Women’s empowerment is an indispensable aspect for creating a prosperous society. Without empowering women we can not imagine a world where everyone has equal rights, great opportunities, and freedom to live with your own decisions. Over the last decades India has shown great progress in girls’ education and women’s employment. However, in some backwards areas and in vulnerable communities there are various challenges to women’s empowerment in India. If these problems are not addressed on time it can become big hurdles for society development. Because these challenges affect their everyday life and seem like a full stop in their personal growth. Social discrimination, gender-based violence, orthodox thinking, unequal pay, limited educational options, financial dependence, poor economic circumstance and many more. All these challenges continue to create difficulties in women's lives. Hence, understanding these barriers is essential to encounter them and find practical solutions to create a more progressive society.
Top 7 Problems Faced by Women in Indian Society
There are many challenges to women’s empowerment. The blog post is about these challenges highlighting their effect and how they continue to affect everyday lives of women.
Gender discrimination is a major problem that often limits women to achieve growth. Uneducation families and vulnerable communities still stop their girls and women to pursue higher education and practical skills. They keep their girls busy with household responsibilities and encourage boys to get education because they are boys. The reasons for this discrimination are old orthodox beliefs that still affect women's lives and indirectly stop the development of society. To overcome gender discrimination communities need to understand the roles and contribution of women.
There are many education schemes that support girls' education. However, it is also true that there is limited access to education for girls. Girls often face difficulties while pursuing their favourite subjects or career that interests them. Understand it with an example: if girls want to pursue space science or pursue education to serve in the army, they are forced to leave that idea because they are girls. There is limited availability of certain areas of subjects which limit women's potential and eventually become a challenge to women empowerment. If a woman can not receive particular knowledge about a particular subject then how can we say women are empowered.
Economic dependence and unequal employment opportunities is one of the major concerns in front of women empowerment. Even after becoming educated women still experience unequal wage problems because of employers’ corporate behaviors. Hence, they struggle to manage their expenses and face money related problems. And those women who want to start their businesses also feel struck due to lack of right investments and people’s stereotypical behaviors.
Gender-based violence and women safety too is a big concern. Violence against women is really a serious issue that needs to be addressed. This lone concern affects women's freedom and participation in society. Women often experience domestic violence, sexual harassment, stalking, cyberbullying, trafficking, and other forms of abuse. All these create a sense of fear among women and reduce the number of women’s participation in societal activities.
In India there are such states which practice early marriage because it is their responsibility towards their communities. Which is a false belief. A lot of girls are still forced to get married early. And due to early marriage they could not complete education and were limited in household responsibilities. Thus, young girls face identity crises and are not able to achieve confidence. To address these challenges, governments and NGOs need to spread awareness about early marriage concerns that aren't good for society development.
Even after successfully getting elected positions. Some women face pressure from their families and influential individuals who try to manipulate their decisions.
Women's participation in elected positions is extremely important because they have to work towards public policies. Where they make plans for better education, healthcare facilities, employment opportunities, easy transport, and safety regulations. And if someone tries to manipulate a politically elected candidate they may affect all these areas. Which is not good for building a prosperous society.
Over the last few decades India has introduced several programmes for the betterment of women. Including for health, safety, education, and economic opportunities. However, the concerning factor is that women are not aware about these programmes. Awareness of government projects on women empowerment is essential. If they aren't aware how would they apply for the scheme or get benefit from them.
Lack of digital literacy and language barriers may be responsible for it. Because India is a big country where people of different language speaking people live together. Here NGOs play an important role by providing the right guidance about women rights and government schemes.
In conclusion we want to say these challenges do not appear all of sudden, they are the results from social attitudes. Thus, unequal opportunities, financial dependence, safety concerns, and gaps in access to education and public services like issues arise. Government programmes and NGOs organisations try to provide support to women. However, lasting change requires action at every level of society, especially from our homes. Families need to encourage equal opportunities for their daughters and teach boys how to gently behave with girls. Schools must push girls' to participate not only in education but in sports as well. Employers need to promote fair treatment and authorities to women employees. So women can confidently make decisions and can beat all the ill norms that become challenges overcome.
