San.
Skills
Technology Credit
Political
Participation
Marketing
Asset base

15. WAYS TO EMPOWER WOMEN:
• Changes in women's mobility
and social interaction;
• Changes in women's labor
patterns;
• Changes in women's access to
and control over resources;
and
• Changes in women's control
over decision-making.

16. WAYS TO EMPOWER WOMEN:
• Providing education
• Self employment and Self help groups
• Providing minimum needs like nutrition,
health, sanitation, housing
• Other than this, society should change the
mentality towards the word “women”.
• Encouraging women to develop in their fields
they are good at and make a career.

17. Women Empowerment Programmes
• Swayamsidha
• Swa-Shakti Project
• Support to Training and employment programme for Women (STEP)
• Swalamban
• Creches/ Day care Centers for the Children of working and Ailing Mothers
• Hostels for working women
• Swadhar
• Rashtriya Mahila kosh (RMK)

18. Swayamsidha: ( Indira Mahila yojna)
• It is an integrated project for the development and
empowerment of women through Self Help
Groups (SHGs) with emphasis on covering service,
developing access to micro-enterprises.
• About 10 lakh women have taken membership.
Swam-Shakti Project:
• Earlier known as the Rural Women’s Development
and Empowerment Project, was sanctioned in
October 1998 as centrally sponsored scheme to be
implemented in the states of Bihar, Chattisgarh,
Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya
Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.

19. Swayamsidha:

20. Programmes contd…
Support to Training and employment Programme for
Women (STEP):
• The program seeks to provide updated skills and new
knowledge to poor asset less women in eight traditional
sectors of employment, agriculture, animal husbandry,
dairying, fisheries, handlooms, handcrafts, Khadi and Village
industry and sericulture.

21. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK):
• Also known as the National Credit Fund for Women was
set up as a registered society under the Societies
Registration Act, 1860 on March 30, 1993.
• Credit support or micro-finance to poor women to start
income generating activities such as in - Dairy ,
Agriculture ,Shop-keeping ,Vending and Handicrafts.
In 2003-04, an amount of Rs.25 crore was sanctioned
through RMK benefiting about 32,765 women.

22. • UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United
Nations.
It provides financial and technical assistance to
innovative programs and strategies to foster
women’s empowerment and gender equality

23. • 2016 Theme: Make it happen
• Each year around the world, International Women's Day (IWD)
is celebrated on March 8.
• Thousands of events occur not just on this day but throughout
March to mark the economic, political and social achievements
of women.

25. CONCLUSION
• Women represent half the world’s population, and
gender inequality exists in every nation on the planet.
• Until women are given the same opportunities that
men are, entire societies will be destined to perform
below their true potentials .
• The greatest need of the hour is change of social
attitude to women.

26. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN NOT JUST A GOAL IN ITSELF,
BUT KEY TO ALL GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS”