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In the early Vedic age, women were treated equally but in the later Vedic period women duties were not considered important. In the later Vedic period, chastity and purity were given more importance. During that period various rituals came up in Hindu culture which includes: the early marriage of children, widow re-marriage was looked down, giving preference to the birth of a baby boy and the mourning the birth of girl child and was regarded as bad luck. The practice of Purdah System was prevalent during muslim empires which slowly spread to people of different classes and caste. In the Medieval period Witch hunting, Sati pratha, Polygamy, Child marriage and Remarriage of widows was looked down. In the modern times too, Women being the equal is not treated like one. Women remained caring and nurturing member right from the beginning like during the childhood, she nurtures her family as a daughter, as she grows and get married to somebody, she nurtures her husband as a wife and the new family, therefore, there is continuous addition of responsibilities as she attains motherhood and further growing older becoming grandmothers. Still, it is seen that they are supposed to take help of her father, brother and husband before making any major or minor decision. From the decision of wearing the dress of their choice to the choice of going out for education, every decision is taken by the male member of the family on her behalf and it rarely includes mutual decision making. For a country to become sustainably developed it is very important to provide equal opportunity to every individual to participate and come up with positive discrimination of group of people who are somehow excluded or negatively discriminated. Both men and women have various roles that they perform during their lives. In the productive domain, where comes the activities like production of resources (goods) which can be used for consumption, marketing, trade and which can be the source of income generation. In the reproductive domain, where comes the activities like making of the family, house and their functioning in a sustainable manner. By making the equal representations of women in the public sphere, they will be given the just opportunities to represent themselves. To actually make the women empowered we need to understand the cause behind the ill treatment of women and their restricted representation in the society. Empowerment in itself is a multi-dimensional concept which focuses on social, political and economic independent of individual. It empowers the individual to take their own decision and run their life by themselves. Even after provision of various constitutional rights and legal provisions to the women the status of women is depressing. The Government of India is continuously making effort to promote social and economic empowerment of the women. The Ministry of Women and Child Welfare making various efforts to release and implement various programmes and policies for the mainstreaming of women, making the women aware about their rights and duties and also providing them financial support to run their life. Many programs were focused keeping in view the economic empowerment of women, which include various scholarship programs encouraging girl child education like the “Beti Bacho Beti Padao”. Entrepreneurship / Skill development programs for the young women with an aim for providing better and long-term employment opportunities for the women. The major focus of all programs is to end the discrimination, bringing women to mainstream and providing them equal opportunity to participate and represent themselves in public sphere. The major programs and policies launched by Government of India for the empowerment of women includes various programmes such as ICDS, BETI BACHAO BETI PADAO, SABLA, Support to Training and Employment Programmes for Women (STEP), UJJAWALA, Swadhar and many more such programs are being launched from time-to-time to promote the equal participation of women in the society.

The literature review of this research paper is done under two categories: 1.Programmes which promote the social and political empowerment of women: BBBP, One Stop Centre, UJJAWALA, SWADHAR, NIRBHAYA Fund. 2.Programmes which support the economic empowerment of women: STEP, Mahila Shakti Kendra,Mahila-E-Haat, Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme. The Government of India has made number of efforts from time to time to end this ill-treatment. There are two types of rights which include: constitutional rights and legal rights. The constitutional rights are the rights which are provided by the provisions of the constitution. The constitutional Rights of woman includes Article 14: It says that everyone is equal before law, Article 15(3): It focus on making special provision in favor of children and women, Article16: This article says that everyone should be given equal opportunity in employment irrespective of gender/sexual orientation. There are some of the constitutional rights which are under the directive principles of state policy which have given special attention to women. These rights include Article 39(a): This article says about providing “women equally the right to an adequate means of livelihood”, Article 39(d): This article says about providing equal pay for equal work irrespective of their gender. Under the article 243 d (3): This article focus on providing the reservation of seats to women for their participation in the Panchayati Raj Institution. The legal rights are the rights provided by various laws/ acts of the parliament of India and the state legislature. These Legal provisions include various provisions such as section 376,363-373,302, 304-B, 498-A, 354. There are some of the special provisions for women under the Crpc which includes Right to free legal aid, Section 46(4): No police authority is allowed to arrest women after the sunset and before the sunrise. Dr. Rashmi Rani Agnihotri, H.R. and Prof. Dr. Malipatil, K.S.. 2018 in their study “A study on women welfare programmes in India” have studied various welfare programs launched by the government for the empowerment of women to promote and support their participation, and end the discriminatory behavior which is excluding women. Researchers also stressed on the role of both the men and women in bringing this change. Prof. Seema Singh and Dr. Antra Singh (2020) in their study have critically analyzed the women empowerment in India and have studied various programmers and policies implemented for the empowerment of women. The researchers have stressed on reanalyzing and re-modification of the programs and policies for their effective functioning. The Sex Ratio was an issue of concern as it was day-by-day falling and becoming poor for the females. If we particularly talk about child sex ratio (0-6 ) years, As per the Census of 1991, there were 945 females per 1000 male and this figure fall to 927 /1000 in 2001 census. The Census Survey of 2011 brought up the figures which were shocking and alarming too as there were only 918 females per thousand males (wcd.nic.in). We can see this steady fall in the child sex ratio after the introduction various advancements in medical science technologies which helped in selective killing of mainly girl child, sometimes much before she is actually born. For the empowerment of women and more for a balanced holistic society, it’s very important to have equal presence of the female gender in our ecosystem.

