Women development in India: A case study of Sewapuri block (Varanasi district)

Development involves improvements in quality of life in every sphere. Women development is an important issue in developing countries in the discussion of socio-economic development. This is because of the prevailing gender inequality in the society that makes women stand as a weaker section in it. Since a woman is the pivot of the family, she stands and deserves first to reap the benefits of planned techno-socio-economic development. But before that she has to be the part of such development process. It is necessary to improve her status through empowerment, in social, economic, political, cultural, and moral aspects. The present study discusses the socioeconomic status of women in the study area through the computation of women development index. Strategies for improving women's status have been suggested because changes in socio cultural factors may stimulate the changes in the distribution of power, status, and control over resources between men and women. Usually, development programmes come up with such change strategies empowering the weaker section of the society including women. But such conscious effort towards equitable distribution of power status and control over resources between men and women is rarely materialized.