Women Empowerment In Rural Areas.

A woman is the nucleus of the family, particularly, in rural India.She not only collects water, fuel wood, fodder and food but also play a significant role in preserving the culture, grooming the children and shaping their destiny.Unfortunately, in spite of their laudable and vulnerable roles, which cannot be substituted. For the rural women, the day starts early in the morning with the responsibilities .She takes care of the children and members of the family, their health, orientation and education and attends to various income generation activities.She manages all the household matters, looks after the family assets and livestock, handles the purchases and finance, works for almost 14-16 hours and is the last to sleep at night.Still, when you ask her children what their mother does?Most of them instantly reply nothing.There is no recognition for their hard work, just because her work is not evaluated in terms of money.She often falls sick, but does not complain and this goes unnoticed by others in the family as they continue to work as usual for the sake of the family.She manages the family very efficiently with meager means, but is still treated as illiterate.Women are ignored in matters, which are of concern to them as well.As a result, today women are the worst sufferers in the society due to drudgery, ill health, illiteracy, deprivation and humiliation.Backwardness of women is a sign of poverty and women are the worst sufferers during the period of scarcity and calamity.No wonder, India hosts over one-third of the poor in the world, as lack of empowerment of women aresignificant cause of poverty.

Further, the threat of gender-based violence discourages girls and women from leaving their homes and is used by some parents to justify marrying off daughters before the legal age of 18; however, marriage provides girls little protection from violence—over 50% of both male and female adolescents justify wife beating, and 6 in 10 men admit physically abusing their wives.

Ngo's and government policies are working towards the upliftment of women condition in rural areas. The government can launch the policies, Ngo's can run the program but the upgradation of women's condition can bedone by themselves. They have to work for themselves nobody can help anyone until the one wants to get helped . Women should be sign of prosperousness not should be treated as taken for granted.