The document discusses women's empowerment and its relationship to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 in India. It outlines India's commitment under SDG 5 to achieve gender equality and SDG 8 to promote full employment. It defines empowerment and discusses its importance as a determinant for achieving the SDGs. Empowerment is analyzed across different dimensions, including psychological, social, economic, legal, and political. Challenges to women's empowerment in India are noted, including barriers due to patriarchal traditions. Concerted efforts are needed to close urban-rural divides and ensure equal access and opportunities for women across all areas.

1. Women´s Empowerment &
Sustainable Development Goals
Group 1: Rita Lakhani

2. From Millenium Development Goalsto Sustainable DevelopmentGoals

3. By 2030, India has committed to making
sure that women and girls contribute as
equal partners to the growth and
development of the country
under Sustainable Development Goal.
particularly Goal 5, to achieve gender equality, and
Goal 8, to promote full and productive employment and decent work for all;
Goal 1 on ending poverty,
Goal 2 on food security,
Goal 3 on ensuring health and
Goal 10 on reducing inequalities.

5. Empowerment as a determinantfor SDGs
Defintion of empowerment:
“… the process by which those who have (previously) been denied
the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability.”
(Kabeer
,1999)

6. Empowerment as a determinantfor SDGs
Women´s status, agency and autonomy interrelated with empowerment
Status: measured relative to others insociety.
Autonomy: the ability to make decisions free of control from others; the ability to
make strategic life choices with regards to economic decision making or health seeking
behavior independent from husband or extended family such as mother in law.
Agency: the ability to define one´s goal and act upon, making strategic life choices
and POWER to doso
Midwives work together to empower women
(Pratley, 2016) (A gender-transformative framework for nutrition, 2020)

7. Empowerment in differentdimensions
• Psychological: an increase in woman´s belief of her ability to achieve her goals,
self perception of her ability to achieve meaningful goals
• Social dimension: access to social resources, large social network, being able
to rely on family and friends as social support
• Economic dimension: control over material resources as well as claims to
resources incl. Monetary contributions to houshold through labor
, having a bank
account, a say over her own money
Pratley(2016)

8. Empowerment in differentdimensions
Contd. Economic…
• Midwife-led interdisciplinary care is cost-effective, leads to good
outcomes and fewer interventions as for example doctor-led birth
• When investment in women in low-income countries 9-fold
investment in return incl. productivity andGDP
Pratley (2016), UNFPA

9. Empowerment in differentdimensions
• Legal dimension: the extent women´s rights are reflected and codified ,inherit husband´s
property incl women´s knowledge of thelegal system
• Political dimension: inclusion in political processes and ability of women to organize
themselves for change, gender equality andequity
• Person-centric approaches
• Opportunity structures
In Sweden… the midwives…. (Pratley, 2016) (A gender-transformative framework for nutrition,2020)

10. Empowerment in differentdimensions
As a proportion of total expenditure, the gender budget has declined from 4.4 per cent to 4.3 per cent for
2022-23. This is despite the 4.72 per cent of the total expenditure allocated to women's programs in the pre-
pandemic era of 2020
Read more at:
https://www.deccanh
erald.com/business/u
nion-budget/indias-
gender-budget-2022-
23-will-it-foster-
women-led-
development-
1082094.html

11. Gates Foundation

12. Women Empowerment Schemes
1. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme
2. One Stop Centre Scheme
3. Women Helpline Scheme
4. UJJAWALA : A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking and Rescue,
Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual
Exploitation
5. Working Women Hostel
6. Ministry approves new projects under Ujjawala Scheme and continues existing
projects
7. SWADHAR Greh (A Scheme for Women in Difficult Circumstances)
8. NARI SHAKTI PURASKAR
9. Awardees of Stree Shakti Puruskar, 2014 & Awardees of Nari Shakti Puruskar
10.Awardees of Rajya Mahila Samman & Zila Mahila Samman
11.Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK)
12.NIRBHAYA
13.Mahila police Volunteers

