From Slogans to Reality: Are Women in India Truly Empowered?

1.

What is the historical status of women in India?

Time period	Analysis
Ancient: 1.Vedic period	The Aryans arrived in India between 3,000 BC and 2500 BC. The Aryans defeated the matriarchal nonAryan culture that existed in Indian society. In the Vedic period, women had the right to education. Indian society has always revered women with many female deities Saraswati, Durga, Lakshmi, Kali, etc worshiped across the country. However, there were no oppressive practices such as child marriage and sati till the time of marriage, but women did not have the right to property. According to Prof. Ram Ahuja, “during this period, women were not earning money but were seen working in the field of agriculture. The woman used to get her share of patrimony. The mother‟s wealth was shared equally among the sons and daughters.” Indian history finds mention of many prodigious women such as Gargi, Maitreyi, and Sulabha, whose faculty of reasoning was far superior to that of ordinary mortals. Similarly, there have been female rulers like Prabhavatigupta, and Rani Durgavati in various parts of our country.
2. Post Vedic Period	The period from 1500 BC to 500 AD is known as the North Vedic period. This period was a period of transition towards the status of women. In the post-Vedic period, the status of women began to decline. The level of female education in the Vedic period became very narrow in the post-Vedic period. The participation of women in public life became very narrow. During this period, scriptures were composed to add religion to the inferior and secondary status of women. Women became ignorant, childish, and ignorant of religious practices, only a means of procreation and sexual gratification. Different rules were made about the character of men and women.
Medieval period	Generally, the period from 1200 to 1818 AD is considered as the medieval period. During this period, Indian life was a life dominated by inequality, injustice, ignorance and based on scriptures. The biggest victims of this caste system were women because women have a great responsibility to maintain the purity of the caste. The practice of child marriage came into existence so that a girl should not have intercaste marriage. Widow Remarriage was banned so that widows should not have interracial marriages. At the same time, the practice of sati came into existence. Due to the different cultures between Islam and Hinduism, efforts were made to protect Hinduism and women from Islam. As a result, Hindu women were confined within four walls.
Socio-Religious Reforms Movements (19th Century)	The beginning of organized efforts for the empowerment of women and gender equality in India can be traced back to the Socio-Religious Reforms Movements of the 19th century. Efforts made by social reformers such as Raja Rammohan Roy, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and their related organizations helped the cause of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in India. (Sati Abolition Act of 1829, Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, Child Marriage Restraint Act (Sarda Act) of 1929, etc.) Savitri Bai Phule worked towards women empowerment.
Freedom Movement	Gandhiji put particular emphasis on the collective mobilization and participation of women in India‟s freedom struggle. He encouraged women to fight for political freedom as well as for their social and political rights. While this participation of women in national movements was not directly aimed at questioning the patriarchal society, it helped the cause of promoting gender equality and women‟s empowerment in India by: Generating a sense of self-confidence and a realization of their strength among women. Breaking away several barriers of old traditions and customs.
PostIndependence India	Post-1970s, India witnessed a renewal of women empowerment and gender equality movement in India. Widely known as the second phase of the Indian women‟s movement, prominent women‟s organizations took up a much wider range of initiatives, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in India, such as: The Self Employed Women‟s Association (SEWA) worked to improve conditions of women working in the unorganized sector. Annapurna Mahila Mandal (AMM) worked for the welfare of women and girl children.

2.

What is the status of women empowerment in India?

• India dropped to 129th place in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index 2024, while Iceland retained the top spot.
• This puts India in the bottom 20 countries on the index.
• India closed 64.1 per cent of its gender gap in 2024, ranking the third lowest in the southeast region, only ahead of Maldives and Pakistan.
• Despite doing relatively well in the political empowerment parameter (65th) as compared to the other three indices, India‟s overall rank is 129th, marginally lower than last year (127).

3.

What is the status of women in the workforce in India?

• According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-2023, the female labor force participation rate in India increased to 37.0% in 2023, which is a significant jump from 23.3% in 2017-18.
• This is attributed to the government's initiatives to empower women through policies and legislations that focus on their longterm socio-economic and political development.

• According to the State Bank of India's latest report,if all the ladies doing their household chores for their family are paid for their job, then the amount paid to them would be equivalent to about 7.5 per cent of India's GDP.

