Empowerment of women in India

Women empowerment means emancipation of women from the vicious grips of social, economical, political, caste and gender-based discrimination. It means granting women the freedom to make life choices. Women empowerment does not means replacing patriarchy with parity. Empowerment of women is to make them independent in all aspects from mind, thought, rights, decisions etc. by leaving all the social and family limitations. In the Indian society, women faced several problems since ages. The women in India were subject to suffer from forced widowhood, child marriage, female infanticide, illiteracy, restrictions on widow remarriages, polygamy, concubine, sati and number of social evils which were supported by so called religious traditions. The question of improving the position of women had been at the heart of the social reforms movement from the first quarter of the 19th century when Raja Rammohan Roy started his questioning of social orthodoxy. Later on, lots of efforts were made for the emancipation of women by reformers like Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Mahatma Jotiba Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Ramabai Ranade. After Independence, government started securing legal and constitutional rights for women.