14. The gender gap between the share of men with 10 plus years of schooling and the share of women
with 10 plus years of schooling has decreased to eight percent (from 11.5 percent in 2015)
The sex ratio at birth has also improved and now stands at 942 females for every 1,000 males.
Source: 5th National Family and Health Survey (NFHS)
health, major household
purchases and visiting relatives
Nagaland and Mizoram⬆️; Ladakh and Sikkin ↓; 8% ⬆️
Eleven of the 22 states reported a decline;
Karnataka and Telangana ⬆️
Overall growth but ⬆️ women
sterilization; menstrual hygiene ⬆️
The share of women marrying below the age of 18 continues to be
close to 30 percent—similar to 2015 levels.
one in three women having had experienced some sort of physical or
sexual violence from their husbands -⬆️ pandemic

15. 1. An extra year of education can help a girl earn 15-25% more as an adult. (UNICEF)
2. Educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school.
(UNICEF)
3. 130 million girls are out of school worldwide, and 11 million girls might not return to
school after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their education. (UNESCO)
4. Girls who complete secondary school are 3x less likely to become child brides.
(Source: Girls Not Brides)
5. Globally, there are 750 million women and girls who were married before they turned
18. Source: United Nations
6. At least 117 countries and territories still have no laws to protect girls from child
marriage. (Source: Pew Research Center)
7. Domestic violence—just one form of gender-based violence—is costlier than
warfare, with a worldwide annual cost of $8 trillion.
(Source: Copenhagen Consensus Center)
8. In 49 countries, there is no specific law against domestic violence. (World Bank)
9. Women make nearly 20% less than men, and they won’t reach pay equity with men
until 2059 if the slow pace of progress on the pay gap persists. (Source: AAUW)

16. India still has a long way to go in many areas of women
empowerment. A more concerted effort is needed to close
the urban-rural divide and ensure that women in rural areas
enjoy the same access to education, employment,
healthcare and decision-making as their urban counterparts.
The hardest challenge will be to change attitudes, given
that many barriers to women empowerment are attributed
to patriarchal and patrilineal traditions that are deeply
entrenched in our societies.
Roshni Kapur, et al.
https://www.isas.nus.edu.sg/papers/women-empowerment-in-india-more-needs-to-be-done/

17. What can we conclude then?
The SDGs offers a strategic and timely moment to advance the economic empowerment of women.
However, acting on this agenda requires a political and cultural sea-change to overcome the issue.
To walk the talk of the SDGs, we must pursue an action plan that accounts for underlying social
norms.
First, it must work to eliminate discrimination in labour laws and inheritance laws.
Secondly, action means investing in data and technical capacity to measure and track progress on
social norm change.
Finally, bold action calls for real accountability in the commitments made to women, though
appropriate budgets and strengthened national gender networks, for example, involving multiple
actors from community leaders and civil society to governments and the private sector.
Fuelled by the SDGs, this action plan is our best bet for turning the world’s promises about gender
equality and women’s empowerment into reality by 2030.

18. SDG´s and Women´sEmpowerment
“Women’s access to their chosen empowerment path
eg FP and their ability to negotiate use of the method
strongly supports gender equality and
empowerment.”
Starbird et al.2016

