STATUS OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA- Kamakula N. Murthy*

1. INTRODUCTION
With women population being around 50 per cent of the total population of the world, they have every right to be treated equally with men in every sphere of life. Women Empowerment is one of the important aim in the eight Millennium Development Goals for socio-economic inclusion. Women empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in development and economics. Women empowerment concept was introduced at the International women Conference in 1985 at Nairobi, which defined it as redistribution of social power and control of resources in favor of women.1 According to The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNDFW), “women empowerment is a study of acquiring knowledge and understand of gender relations, self-worth, a belief in one’s ability to secure desired changes and the right to control one’s life.2 The status of Women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. In present era the position of women in India is one of the great socio-economic developments. This paper describes the present status of women on the parameters of health, education, economic participation and decision making in India. It also describes the Government initiatives for empowering women in inclusive growth.
2. OBJECTIVES
The present study is based on following objectives,
1. To show the current status and obstacles of Women in India.
2. To study about the government initiatives of women empowerment for gender equity.
3. DATABASE AND METHODOLOGY
The study is descriptive in nature and in order to examine the current status of women, obstacles related with women empowerment and the government initiatives of women empowerment for gender equity. The study is based on secondary data from different sources like books, internet sources, journals, news papers etc. are used. The data for the study has drawn from census and other related documents from statistics on women in India for the various years.

* Research Scholar & Faculty of St. Joseph’s college for women (A), Dept of Economics, Visakhapatnam.
Email:[email protected]
Paper submitted in UGC Sponsored One Day National Seminar on “Women Today” Ground Reality & Women Empowerment” organized by Tejasvi Astitva Foundation & in collaboration with Visakha Govt. Degree College for Women, Scheduled to be held at the Visakha Govt. Degree College for Women College U.G. & P.G., Affiliated to Andhra university, Visakhapatnam-530020, A.P, during 08th March, 2018.
4.1 STATUS OF WOMEN IN GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX

The status women have made amazing contributions in the government, business world, the army and many more sectors. The Constitution of Indian has enshrined the principle of gender equality in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution grants equality to women and empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. Although the constitution of India has granted men and women equal rights, gender disparity still remains and women are at a disadvantage in several important ways. The World Bank’s Gender Statistics 2012 compares the population wide data for the two genders on various inequality statistical measures.3 Table 1 shows that there is high gender gap between men and women in India, indicators such as secondary school education where women had secured only 46% as against 54% of male during 2012. This rate is very low due to high rate of dropouts exists among the girls, especially in rural areas of India. In terms of having a formal financial account, women have just 26.5% whereas in men 43.7% during 2011. Further, the table reveals that there is need to fulfill all the existing gender gap, and to promote gender equality through policy making for women. Similarly, UNDP has published Gender Inequality Index and ranked India at 132 out of 148 countries.

The World Economic Forum publishes a Global Gender Gap Index. The index focuses on the relative gap between men and women on four parameters i.e., Health, Educational attainment, Economic participation, and Political empowerment. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2006, India was ranked 98 among 115 countries and polled.4 During 2011 country was ranked 113 among 135 countries, since then, India has improved its rankings on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index (GGI) to 108/144 in 2017.5 Table 2 and 3 represents the India’s trend and women status in Global Gender Gap index. India performs well on political empowerment ranked 20 to 15 among 115 and 144 countries during the period of 2006 to 2017. India scores poorly on overall female to male literacy and health rankings. India with a 2017 ranking of 141 had an overall score of 0.942. It also shows that there is poor performance in female work participation rate, and literacy rate in enrolment of girl’s child in secondary education. The Govt. of India come up with bold initiatives to promote better quality of education.

