Authors

1. Ms. Trishani Mitra
2. Dr. Sheetal Mundra

Affiliation

• Student, IM- JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur
• Assistant Professor, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the status of rural women empowerment in India. Women
empowerment is prerequisite for the development of nation. The empowerment, equality and
autonomy of women are globally recognized as key factors of all round development and growth of a
society. The Five-Year plans in India are adopted as a model of development. 'Empowerment of
Women' was the key theme of the Ninth Five Year Plan. Similarly, Tenth Five Year Plan also stressed
on Economic Empowerment as one of the sector-specific 3-fold strategy for empowering women with
the view of making all potential women economically independent and self-reliant.
Empowerment of women means the improvement in economic, social and political status of women
in general and the traditionally underprivileged ones in backward and rural society. This study is
based on primary data collected from a cluster of villages under Mahapura Gram Panchayat,
Sanganer tehsil, Jaipur district. The study reveals that rural women fall under middle empowerment
level and there is a lack of awareness of the government empowerment schemes. The study
concludes by an observation that the status of rural women empowerment is not satisfactory. It leads
to low level of awareness about government schemes and these women fail to avail the extended
benefits from these schemes. So, it is imperative to address the endogenous factors in line with
exogenous factors through government schemes to empower women. Women are empowered at
different dimensions, in the present study we have different levels of empowerment of women but
Empowerment is something an individual or a group of individuals evolves over time. The focus
should be on removing various socio- cultural barriers and developing an endogenous development
strategy. Few suggestions based on the study are: Skills Acquisition and Capacity-Building,
Conducting Camps and workshops at regular intervals to demystify various myths, conducting
Family development initiatives to change discriminatory traditional and cultural norms, collecting
information about the complaints regarding the schemes to improve the quality of the services

Keywords

Women Empowerment, Government Schemes, Awareness, Endogenous Development

References

1. Shettar D. R. (2015). A Study on Issues and Challenges of Women Empowerment in India. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), 13-19.
2. Mokta M. (2014 ). Empowerment of Women in India- A Critical Analysis. Indian Journal of Public Administration, 473-488.
3. Hazra A. (2011). Empowering Women in Rural India. Kurukshetra - a journal on Rural development , 3-6.
4. Hashemi S. M., Schuler S. R., & Riley A. P. (1996). Rural Credit Programs and Women
5. Garba P. (1999). An endogenous empowerment strategy: A casestudy. Development in Practice, 130-141.
6. Home of UN Women. (2016). Retrieved from UN Women: www.unowmen.org, accessed on 3 June, 2017
7. Kabeer N. (2001). Reflections on the measurement of women
8. Sida (2006). Microfinance and Women
9. UN Secretariat, Inter-agency Task Force on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development
10. Duflo E. (2011). Women
11. Deshpande S. & Sethi S. (2010). Role and Positions of women Empowerment in Indian Society. International Referred Research Journal, 1(17), 10-12.
12. Department of Women and Children Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from Government of Rajasthan: www.wcd.rajasthan.gov.in, accessed on 3 June, 2017