This is a moment of pride and rejoices for the nation that Smt Draupadi Murmu, a woman from the ‘Schedule Tribe’ community has taken oath on July 25, 2022, as the 15th President of our country. Kalpana Chawla, the first woman to go to space, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Ex-foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, and director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Nallathamby Kalaiselvi, etc., are a few renowned names who have made the nation proud.
Women have always enjoyed respect in India, however, due to unfavourable conditions throughout the mediaeval eras, women were constrained. However, women have displayed an unbreakable spirit throughout the entire freedom struggle. To free India from the chains of foreign yoke, women have played an important role both inside and outside India. Women like Rani Abakka, Velu Nachiyar, Bhikaji Kama and Kanaklata Barua were some great warriors who demonstrated the resolve of steel. Despite always being at par in society, some flaws are being successfully fixed after independence, and women’s status is improving day by day primarily because of general awareness and the Government’s policies.
On the eve of Independence, the central constituent assembly assured equal status for women. Several Acts were enacted to safeguard women by the Indian Government. These include the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 which allowed Hindu women to adopt a son or a daughter and to claim maintenance from their husbands under certain circumstances. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, classified Hindu Marriages, determined the age for marriage, provided for monogamy and guardianship of the mother and permitted the dissolution of marriage under specific circumstances. Hindu Succession Act of 1956 made provision for equal rights of the daughter in the property of the father.
Dowry prohibition Act, 1961, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1956, the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act or SITA, 1956, and Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 etc. empowered women in general. Apart from these, the National Plan of Action (1976) was enforced providing guidelines based on the United Nations ‘World Plan of Action for women’ with special attention to areas of health, family planning, nutrition, education, employment, legislation and social welfare for formulating and implementing of action programmes for women. During the 7th Plan period, the National Policy on Education 1986 was adopted by the country which focused on providing educational opportunities to women.
There are many policies which were implemented by governments, like the Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP), a Central government scheme which was launched in 1986-87, seeks to upgrade the skill of the poor among women and to provide employment on a sustainable basis. Another Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) – ‘SABLA’ was approved by the Government to meet nutritional needs and to provide vocational training for girls above 16 years of age for their economic empowerment. The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (National Credit Fund for Women) was set up in 1993 with a corpus of Rs. 31 crores, against the backdrop of socio-economic constraints faced by poor women to access micro-credit from the formal financial system in the country, especially those in the rural and unorganized sectors.
On the eve of Independence, the central constituent assembly assured equal status for women. Several Acts were enacted to safeguard women by the Indian Government
‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme’ launched by the PM Modi January 22, 2015 at Panipat in Haryana to bring behavioural change in the society towards birth and rights of a girl child, has resulted in increased awareness and sensitization of the masses regarding the prevalence of gender bias and role of community in eradicating it. In the result, the Sex Ratio at Birth has improved by 16 points from 918 in 2014-15 to 934 in 2019-20. The Gross Enrolment Ratio of girls in the schools at the secondary level has improved from 77.45 to 81.32. The next scheme called “working women hostels” was launched so that safe and convenient accommodation should be provided to working women irrespective of any distinction of caste, religion, marital status etc. MUDRA Yojana (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd) is one such scheme which was launched on 8 April 2015 in which loans up to Rs 10 lakhs are provided to women entrepreneurs, without any collateral. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a scheme that encourages parents to save for their girl child has given Financial/Economic empowerment to the woman. Ujjwala yojana launched in 2016 which envisages smoke-free Rural India and aims to benefit five crore families, especially the women living below the poverty line (BPL) by providing concessional LPG cylinders.
Additionally, there are very specific Articles in the Constitution of India that foster women’s empowerment. Article 14: Equality before the law/ equal protection under the law without discrimination on grounds of gender, religion, race, caste or date and place of birth. Article 15 (3): “Nothing in this Article shall prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children.” Article 21: Guarantees protection of life and personal liberty. “No person shall be deprived of his (sic) life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. (The word ‘his’ does not indicate gender.) Article 39a: “That the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood. Article 39d: “That there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women.” Article 39e: “That the health and strength of workers, men and women, and tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age or strength.” Article 51e: “…to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.” Apart from these, there are also examples where several women have achieved a milestone and they have made the whole nation proud. Many women from India have won Olympic medals, such as Karnam Malleswari, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu (twice), Sakshi Malik, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain etc. Indian women’s hockey team won bronze in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games at Birmingham.