Table: 1 Gender Statistics Database India and World 2012
Gender Statistic Measure India World
Females Males Females Males
Infant mortality rate, (per 1,000 live births) 44.3 43.5 32.6 37
Life expectancy at birth, (years) 68 64.5 72.9 68.7
Expected years of schooling 11.3 11.8 11.7 12.0
Primary school completion rate, (%) 96.6 96.3 NA NA
Lower secondary school completion rate, (%) 76.0 77.9 70.2 70.5
Secondary school education, pupils (%) 46 54 47.6 52.4
Ratio to males in primary and secondary education (%) 0.98 1.0 0.97 1.0
Secondary school education, gender of teachers (% ) 41.1 58.9 51.9 48.1
Account at a formal financial institution, (% of each gender, age 15+) 26.5 43.7 46.6 54.5
Deposits in a typical month, (% with an account, age 15+) 11.2 13.4 13.0 12.8
Withdrawals in a typical month, (% with an account, age 15+) 18.6 12.7 15.5 12.8
Loan from a financial institution in the past year, (% age 15+) 6.7 8.6 8.1 10.0
Outstanding loan from banks for health or emergencies, (% age 15+) 12.6 15.7 10.3 11.6
Outstanding loan from banks to purchase a home, (% age 15+) 2.26 2.35 6.6 7.4
Unemployment, (% of labour force, ILO method)
4 3.1 NA NA
Unemployment, youth (% of labour force ages 15–24, ILO method) 10.6 9.4 15.1 13.0
Ratio to male youth unemployment rate (% ages 15–24, ILO method) 1.13 1.0 1.14 1.0
Employees in agriculture, (% of total labour) 59.8 43 NA NA
Employees in industry, (% of total labour) 20.7 26 NA NA
Self-employed, (% employed) 85.5 80.6 NA NA
Life expectancy at age 60, (years) 18.0 15.9 NA NA
Source: World Bank, Gender Statistics Database India and world

Table: 2 Trend of India in Global Gender Gap 2006-17
year India’s score performance India’s rank variance in rank
2006 0.601 -0.007 98/115 16
2007 0.594 0.012 114/128 -1
2008 0.606 0.009 113/134 1
2009 0.615 0 114/134 -2
2010 0.615 0.004 112/134 1
2011 0.619 0.025 113/135 -8
2012 0.644 0.011 105/135 -4
2013 0.655 -0.009 101/136 13
2014 0.646 0.018 114/142 -6
2015 0.664 0.019 108/145 -21
2016 0.683 -0.014 87/144 21
2017 0.669 -0.669 108/144
Source: World Bank, Global Gender Gap Index

Table: 3 India’s Women Performance in Indicators of Global Gender Gap Index 2008-17
Indicates / 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Labour force participation (%) 36 36 35 35 35 30 30 29 28 28.50
Estimated earned income (PPP US$) 1620 1185 1304 1518 1530 1628 1980 2257 2103 2424
Legislators and managers (%) 3 3 3 3 – – – – – 12.9
Professional workers (%) 21 – – – – – – – – 25.3
Literacy rate (%) 54 53 51 51 51 51 51 61 63 59.3
Enrol. in Primary Education (%) 87 87 88 88 92 93 84 84 93 92.9
Enrol. in Secondary Education(%) – – – – – – – 46 62 62.2
Enrol. in Tertiary Education(%) 10 10 11 11 15 15 20 24 23 26.7
Female healthy life expectancy 54 54 57 57 57 57 58 59 59 60.4
Women in parliament(%) 9 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 11.8
Women in Ministerial level(%) 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 22 22 18.5
Female head of state (year) 15 16 17 18 19 21 21 21 21 20.5
Source: World Bank, Global Gender Gap Index.

4.2 HEALTH STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA
A healthy population being the basic necessity for development, it is essential to assess the variability in terms of gender for various health indicators and also to examine the level of various women specific health indicators. In Indian context, the following table 4 shows that since 1901 over the 50 years of pre-independence period, female-male ratio (FMR) registered a significant decline from 0.972 to 0.946 in India. However, there has been some improvement thereafter and the FMR rose to 0.933 in 2001 and further to 0.940 in 2011. This is clear from the fact that in 2011, there were only 940 females per 1000 males.

