“If you educate a man you educate an individual, however, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family. Women empowered means mother India empowered”.
–Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
The subject of empowerment of women has become a burning issue all over the world including India since last few decades. Presently there has been an increasing awareness of the need to empower women by increasing social, economic and political equity and access to fundamental human rights, improving in nutrition, basic health and education, employment, inheritance, marriage etc. All over the world education is one of the most significant means for empowering any individual or community in general, and women and girls in particular. Therefore, illiteracy is the most important cause responsible for social and economic backwardness of women. Poverty, low educational index of parents, absenteeism of teachers, poorly equipped schools, non-acceptance of tribal dialects/mother tongue as the medium of instructions, engagements in household chores, etc. have been pointed out as the primary factors responsible for the illiteracy and educational under-attainments of women. Therefore, the main thrust of the study is to present the educational status of marginalised women in West Bengal as well as in India in a comparative mode with the nonmarginalised women. The present study also encounters the causes of academic backwardness of women in West Bengal as well as in national level in addition with suggested remedies to empower the women through education. The paper is based on secondary sources of data collected from the Primary Censu. abstract (electronic format), Census of India, West Bengal, 2011. Different remedial measures if carried out effectively, the socio-economic status of women so called women empowerment would enhance.
Empowerment, Marginalised, Women, Literacy, Education
