Women empowerment is very important as it gives more opportunities and it is very important for our country’s political and economic progress. The government of our country is also trying to empower women by introducing a number of projects and schemes but despite of all this, empowering women in India is a big challenge. If we talk about the urban areas in India, conditions are much better there as compared to conditions of women in rural areas and this is mainly because of old fashioned people living in villages who still believe that house chores are the main duty of a woman.
So, here are some of the major challenges faced while empowering women in India: –
- Female foeticide: – It is still a major challenge faced in India, despite of the fact that sex determination is illegal in India. Female children are killed even before they are born and due to this male to female sex ratio is declining gradually and, in some states, it has declined to such a great extent that only 877 females are there to that of 1000 males.
- Harassment at work place: – This is another big problem which is growing nowadays and it is usually faced by most of the working women. Women are mentally and physically harassed by their co-workers or employers at the work place. In order to protect women from such harassment, government of India has also passed Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013.
- Crimes against women: – In India, the rate of crimes against women is increasing very rapidly. Common forms of crimes against women in India includes sexual assault, acid attacks, domestic violence, women trafficking and most common of them is eve-teasing. Women don’t feel safe to go outside alone in India due to such crimes.
- Lack of awareness about government schemes: – Government of India has launched several schemes and projects for empowering women in India but very few are aware of these schemes. In case of rural areas, almost no awareness is there regarding such schemes. So, due to this most of women are not able to take benefits of these schemes.
Many more challenges are there which are faced while empowerment of women in India. Still, the status of men is superior to the status of women in India and the main reason for this is our backward thinking. Still our families stay under male control as we think that males are inherently superior over females. In order to change this scenario, the first and foremost thing we need to do is to change our thinking and mentality. At last, we should always try to give equal chances to women in every field be it sports, politics, and academics etc.
