Challenges and Strategies for Women Empowerment in India: Facts and Realities.

In today’s world women empowerment is an important issue of discussion because in every sector we find women which constitute half of the total population in the world are lacking behind. If about half of the nation's human resources are neglected, the overall progress of the country would obviously be hampered. Women empowerment has become one of the most central concerns and need of the hour but in reality, the situation is not good enough. In the traditional patriarchal society, women have been given a secondary status which is reflected in the economic, social and political spheres. However, women equality and empowerment has always remained a priority area and has been taken utmost care by stake holders. Gender mainstreaming propels progress towards the ultimate goal of attaining gender equality and women empowerment. In this direction policies and programmes at different levels to cover various proportions and strategies of gender development have been framed by the government of India. The paper critically examines women empowerment in India, various challenges and strategies. The paper discusses constitutional safe guards as well as plans and programmes by the government and their implementation, indicators of women empowerment in India. Finally, this paper is an attempt to examine the status of women in India and provides some policy suggestions for women empowerment.