A STUDY OF LEGAL RIGHTS AWARENESS AMONG FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Awareness about one's rights is said to be first step towards empowerment. The investigation was aimed at assessing the level of legal rights awareness among female college students. The study was carried out on a randomly selected sample of 128 female college students from Bareilly district. The researcher opted for a descriptive survey method and employed a self-developed a Legal Rights Awareness Questionnaire' (LRAQ) to assess the level of legal rights awareness among female college students. Findings reveal that majority of the students (51.56%) had low levels of legal rights awareness. On comparing female students' awareness levels on the basis of various demographic factors, it was found that girls in professional courses showed higher legal rights awareness as compared to those pursuing traditional graduation courses. Also, girls from urban or high SES backgrounds exhibited significantly higher levels of legal rights awareness as compared to those from rural or low SES backgrounds.