Women Empowerment in India

                 

Despite the facts that India has a strong written Constitution proclaimed being for equality and welfare of the women ,barbaric and savaging practices still continue to haunt women I form of female foeticide , Child Marriage, Child Labour , Dowry, rape, sexual harassment, pornography, etc. The condition of the Indian Widow is quite deplorable as she is despised by her family as well by society. Deprived of basic amenities and necessities, she is forced into prostitution by culprits who walk around her with a roving eye.

Marriage has become a profitable business which puts the bride on the debit side and groom on credit side. In the name of dowry, thousands of women are married, disfigured or burnt alive. One should learn from Nisha Sharma of Noida (U.P), who had the guts to get her prospective groom and in laws behind bars for making mind-boggling dowry demands.

What women needs is social, political, economical, cultural, educational, psychological and physical empowerment in form of security and good health. Various laws have been formed but not implemented. Supreme Court still has thousands of cases pertaining to women which remain either pending or unresolved. Stringent laws should be made and implemented as done in Middle East countries. Those who torture the women, physically or mentally should be subjected to rigorous imprisonment.  Rapists should be hanged till death. Capital punishment should be enforced upon those who murder the women. Women should get access to primary education and health care. Women too should be equally paid. Government should ensure those women forks are equipped with at least basic knowledge of computers. Good job opportunities, education, scholarships for brilliant girl student from economically weaker background are provided.

Women are the pivotal point of familial universe. She is synonymous with nature and sustaining life. A nation’s progress and prosperity can be judged by the way it treats its women folks. Therefore men must rise to the occasion. They must respect the fact that women are equal part in life.

  

The very issue of women empowerment arises because of stark reality that women are still marginalized and sidelined from mainstream as a use and throw commodity. The indeclinable gender has disfigured the very face of humanity. This discrimination originates well before the birth of a girl and is sustained through her womanhood. In India, which is the world largest democracy, women constitute nearly fifty percent of the total population. India is also an agrarian economy where land, the main source of sustenance is connotatively associated with women.

 A peep into history will provide names of stalwarts who stood for the cause of women’s emancipation. Adi Shankaracharya, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar etc are just a few names worth mentioning. But a handful of good willed people alone would not be able to build the foundation for women’s emancipation. The women themselves have to come forwards empowerment irrespective of their class, cast, creed or religion women should draw inspiration from empowered women like Indra Gandhi, Sarajini Naidu, Kiran Bedi, Ashwaria Rai, lata Mangeshkar and many more

Even though the position of women in Vedas and Upanishads was put on a high pedestal to that of Mother or Goddess, her condition in reality was not that satisfactory. The Manusmriti views women as a precious being to be protected first by her Father, then by Husband and later by Son. In modern times men have substituted precious being with a precious commodity has is to be possessed, utilised and thrown away.