"To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened.

Once she is on the move, the

family moves, the village moves, the nation moves".-Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Women are the nucleus of our civilization. They have different

roles to play in the ever changing social set-up. Womens
Empowerment is directly related with the nation development
which embarks paradigm shift from the pre-vedic period to
medieval period and further to the modern era of global world..
Status of women has undergone multidimensional changes with
the passage of time, strikingly in an alternate fashion. They
enjoyed a revered status in pre-vedic period, as a pariah during
post-vedic/medieval period and again emerged strongly in the
twentieth century which is still on its journey to be completed.
With the dawn of independence our constitution guaranteed
gender equality and a large number of schemes and programmes
have been initiated for womens development
Pre-vedic period was the golden era for the women because at
that time they were devoid of any sort of restrictions or benighted
customs, they were scholars, diligent, politician, etc, without
being discriminated on the gender basis, however, some nonsocial impediments started arousing by the end of pre-vedic
period and at the inception of post-vedic period. The first-most
accused has been claimed to be the doctrine of "Manusmriti"
which advocated the deprived and jeopardized living for the
women followed by the Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal
Empire who further added the suppression of women's rights in
the society. The benighted customs like sati, child marriage, ban
on widow remarriage, Devdassis, purdah,etc., were quite
prevalent in the medieval period.
The deterioration of women's status persisted and remained
isolated for a long time when social reformers started
campaigning for their social upliftment during the British Rule.
Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, Jyotirao Phule,
were the names of such social reformers who made strong
contributions in breaking the shackles of static and prevalent
customs responsible for the deterioration of women's status in the
society and further incepted the doctrine for their empowerment

and reformation to set their status not less than any other human
species.
Various steps have been taken by the government to prevent
such abuses and to empower women. Criminal laws against sati,
dowry, female infanticide and foeticide, 'eve teasing', rape,
immoral trafficking and other offences relating to women have
been enacted in addition to civil laws like the Dissolution of
Muslim Marriages Act 1939, the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and
other Matrimonial enactments. The Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act has been passed in 2005. A National Commission for
Women (NCW) has been set up. Other measures by the
government include provision of reservation in representation and
education, allocation for the welfare of women in the five year
plans, provision of subsidized loan facilities and so on. The year
2001 has been declared as the 'women empowerment year' by
the Government of India and 24thJanuary as the National Girl Child
Day.
The 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill, popularly known as the
Women's Reservation Bill which seeks to reserve one-third of
seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative
Assemblies has been a highlight in the recent times. It was
'passed' in the Rajya Sabha on March 9 th 2010. Though well
intended, it can have little, if any, tangible consequences for the
real empowerment of women since it does not touch upon the
core issues which plague them. The solution must envisage a twopronged attack, on the one hand, on tradition which is responsible
for assigning a low status for women in the society and on the
other hand, the outrages perpetrated against them. The proposed
'Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace' Bill,
2010 is a good move in that direction. Mass campaigns need to be
organized especially in the villages in favour of survival of the
female child and provision of human rights for her, including
education and health. It is essential to dispel the ghosts of the
past and place women on an equal footing with men in order to
pave the way for their empowerment, social, economic and
educational. Empowering women and thus rebuilding the society
would take the nation on a path of greater development, as
Swami Vivekananda says, "Countries and Nations which do

not respect women have never become great nor will ever
be in future"
Women in India now participate in all activities such as politics,
sports, education, media, art and culture, service sectors, science
and technology, etc. Indira Gandhi who served as prime minister
of India for an aggregate period of 15 years is the world's longest
serving women prime minister and the influence of women in
politics is at its apex in the present context strongly supported by
the incumbent president of India Pratibha Devi Singh Patil,
incumbent Speaker of Lok-Sabha Mira Kumar, incumbent railway
minister Mamta Banerji and leader of opposition Sonia Gandhi.
Besides these names of women holding major authorities in the
politics, the other fields are also have women ascendants like
Indira Nooyi CEO of Pepsico, Chanda Koochar CEO of ICICI bank,
Shikha Sharma of axis bank and so on.
But as it rightly said that there are two sides of the coin similarly
where women empowerment is leading to the success of the
nation but on the other side of verge still it is very hard to fathom
how slow moving the cultural exchange of the world is when you
find out that there are several places across the country where
harmful customs of the ancient world coexist with modern
appliances and thought. However that may come as hardly any
surprise to anyone who has lived in India the dichotomy of
society is something that can only be explained by a refrain from
an old Bollywood song: It happens only in India!
We proudly portray our nation as Bharat-Mata and raise slogans
in praise of our unity, integrity and dignity. While doing so, we fail
to realise that Bharat-Mata means mother to every Indian. Even
after six and a half decades of Independence, women in our
country continue to be helpless victims of male chauvinism and
highhandedness in almost every walk of life. it may be glaring
and brutal gang rapes that occur frequently or Other instances of
violence against women like acid throwing, domestic violence
stemming out of dowry, rape, harassment and an assortment of
others. Gender discrimination is the least of worries for women in

India, known otherwise as the fourth most dangerous country in

the world for women.
So we all need to remove the evils of inequality and inculate
respect dignity and initgerity towards women.and a women
herself has to empower her to be more strong .
At last I would like to conclude that
The empowerment of a women begins within herself,
if that women loves herself;
she has that authority to love anyone she chooses.
The power of a women becomes even stronger
when she finds herself and knows who she is;
and doesn't let anyone tell her otherwise.
The power of a women can make her strong enough
to stand on her own two feet; and finally that women is independent .
She will not be afraid to ask for help or help herself.
The power of a women is stronger then the grip of a
lions teeth when his prey is in his mouth.
The power of a women is a power no man could live without ,
because without a women there can be no man.
The power of a women is endless;
so stand tall, and represent for all the women in the world.

thanku