Status of Women in India in the Context of Inclusive Growth

Women's empowerment is a modern phenomenon which has been gaining attention around the world in recent years. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 initiated a move to focus on women's empowerment. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals furthered the campaign for women's rights in areas such as education, health, and poverty. Reforms undertaken in the early 1990s have made India one of the world's fastest growing economies. But the economic growth that had taken place so far, bypassed the poor and vulnerable particularly women. However, it is essential for any country that each section of society should contribute to the economic growth and, at the same time, the benefits of the growth should reach to all sections of the society. In recognition of this, the Planning Commission had made "inclusive growth" an explicit goal in the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012). The inclusive approach has been extended in the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017), which lays emphasis not merely on economic development but on inclusive growth to bring more poor and marginalized citizens under its ambit. The present study aims to examine the status of women in India and the issues of their empowerment in the era of inclusive growth. The study is based mainly on secondary data collected from different sources, such as, Census of India, National Sample Survey (NSS), Sample Registration System (SRS), and National Statistical Organisation (NSO), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and books and journals.