Year: 2024 | Month: September | Volume 13 | Issue 3
Exploring Regional Disparities in India through a Comprehensive Index of Women Empowerment
Rosy Sulochana
DOI:10.46852/2249-6637.03.2024.6
Abstract:
Women empowerment, often defined as the process by which women gain autonomy, control over resources, and decision-making
power, is a key determinant in the socio-economic advancement of a country. In regions where women enjoy higher levels of
empowerment characterized by factors such as greater participation in the workforce, political engagement, access to financial
resources, and freedom from traditional patriarchal constraints, the correlation between empowerment and improved educational
access and health outcomes is markedly positive. This paper explores to quantify the regional disparity in women empowerment
by constructing a comprehensive women empowerment index (WEI) for 17 major states of India, based on three broad indicators
i.e., women socio-economic empowerment, health outcomes, and access to education. For this, the study uses secondary data
namely, NFHS-5 for the year 2019-21, published by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. With the ranking
of states in WEI, a clear and concrete picture of disparities is found unwaveringly, thus making it a critical focus for policymakers
aiming to achieve balanced regional development across the country.
© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
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