Table 4 Female Male Ratio in India
Year Millions Female-Male Ratio
FMR
Males Females
1901 120.8 117.4 0.972
1911 128.4 123.7 0.964
1921 128.5 122.8 0.955
1931 142.9 135.8 0.950
1941 163.7 154.7 0.945
1951 185.5 195.6 0.946
1961 226.3 212.9 0.941
1971 284.0 264.1 0.930
1981 353.4 330.0 0.934
1991 439.2 407.1 0.927
2001 531.3 495.7 0.923
2011 623.7 586.5 0.940
Source: census of India
The child sex ratio indicates the number of girls per 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group. Census for 2011 paints a grim picture on this front with CSR declining from 927 in the previous census (2001) to 914 in 2011- a fall by 13 points. The main reason for the falling child sex ratio is the wide speared practice of sex-selective abortion. The world development report 2012 estimated that 38.82 lakh missing women in which 8.56 lakh (22.2%) are in India alone. In this aspect 8.56 lakh missing women in India, 2.57 lakh (6.62%) are never born, 2.51 lakh (6.64%) go missing in infancy and childhood, and the remaining 3.48 lakh (8.96%) do so between the ages of 15 and 59. Sex-selective abortion has led to a sharp drop in the ratio of girls born in contrast to boy infants in India. Table 5, represents health performance of women, according to Sample Registration System 2016 estimates showed a crude birth rate is 20.4, General Fertility Rate is 75.7 and the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was at 2.2 at all India level. In 2016, TFR was high for illiterate women both in rural and urban areas, higher among rural illiterate women. Gross Reproduction Rate (GRR) was 1.1 at all India level and it remained unchanged during the last five years. The Infant for females was 40 while that for males was 37. The rate of decline in the IMR of females is faster than that of IMR among males. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has declined from 301 in 2001-03 to 167 in 2011-13. Life Expectancy The trend shows that, at all India level, females have more life expectancy than males. During 2010-2014, the life expectancy for females was 69.6 years and for males was 66.4 years. In India, mean age at marriage has been low as compared to other countries of the world. However, it has been slowly rising between 1901 and 2011.
Table 5: Fertility indicators
Indicators 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Crude birth rate 21.8 21.6 21.4 21.0 20.8 20.4
Crude death rate(cdr) 7.1 7.0 7.0 6.7 6.5 6.4
Infant mortality rate(imr) 44.0 42.0 40.0 39.0 37.0 34.0
General fertility rate 81.2 80.3 78.5 77.6 76.2 75.7
Total fertility rate 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.2
Gross reproduction rate 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1
General marital fertility rate 114.4 114.0 112.5 107.7 104.5 101.3
Total marital Fertility rate 4.3 4.4 4.4 3.9 3.9 3.2
Source: Sample Registration System, Office of the Registrar General of India
Fig 1 Mean Age of Marriage for Women

