Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?

Public policy to attain gender equality in India has moved away from welfare approach to empowerment approach. Several policy initiatives are made for improving access to capability enhancing inputs to women. Education being one of the critical inputs for improving the capabilities of women, recent...

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Main Author: Indira Mahendravada
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Social Work & Society 2019-04-01
Series:Social Work and Society
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/580
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author Indira Mahendravada
author_facet Indira Mahendravada
author_sort Indira Mahendravada
collection DOAJ
description Public policy to attain gender equality in India has moved away from welfare approach to empowerment approach. Several policy initiatives are made for improving access to capability enhancing inputs to women. Education being one of the critical inputs for improving the capabilities of women, recent education policies are engendered at all levels. Specific programmes are introduced to operationalize the policy objectives. These initiatives have resulted in improving the gender parity at the primary and secondary level much more than at the higher education level. But the reduced gender gap in education attainment is not translated into increased work participation of women in public domain. Encouragement to formation of Self Help Groups (SHG) and linking them with the banking sector is another strategy adopted to empower women. Policies are initiated to link SHGs with other welfare programmes. However research studies revealed mixed outcomes on the impact of these programmes in improving the choices for women. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be on the critical analysis of gender specific social policies and the impact of these policies on improving the choices for women mainly based on the secondary data and field study results.
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spelling doaj.art-3096a3027bc24691abbf958530f81e3b2022-12-21T17:17:16ZengSocial Work & SocietySocial Work and Society1613-89532019-04-01162Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?Indira Mahendravada0University of MysorePublic policy to attain gender equality in India has moved away from welfare approach to empowerment approach. Several policy initiatives are made for improving access to capability enhancing inputs to women. Education being one of the critical inputs for improving the capabilities of women, recent education policies are engendered at all levels. Specific programmes are introduced to operationalize the policy objectives. These initiatives have resulted in improving the gender parity at the primary and secondary level much more than at the higher education level. But the reduced gender gap in education attainment is not translated into increased work participation of women in public domain. Encouragement to formation of Self Help Groups (SHG) and linking them with the banking sector is another strategy adopted to empower women. Policies are initiated to link SHGs with other welfare programmes. However research studies revealed mixed outcomes on the impact of these programmes in improving the choices for women. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be on the critical analysis of gender specific social policies and the impact of these policies on improving the choices for women mainly based on the secondary data and field study results.https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/580WomenGender equalitySocial Policy AnalysisIndia
spellingShingle Indira Mahendravada
Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
Social Work and Society
Women
Gender equality
Social Policy Analysis
India
title Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
title_full Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
title_fullStr Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
title_full_unstemmed Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
title_short Do Social Policies Improve Choices for Women in India?
title_sort do social policies improve choices for women in india
topic Women
Gender equality
Social Policy Analysis
India
url https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/580
work_keys_str_mv AT indiramahendravada dosocialpoliciesimprovechoicesforwomeninindia