• A 2018 report by Mckinsey Global Institute showed that women’s contribution to India‟s economy is very low at 18 per cent, while it is 41 per cent in China, 40 per cent in Vietnam, 33 per cent in Japan, and 29 per cent in Sri Lanka.
• According to the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj it is estimated that the GDP of India would increase by 43 per cent if women had the same work participation rate as men.

4.

What is the current status of women in various sectors?

Sectors	Status
Women in Parliament
Women in Legislative assembly
Women in Government jobs	Top 3 All India Ranks were achieved by female candidates in UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021.
Women in Judiciary
Women in sports
Women in corporates
Women in Financial Inclusion

5.

What are social issues related to women?

Issues	Analysis
Crime against women
Domestic violence	The National Commission for Women said in 2020-21, it received 26,513 complaints from women, an increase of 25.09 per cent, compared with the 20,309 complaints registered in 2019-20. According to NFHS-4, 30% of women in India have experienced domestic violence at least once.
Feminisation of Poverty	The feminization of poverty has been used to illustrate differences between male and female poverty in a given context as well as changes in male and female poverty over time. Globally, 247 million women aged 15 years and older will be living on less than 1.90 U.S. dollars per day in 2021, compared to 236 million men.
Feminisation of Agriculture	This phenomenon of increased participation by women, in agriculture, is referred to as the 'feminization of the Agri-workforce'.
Missing women and unwanted girls	The term "missing women" indicates a shortfall in the number of women relative to the expected number of women in a region or country. Twenty-one million unwanted girls under the age of 25 in India. These girls are more precisely described as “less wanted” children. They are daughters that parents gave birth to when they were really hoping for a son. The 2018 Economic Survey gives us a powerful new number: India has twenty-one million “unwanted girls”.

6.

Why are Indian women not able to reach the job market?

• India was 165th out of 187 countries in terms of female labour force participation rate in 2023, according to the World Bank's Gender Data Portal.
• India's female labour force participation rate was only 32.7 per cent.

7.

Why is women empowerment necessary in India?

8.

What is the magnitude of crime against women?

• India recorded 22.8 lakh crimes against women between 2016 to 2021, of which about 7 lakh, or 30 per cent, were under Section 498A of IPC, as per the MoSPI‟s „Women and Men in India 2022‟ report released in 2023.

• The Women and Men in India 2023 report shows a rise from 359,849 cases in 2017 to over 445,000 in 2022, averaging 1,220 cases daily, averaging 51 First Information Report (FIRs) per hour.
• The National Family Health Survey-5 found that nearly one-third of women aged 15-49 in India have experienced some form of violence.

9.

Enlist few reasons for increasing rape in India?

2. Accepting domestic violence:

• Indian society sees domestic violence to be something deserving. UNICEF, in one of its reports, found that 57% of Indian boys and 53% of girls think that the beating of a wife is justified.

3. Discouragement of rape victims to compromise:

• Families in Indian society are not ready to accept the fact that someone in their family has been raped and they often advise the victims to stay away from the haphazard caused after rape in the police station.
• This is the sole reason why most of the rapes are not even registered in India.

10.

Enlist forms of sexual harassment at workplace?

11.

Enlist ways for ensuring women safety at the workplace?

12.

What is the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action?

• The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is a global policy framework that outlines how to achieve gender equality and women's rights.
• It was adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
• The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is in 2025.
• The Platform of Action covers 12 critical areas of concern.

13.

Enlist initiatives for women empowerment in india?

What is the relevance of the topic for UPSC CSE?

For Prelims: Crime Against Women, Gender Equality, National Crime Records Bureau's Annual Reports, Sexual Harassment At Work, Child Marriage, Dowry System, Vishakha Guideline, Supreme Court, Domestic Violence, Acid Attacks On Women, Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994, Article 21, One Stop Centres, Mahila Police Volunteers, Investigation Tracking System For Sexual Offences, Justice Verma Committee, Representation of Women in Law Enforcement and the Judiciary.

For Mains: Significance of Government Policies & Interventions in Addressing Issues Related to Women,Reservation for women,Nirbhaya Fund,Fast track courts.

Some Previous Years Prelims Questions