Source: census of India
The child marriage restraint act in 1929 did have some effect and child marriages declined. The following fig 1 represents Mean age at marriage for females was 13.7 years in 1921, it improved to 15.6 in 1961. During the last 30 years, there has been slight improvement and mean age at marriage of females improved to 19.2 years in 2011. It is common knowledge that higher age at marriage tends to reduce fertility and this lowers birth rate.
 Government Initiatives in Health Empowerment of women
According to India Health Report on Nutrition 2015, provide an overview of nutrition in India based around 18 core global nutrition indicators. In India 38.7 percent of children under 5 years are stunted and 15.1 percent are wasted, 55.3 percent of women aged between 15-49 years old are anemic, 69.5 percent of children aged 6-59 months are anemic and that 44.7 percent of adolescent girls have low a BMI. In India every 3rd woman is undernourished and every 2nd woman is anaemic6. To address this issue the Integrated Child Development Services scheme has been universalized and strengthened. Tenth five year plan linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established in rural areas. By end of 2010, the programme is claiming to reach 80.6 lakh expectant and lactating mothers along with 3.93 crore children (under 6 years of age).7 There are 6,719 operational projects with 1,241,749 operational Aanganwadi centres. To reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in several interventions have been made by the Government. The key steps include the promotion of institutional deliveries through the Janani Suraksha Yojana (2005), absolutely free and no expense delivery, including caesarean for all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions, The implementation of all such efforts has made an appreciable progress and the Maternal Mortality Ratio declined from 212 to 178 per 100,000 live births during 2007-09 and 2010-12 as per the latest report of the Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System (RGI-SRS). The draft National Health Policy (2015) also addresses women’s health needs in terms of meeting the specific needs of reproductive and child health. It mentions the need to increase the targets of male sterilization and contraception utilization. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (2015) initiative also aims to secure a bright future and welfare of the girl child in India and address the declining child sex ratio and related issues of disempowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum. Due to the encouraging results and transformative potential of the programme, it has been extended to another 61 districts with low CSR from the initial 100 districts.
4.3 STATUS WOMEN IN EDUCATION
Educational attainment is the first and foremost step towards improving quality of life. As per Census 2011, the literacy rate at all India level is 72.98% and the literacy rate for females and males are 64.63% and 80.9% respectively (Table 6). During the last decade, the highest improvement in literacy rate was observed among rural females (24%). Table 7 shows, the adult (15 + years) literacy rate at all India level is 69.3% and that among males is 78.8% and females is 59.3%. Rural – Urban gap existed in Adult literacy rate for females in rural areas is 50.6% vis-a-vis 76.9% in urban areas whereas for males the same in rural areas is 74.1% vis-a-vis 88.3% in urban areas. In 2014-15, there are 93 girls per 100 boys in primary class, 95 in middle class, 91 in secondary class and 90 in senior secondary class. As per Human Resource Development, the average annual drop-out rate for females at Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary levels are 4.1, 4.5 and 17.8 respectively vis –a – vis the respective figures of 4.5, 3.1 and 17.9 for males. Expenditure on Education As per NSS 71st round (Jan’2014-Jun’2014), in urban areas, in all
Table 6: Trend in Literacy Rates in Post Independent India
Year Female Male Total
1951 8.86 27.15 18.32
1961 15.35 40.4 28.31
1971 21.97 45.96 34.45
1981 29.76 56.38 43.57
1991 39.29 64.13 52.21
2001 53.67 75.26 64.83
2011 64.63 80.88 72.98
% Increase in 2011 over 2001 20% 7% 13%
Source: Census of India, Office of the Registrar General, India

Table:7 Adult Literacy Rate (Age 15 Years and Above)
Year Male Female Total Gender Parity Index (%)
1951 38.2 9.2 24.6 29.%
1961 41.5 13.2 27.8 32%
1971 47.7 19.4 34.1 41%
1981 54.9 25.7 40.8 47%
1991 61.9 34.1 48.5 55%
2001 73.4 47.8 61.0 65%
2011 78.8 59.3 69.3 75%
Source: Census of India, Office of the Registrar General, India

levels of education, the average expenditure per student is higher for males than that of females while in rural areas, the average expenditure per female student pursuing Graduation/ PG and above is higher than a male student. Considering the importance of education, India has enacted ‘Right to Education’ to ensure free Education for children in the age group 6-14 years.
 Government Initiatives on Education for Women Empowerment
Education is the most important measure of women’s status and to provide quality education many programmes are being implemented by the Government both in elementary and secondary education and higher and technical education. The Right to Education Act (2009) was enacted to make free and compulsory elementary education a right for all children and a flagship programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (2001) was rolled to universalize access to education at primary and upper primary levels. As a result, enrolment of girls in schools, both in rural and urban areas across the country, has shown a steady increase over the years and dropout rates have come down. At the national level, the gender parity index is 1.0 at the primary level and 0.95 at the upper primary level as per DISE 2012-13. While the SSA has helped in universalization of primary education, a lot more needs to be done to provide quality education.6 A nationwide sub-programme to the SSA called Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat (2014)8 has been launched to ensure that learning levels of class I and II students in reading, writing language comprehension and mathematics is at par with the world. The campaign aims to ensure that every school provides teaching-learning for 200 school working days, with 800 instructional hours. To enhance access to secondary education for all children in the age group of 14-18 years and to improve its quality, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (2009) is under implementation since 2009 onwards. The efforts are visible in the increased female literacy rate from 65.38 to 74.04 during 2001 and 2011. The CBSE has initiated Udaan scheme for girl students. It aims at addressing the lower enrolment ratio of girl students in engineering colleges and also aims to enrich and enhance teaching and learning of mathematics and science at senior secondary school level by providing free online resources for all.9 While the Rashtriya Uchchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (2013) is a holistic scheme of development for higher education in India initiated in 2013. The scheme aims at providing strategic funding to higher educational institutions throughout the country. Funding is provided by the central ministry through the state governments and union territories (UT), which in coordination with the central Project Appraisal Board will monitor the academic, administrative and financial advancements taken under the scheme.10 A total of 316 state public universities and 13,024 colleges will be covered under it.11

