A Step towards Universal Women Empowerment Abridging Gaps in Rural & Urban Sectors

Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2022

DOI:

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A Step towards Universal Women Empowerment Abridging Gaps in Rural & Urban Sectors

Janice Pearl d’Souza, Shruti Marwaha, Nafisa Bhinderwala, Mukesh Boobalan

 

ABSTRACT: 

Women have proved their worth in all areas of work.  Laws and policies are constituted to protect and uplift them.  Amazingly, such favored acts and policies have not ensured universal women empowerment.  Previous studies witness that in many areas, women face challenges, bias and undue hindrances in their lives despite of the fact that they have always struggled for the interest, development and betterment of their families.  Despite of the policies and provisions laid down by government, these remain on papers with timeless wait for implementation.  The few, if implemented are resisted by ignorant families unable to accept such a vital social change, especially in the rural areas.  The in-hand study was conducted aiming to compare the empowerment of women in urban and rural setting in India.  Women empowerment was analyzed in terms of self-reliance, self-respect and dignity of women, their decision making ability, acceptance of small family norms, better care of health for themselves and their children, better consciousness of their rights, gender equity awareness as well as higher literacy and education.  The cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 118 married and unmarried women from rural and urban areas.  ‘Women Empowerment Scale’ by L. Malini and K. Yeshodhara and the socio-demographic data sheet was used to collect data.  Women empowerment was found to be much better in urban setting than rural sector.  Hence, it is assumed that women empowerment ought to be facilitated among rural women through workshops, seminars and mass media.

keywords: family, social change, policies, self-reliance.