19. References
1. ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment’, UNDP. https://info.undp.org/sites/bpps/SES_Toolkit/
SitePages/Gender%20Equality%20and%20Women’s%20Empowerment.aspx. Accessed on 10 July 2022.
2. ‘Global Issues: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment’, Peace Corps. https://www.peacecorps.gov/
educators/resources/global-issues-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment/. Accessed on 11 July 2022.
3. Constitution of India, India.gov.in. https://www.india.gov.in/my-government/constitution-india. Accessed
on 11 July 2022.
4. ‘India & ILO’, Government of India, Ministry of Labour & Employment. https://labour.gov.in/lcandilas
division/india-ilo. Accessed on 10 July 2022.
5. The CEDAW was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. It is commonly known as the international bill
of rights for women.
6. M Venkaiah Naidu, “There’s no progress if women lag behind”, The Hindu, 13 January 2018. https://www.
thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/theres-no-progress-if-women-lag-behind/article9575999. ece. Accessed
on 12 July 2022.
7. “Women’s Reservation Bill: All you need to know about the bill which will bring 33 percent reservation for
women in Lok Sabha”, India Today, 7 March 2020. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-
affairs/story/women-s-reservation-bill-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-bill-which-is-yet-to-be-passed-in-lok-
sabha-1653451-2020-03-07. Also see ‘Women’s Reservation Bill [The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill,
2008]’, PRS Legislative Research, 6 May 2008. https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/womens-reservation-bill-
the-constitution-108th-amendment-bill-2008-45. Accessed on 13 July 2022.
8. Saubhadra Chatterji and Avijit Ghosal, “Trinamool Congress declares 40% reservation for women
candidates”, Hindustan Times, 12 March 2019. https://www.hindustantimes.com/lok-sabha-
elections/trinamool-congress-declares-40-reservation-for-women-candidates/story-
5OwZzWfWRfdfl5q1gfiCnJ.html. Accessed on 12 July 2022.

20. References contd…
9. Surendra Singh, “Chandrayaan-2: India’s 1st space mission being led by women scientists”, Times of India, 14 July
2019. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/chandrayaan-2-indias-1st-space-mission-being-led-by-women-
scientists/articleshow/70214125.cms. Accessed on 14 July 2022.
10. Jayshree Sengupta, ‘India slips on gender equality’, Observer Research Foundation, 27 December
2019. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/india-slips-gender-equality-59555/. Accessed on 14 July 2022.
11. “UN India business forum, NITI Aayog form consortium to help women entrepreneurs”, The Hindu, 7 June
2018. https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/un-india-business-forum-niti-aayog-form-consortium-to-
help-women-entrepreneurs/article24106267.ece. Accessed on 13 July 2022.
12. ‘Global Wage Report 2018/19’, International Labour Organization, p. 24. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_650553.pdf. Accessed on 12 July 2022.
13. ‘Gender Equality: Women’s Economic Empowerment’, UN India Business Forum. https://in.one.un.org/
unibf/gender-equality/. Accessed on 15 July 2022.
14. Jay Shambaugh et al, “Lessons from the rise of women’s labor force participation in Japan”, Brookings Institution,
1 November 2017. https://www.brookings.edu/research/lessons-from-the-rise-of-womens-labor-force-
participation-in-japan/. Accessed on 12 July 2022.
15. Womenomics was a policy initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013 to assist and encourage more
women to get into the workforce.
16. Reecha Upadhyay, “Women’s Empowerment in India”, The Asia Foundation, p. 1. https://asiafoundation.
org/resources/pdfs/womensempowermentindiabriefs.pdf. Accessed on 14 July 2022.
17. ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2020’, World Economic Forum, 2019, p. 24. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/
WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf. Accessed on 15 July 2022.

21. References
18. https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol11-issue4/H01145463.pdf
19. https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/international-womens-day-facts/
20. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures
21. https://www.isas.nus.edu.sg/papers/women-empowerment-in-india-more-needs-to-be-done/
22. https://www.deccanherald.com/business/union-budget/indias-gender-budget-2022-23-will-it-foster-women-led-
development-1082094.html
23. https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/action/womens-principles
24. https://graduatewomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Article-written-by-Seema-Singh-BRPID-project-findings.pdf
25. https://hindrise.org/resources/women-empowerment-in-india-and-its-importance/
26. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs
27. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2322UN%20Women%20Analysis%20on%20Women%20and%20SDGs.
pdf

22. References for furtherreading
https://www-sciencedirect-
• Women's empowerment in pregnancy and childbirth:A concept analysis
com.ludwig.lub.lu.se/science/article/pii/S0266613819301925?via%3Dihub
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/cmroleofmidwifery/chapter/midwif
ery-matters/
https://cdn.sida.se/publications/files/sida62136en-health-brief-midwifery-
2018.pdf