IMPACT ANALYSIS OF WELFARE SCHEMES OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT: WITH REFERENCE TO RMK, STEP AND E-HAAT

Empowerment of women essentially mean improving the social, political and economic status of women, especially the traditional underprivileged one. It means creating an environment where women are free from any kind of physical, mental abuse, exploitation, and prejudice that they are the most vulnerable section in the society. Recognising the importance of women in the economic growth of the nation, the Government of India along with State Governments has been taking several efforts since post-independence period to uplift women from their conditions in general. Attempts were made by the Government to address the issues through employment, empowerment, labour force participation, education, gender equality and entrepreneurship. The focus of Government is progressively shifting towards promoting women entrepreneurship to motivate women to participate in the economic activities. The study examines the perspective of women who are getting benefitted through various government schemes implemented in assistance with nongovernmental organizations. The impact observed is in terms of such as - financial assistance, training facilities, infrastructure and its awareness, motivation, confidence, increase in the rate of women opting for entrepreneurship. Studies have shown that such initiatives are boosting self-confidence, increasing the purchasing power and decision making power, leading to their empowerment. It, therefore, addresses the economic, socio-cultural, inter-personal, psychological, political and legal domains of empowerment. The study has been conducted in three selected village of Maharashtra. Data was collected from various NGO, Women entrepreneurs and women beneficiaries associated with various Self-Help Group's (SHG's) in the Kanave, Shahapur (Dist. Thane) and Vengaon, Karjat (Dist. Raigad) regions. The Mixed method approach has been adopted for analysis of this research. Primary data was collected from personal interviews with well-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions in both the areas.