4.4 STATUS OF WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN ECONOMY

The economic activity classified as organized and unorganized sector. Participation of women in economic activities in organized sector is measurable, but activities of women in unorganized sectors are difficult to measure. According to NSS 2011-12, the Labour Force Participation Rate of females (rural: 25.3%, urban: 15.5%) is lower than that of males (rural: 55.3%, urban: 56.3%) in both rural and urban areas (Table 8). As per NSS 2011-12, the average wage/ salary received per day by regular wage/ Salaried Employees of age 15-59 years for females (rural:Rs.201.56, urban:Rs.366.15) is lower than that of males (rural:Rs.322.28, urban:Rs.469.87) in both rural and urban areas and the gap is more in rural areas.
Table 8: Labour Force Participation Rates (%) by Age-Group, Sex and Residence
Age Group 1993-94 1999-2000 2004-2005 2009-2010 2011-2012
(Years) Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male
Rural
5-9 1.4 1.1 0.7 0.7 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.0
10-14 14.2 13.9 9.6 9.3 7.5 7.0 3.6 4.6 3.0 2.9
15-19 37.1 59.8 31.4 53.2 33.1 52.9 19.5 39.0 16.4 33.3
20-24 47.0 90.2 42.5 88.9 43.5 89.1 31.4 81.3 29.7 78.8
25-29 52.8 98.0 49.8 97.5 53.0 98.2 40.4 97.5 36.9 96.3
30-34 58.7 98.8 55.7 98.7 59.3 98.8 43.4 99.0 43.1 99.0
35-39 61.0 99.2 57.9 98.6 64.2 99.1 49.7 99.2 48.1 99.1
40-44 60.7 98.9 58.6 98.4 62.7 98.5 49.8 99.4 48.2 98.8
45-49 59.4 98.4 56.6 98.0 61.6 98.2 49.2 98.4 48.4 98.8
50-54 54.3 97.0 51.5 95.3 56.2 96.3 48.5 96.7 44.4 96.6
55-59 46.8 94.1 45.0 93.0 50.9 93.1 41.1 93.4 39.4 93.5
60 & above 24.1 69.9 21.8 64.0 25.4 64.5 22.6 64.7 21.3 64.9
Total 33.1 56.1 30.2 54.0 33.3 55.5 26.5 55.6 25.3 55.3
urban
5-9 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
10-14 4.7 7.1 3.7 5.2 3.5 5.3 1.2 3.0 0.9 3.5
15-19 14.2 40.4 12.1 36.6 14.4 38.1 8.5 26.3 8.9 25.6
20-24 23.0 77.2 19.1 75.5 25.0 76.9 19.7 68.2 19.7 66.4
25-29 24.8 95.8 21.4 95.1 26.1 95.7 22.2 94.7 25.3 95.1
30-34 28.3 98.3 24.5 98.0 30.8 98.7 23.9 98.5 25.9 98.9
35-39 30.4 99.0 28.9 98.6 34.0 98.4 27.8 99.1 28.4 99.0
40-44 32.0 98.4 28.5 98.0 31.7 98.3 25.6 98.7 27.6 98.8
45-49 31.7 97.6 26.9 97.4 26.9 97.6 23.1 97.9 24.5 97.9
50-54 28.7 94.5 26.4 93.9 25.9 93.9 22.8 94.8 21.9 94.6
55-59 22.5 85.6 20.8 81.1 21.8 83.2 19.1 85.5 17.7 86.9
60 & above 11.4 44.3 9.4 40.2 10.0 36.6 7.0 34.2 7.8 36.5
Total 16.4 54.2 14.7 54.2 17.8 57.0 14.6 55.9 15.5 56.3
55-59 22.5 85.6 20.8 81.1 21.8 83.2 19.1 85.5 17.7 86.9
60 & above 11.4 44.3 9.4 40.2 10.0 36.6 7.0 34.2 7.8 36.5
Total 16.4 54.2 14.7 54.2 17.8 57.0 14.6 55.9 15.5 56.3
Source: National Sample Survey Office, 68 th Round, July 2011 – June 2012.

