Socio-economic development of women in India

Socio-economic development is the process of social and economic development in a society and is measured in terms of income, life expectancy, literacy and levels of employment. Among other indicators of socio-economic development, women education being the most powerful tool of attaining power in the society. The gross enrolment ratio in elementary education of girls has improved much which shows that the awareness level of parents in the country has certainly increased for elementary education of female child. While gross enrolment of girls in senior secondary level, it increased to 53.2% in 2014–15 from 25.2% during 2005–06, more than two times increased during this period, still more is to be done. However women are still lagging behind in higher education. Gender discrimination still persists in India and lot more needs to be done in the field of women's education. During the last few years atrocities against women have increased. There are many episodes of rape, murder, dowry, wife beating and discrimination in the socio-economic status of women. The main causes of violence against women in our country are unequal power-relations, gender discrimination, and economic dependence of women, dowry and lack of participation of women in decision-making process. Women in our country are far behind then men as far as work participation is concerned. The main female workers are mostly engages as cultivators and agricultural labours. These women are lagging far behind than men and their work participation is below average (39.79) person. It also indicates that women are less likely to work because they earn less per day wages than men for similar work. The ratio of female to male population in India has been low for a long time and by and large is declined since 1951. Census data for year 2001 and 2011 on child sex ratio also depicts the same trend. Census data show a decline in child sex ratio in past two decades in India. Maternal Mortality Ratio in India is also very high. The higher death of pregnant women in the country depict either the poor medical and health facilities available to these mothers or some of the women living in rural and urban parts of the country are not availing medical facilities during pregnancy period. India has also recorded much progress in women life expectancy in the country, it was just 41.3 in 1960 which increased to 67.3 in 2011 and is projected 69.5 for the period 2011–15. Women in our country have very less representation in parliament right from independence and over the years not improved significantly. During the last 65 years 7.65% participation of women in parliament could increase. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the socio-economic development of women in India and to make conclusion and suggestion.