Government launched a scheme, “BETI BACHAO BETI PADAO”, in the year 2015. This scheme was launched by collaborative efforts of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE). This Scheme was launched in the state of Haryana as the State was already coping the stress of finding bride, with the lowest sex ratio as per the census 2011.This scheme was launched by keeping in view the increasing number of selective eliminations of girl child and further strengthening the Girl Child Education and the rights of girl child. This scheme in itself indicates about the protection, survival and education of girl child.

UJJAWALA Scheme was a comprehensive scheme launched with the aim of prevention of trafficking of women and children by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) in 2016. This scheme has 5 main components: (1) Prevention, (2) Rescue, (3) Rehabilitation, (4) Re-Integration and (5) Repatriation. This Scheme focused on: first; prevention of trafficking and second Rescue of woman and children who were trafficked and the further for their proper rehabilitation, to make them begin their new and smooth life, including taking care of many other issues related to both their sexual and mental health. India being still on the path of developing nation, still have many causes for girl child trafficking, which mainly includes poverty and low status of women. For a country to become sustainable developed, it is very important to empower women and empowerment means both educationally empowered and economically empowered. This will then achieve protection, survival and their rehabilitation to normal situation.

SWADHAR Greh Scheme was launched to help the women who are in need of support. It includes women prisoners released from jail, women victim of domestic violence, Women rescued from brothels, women affected by HIV/AIDS etc. This scheme was launched by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD). The services provided under this include temporary residential accommodation, basic services like food, shelter, clothing and medical facilities. Providing training to women for their economic rehabilitation, providing counseling, awareness regarding their rights and free legal aid.

One Stop Centre scheme was launched to address the issues of women who face violence by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD). Under this scheme women are being provided support and assistance related to violence no matter whether they face it in public or domestic sphere. Under this scheme various services are provided to women who face violence which includes rescue, counseling, shelter, medical checkup etc. Nirbhaya scheme funds this scheme and Central Government also provides 100% financial assistance to State Governments for the establishment and further running of the One Stop Centre in their respective State.

Nirbhaya fund was administered by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance for the prevention, protection and rehabilitation of woman. This fund was launched to formulate projects and initiatives related for the safety of woman.

Programs which support the economic empowerment of women: STEP, Mahila Shakti Kendra, Mahila E-Haat ,  Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme

There are various initiatives taken by government from time-to-time to provide training and employment to women. Many skills development programs and vocational trainings like food processing and preservation, handlooms and handicraft, fashion designing and garment making were launched for woman to provide employability to woman which can bring economic freedom and self-dependency.

The Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) was launched under the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 1986. Under this scheme, various services are given to women for upgrading themselves and get them wage employment. Under this scheme various areas were covered in which women are trained which includes handicraft, handloom, fisheries, Khadi and village industries and many more such programs. This scheme has focused on providing women the wage employment by working on their skills. The major objectives of this scheme are training of women for skill development, mobilizing women in viable groups and making them facilities available through training and access to credit. . This scheme also provides some support services to women which includes their health checkups, child-care, legal & health literacy.

Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme was launched by the ministry of woman and child development in the year 2017. It is an umbrella scheme and it focus on empowering the rural women through community participation and capacity building.

Mahila E Haat was launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD)in 2018 is has focused on economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs. These initiatives are taken with the motive of making women confident, empowered and confident. These platforms provide opportunity to young women to showcase their talent and get the best price for the products they have manufactured.

 

This research is purely theoretical and analytical in nature. The sources of data used in this research are secondary which includes reports, published books, internet sources and Journal article. The data from online sources was analyzed. The origin, the objectives and their expected impact on the life of beneficiaries was studied in this research. The Schemes and there impacts were studied from the latest Annual Reports of the MoWCD and contents available on the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) website.

1. Dr. Rashmi Rani Agnihotri, H.R. and Prof. Dr. Malipatil, K.S.. 2018. A Study on Women Welfare programmes in India, International Journal of Development Research, 8, (01), 18684-1868 2. Tathapi (UGC Care Journal) ISSN:2320-0693 Vol-19-Issue-44-June-2020 Page | 227 Copyright ⓒ 2020Author Women Empowerment in India: A Critical Analysis Prof. Seema Singh* and Dr. Antra Singh**, * Professor of Economics and ** ICSSR Post Doctoral Fellow, Delhi Technological University, Delhi- 110 042, INDIA 3. Bhasin, K. (2000). Understanding gender. New Delhi: Kali for women. 4. Laxmikanth, M. (2018): ―Governance in India‖, Published by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited, Printed and bound in India at India Binding House, A-98, Sector 65, Noida, U.P. 5. https://censusindia.gov.in/DigitalLibrary/reports.aspx 6. https://censusindia.gov.in/2011-common/census_data_2001.html 7. https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html 8. Mahila E Haat- Women Entrepreneur Online E-Commerce Portal Detail (pmil.in) 9. https://wcd.nic.in/schemes/mahila-shakti-kendras-msk 10. http://wbcdwdsw.gov.in/User/scheme_STEP 11. https://wcd.nic.in/schemes/swadhar-greh-scheme-women-difficult-circumstances 12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articlesPMC7945968/#:~: text=Women%20were%20fighting%20a%20shadow,increase%20in %20domestic%20violence%20complaints. 13. https://wcd.nic.in/bbbp-schemes 14. https://wcd.nic.in/schemes/one-stop-centre-scheme-1 15. https://wcd.nic.in/schemes/nirbhaya 16. National Creche Scheme | Ministry of Women & Child Development (wcd.nic.in)