The Workforce Participation Rate In 2011, at all India level is 25.51% for females and 53.26% for males. While there is no rural–urban gap for males (53%), there is considerable rural-urban gap for females (rural -30%, urban- 15.4%). As per NSS 2011-12, 59.3% of the female workers in rural India are self employed while in urban areas the corresponding figure is 42.8%. Among the male workers, 54.5% in rural areas and 41.7% in urban areas are self employed. In rural areas the share of regular wage/ salaried employees is less for both females (5.6%) and males (10%) compared to urban areas (females: 42.8%, males: 43.4). As per NSS 2011-12, the Worker Population Ratio for females is higher in rural areas (24.8%) than urban areas (14.7%). For males, the ratios in rural and urban areas are 54.3% and 54.6% respectively. Thus, considerable gender gap exists in both rural and urban areas and the gap is higher in urban areas.
Table 9: Unemployment rates (in the labour force)
Round Year Rural Urban
Female Male Female Male
32nd 1977-78 2.0 1.3 12.4 5.4
38th 1983 0.7 1.4 4.9 5.1
43rd 1987-88 2.4 1.8 6.2 5.2
50th 1993-94 0.9 1.4 6.1 4.1
55th 1999-00 1.0 1.7 5.7 4.5
61st 2004-05 1.8 1.6 6.9 3.8
66th 2009-10 1.6 1.6 5.7 2.8
68th 2011-12 1.7 1.7 5.2 3.0
Source: National Sample Survey Office, 68 th Round.

Table: 10 Female Headed Households & their Average Size by Residence
No. of female headed households per 1000 hhs
year Rural % Urban %
July 1993-June 1994 97 9.7 106 10.6
July 1999-June 2000 104 10.4 94 9.4
July 2004-June 2005 113 11.3 111 11.1
July 2009-June 2010 118 11.8 116 11.6
July 2011-June 2012 115 11.5 115 11.5
Source: National Sample Survey Office.

Table 9 shows Unemployment Rate Unemployment Rate (UR) is more for females than males 15 years and above in both rural and urban areas with the gap very wide for the urban. In 2011-12, 11.5% households in rural areas and 12.4 households in urban areas are female headed households as compared to 9.7% and 10.6% respectively in 1993-94 as per National Sample Survey (Table 10).

 Government Initiatives in Economic Empowerment of Women
Despite these challenges, millions and millions of women in India are breaking old barriers and charting their own destiny. The flagship programme like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (2005), providing livelihood security to thousands of rural women have also provided them with economic security, empowered them and created rural assets simultaneously. The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (1993) which is working exclusively for poor women, providing them with regular funds and facilitating market linkages. Mahila E-Haat (2016) has been launched as a start up initiative by the RMK for meeting the aspirations and needs of women entrepreneurs. This web based marketing, initiative under Digital India, will facilitate the access of women to the global market and promote the development of relations between the business community and women entrepreneurs. Financial Inclusion is one of the top most priorities of the government. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (2014) has given confidence to lakhs of women in opening their first bank account and a breakthrough to overcome the vicious cycle of poverty and debt. According to the third annual survey by the Gates Foundation 47 per cent women now have a PMJDY bank account”. Table 11 shows that as on 7 February 2018, over 31 crore (310 million) bank accounts were opened in which female accounts are more than men and over ₹745 billion (US$12 billion) were deposited under the scheme.12 This helps to promote financial inclusion in India.
Table: 11 Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana statistics
(Crores)
Bank Type Number of Accounts
Rural Urban Total Female
Public Sector Banks 13.48 11.62 25.09 13.15
Regional Rural Banks 4.21 0.78 4.99 2.73
Private Banks 0.60 0.39 0.99 0.52
Total 18.29 12.79 31.07 16.40
Source: www.jandhan.in
To secure the financial future of the girl child, a small savings scheme Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (2015) has also been launched under the Beti Padhao Beti Bachao initiative. 87 lakh accounts have been opened upto June 2016 under SSY across the country. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, passed in the Rajya Sabha which increased the maternity leave for working women from 12 to 26 weeks will definitely promote female workforce participation in India.
4.5 PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN DECISION MAKING
As of January 2017, the global participation rate of women in national-level parliaments is 23.3%.[3] As of 2016, Women ministers constituted 12% in Central Council of Ministers (9 out of 75). In the 16th Lok Sabha, 12% of the total members are women (64 out of 534). Out of the 318 first time elected members of the 16th Lok Sabha, 43 are women (14%). There is an improvement in the participation of women electors in the General elections (Lok Sabha) over the years and in the 16th Lok Sabha election 66% of women electors have participated vis-a-vis 67% participation by male electors. As in 2016, 9% of the State Assembly members and 5% of the State Council members are women. Women in Panchayats of the 28 States/UTs, whose data on elected representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions are available, 14 States have equal representation of women and men.
Representation Of Women In The Central Council Of Ministers
Year
Number of Ministers Number of Women Ministers % Women in Central Council
Cabinet Minister Minister of State Deputy Minister Cabinet Minister Minister of State Deputy Minister
1985 15 25 0 1 3 0 10.0
1990 17 17 5 0 1 1 5.1
1995 12 37 3 1 4 1 11.5
1996 18 21 0 0 1 0 2.6
1997 20 24 0 0 5 0 11.4
1998 21 21 0 1 3 0 9.5
2002 32 41 0 2 6 0 11.0
2003 30 48 0 1 5 0 7.7
2004 29 39 0 1 6 0 10.3
2009 40 38 0 3 4 0 9.0
2011 32 44 0 2 2 0 10.5
2012 31 43 0 2 6 0 10.8
2013 31 47 0 3 9 0 15.4
2014 23 22 0 6 1 0 15.6
2015 23 22 0 6 2 0 17.8
2016 26 49 0 5 4 0 12.0
Source: lok-Sabha secretariat, New Delhi, including ministers of state with independent charge

 Government Initiatives In Political Empowerment Of Women
A number of countries are exploring measures that may increase women’s participation in government at all levels, from the local to the national. In an effort to increase women’s participation in politics in India, a 1993 constitutional amendment mandated that a randomly selected third of leadership positions at every level of local government be reserved for women.[76] In terms of voter’s perception of female leaders, reservation did not improve the implicit or explicit distaste for female leaders—in fact, the relative explicit preference for male leaders was actually strengthened in villages that had experienced a quota. Moreover, the reservation policy significantly improved women’s prospects in elections open to both sexes, but only after two rounds of reservation within the same village. Political reservation for women has also impacted the aspirations and educational attainment for teenage girls in India.13

CONCLUSION
Women empowerment plays a significant role in the developing countries like India. The addressing issues related to empowerment of women from macro-point of reducing gender imbalances between economic, social and political identity of woman presents a new agenda. Women are an integral part of a society. Ensuring gender equality, and combating discrimination and violence against women are integral to our national pursuit of forging inclusive society and development. The Government is determined to end violence of all kinds against women and girls and has framed enabling legislations. They play an important role in determining the destiny of a nation. Therefore, what is required for state policies that actually seek to create the conditions for meaningful life-chances for women rather than worry about balancing numbers? Thus road map for women empowerment is there but still we have miles to go on this path of empowerment. Though some improvement is reflected, yet a lot remains to be done.

 
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