2020 is a critical year for gender equality and women’s rights. Among other major milestones, this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a framework guiding business on how to promote women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

In India itself, there is a need for awareness of various factors. if we talk about women, they need to be aware of women's rights, sex education, basic English vocabulary, and sanitation, which is right now the key to survival. we know that coronavirus hit India and how it's spreading worldwide and causing so much destruction in terms of economy and mankind. Even in such a dangerous situation, the woman was the one who brought Indians back to India from Italy by airplane where all the pilots and cruise members were female. Currently, this is a great example of women empowerment.

Now, women's empowerment is a huge term to be explained. There are many ongoing schemes by the government but again women are not themselves aware of it. Let’s talk about schemes/yojana:

·       Mahila E-haat:

It is a direct online marketing platform launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to support women entrepreneurs, Self Helf Groups (SHGs) and Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to showcase products made and services rendered by them. This is a part of the 'Digital India' initiative. Women can register themselves here: www.mahilaehaat-rmk.gov.in and leverage technology for showcasing their work to a broader market.

·       Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao:

This is a social campaign aimed at eradication of female foeticide and raising awareness on welfare services intended for young Indian girls.

The "Save the Girl Child" movement was launched on 22 January 2015, it is a joint initiative run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao - The scheme was launched with initial funding of Rs 100 crores. It mainly targets the clusters in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, and Haryana. In India, the child gender ratio in the age group of 0 - 6 years stood at 931 girls for 1000 boys and it dropped to 918 girls for every 1000 boys in 2011. Sex - selective abortion or female foeticide in India has led to a sharp decline in the ratio of girls born in contrast to the boys in some states in the country. To bridge the growing gap between the birth of girl and boy infants, the government of India has taken up an initiative to promote Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and many programs have been organized to promote ‘Save Girl Child' and to ‘Educate Girl Child'. The campaign has also received support from the Indian Medical Association.

·       One Stop Centre Scheme (Sakhi):

 Sakhi was implemented on 1st April 2015 with the 'Nirbhaya' fund. The One Stop Centre’s are established at various locations in India for providing shelter, police desk, legal, medical and counseling services to victims of violence under one roof integrated with a 24-hour Helpline. The toll-free helpline number is 181.

·       Working Women Hostels:

The objective of the scheme is to promote the availability of safe and conveniently located accommodation for working women, with day care facility for their children, wherever possible, in urban, semi-urban, or even rural areas where employment opportunity for women exist.

Further details can be accessed on the Department of Women and Child Development's official website.

·       Swadhar Greh:

The Swadhar scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2002 for rehabilitation of women in difficult circumstances.

The scheme provides shelter, food, clothing, and care to the marginalized women/girls who are in need. The beneficiaries include widows deserted by their families and relatives, women prisoners released from jail and without family support, women survivors of natural disasters, women victims of terrorist/extremist violence, etc. The implementing agencies are mainly NGOs.

·       STEP:

The Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme aims to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skills that enable women to become self-employed/ entrepreneurs. A project will be for a duration of up to 5 years depending upon nature, kind of activities and the number of beneficiaries to be undertaken. Sectors include Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Processing, Handlooms, tailoring, zari, etc. Computer and IT enable services long with soft skills and skills for the workplace such as spoken English, Gems and Jewelry, travel and tourism, hospitality, etc.

·       Nari Shakti Puruskars:

The Nari Shakti Puruskars are national-level awards recognizing the efforts made by women and institutions in rendering distinguished services for the cause of women, especially vulnerable and marginalized women.

The awards are presented by the President of India every year on 8 March, International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

EDUCATION and SANITATION:

The world average female literacy rate is 79.7%, while in India, the average rate is 65.46%. As one of the most populous countries in the world, India has abundant human resources. So much that the World Bank thinks, India has the potential to become the human resource capital of the world. In the coming two decades, India may have one of the youngest and largest working-age populations in the world as revealed in the world bank statistics. The reason for this whopping number is the lack of facilities in schools, especially toilets, giving rise to privacy concerns. Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was also known as the total sanitation campaign. The prime focus was to improve sanitation conditions in rural regions of the country.

WHAT WOMEN'S ARE CAPABLE OF...

Today, many successful women in business make headlines worldwide. Indian entrepreneurs are young and promising, and they manage to connect with all classes in India. Let's talk about some of them :

1. MINNAT LALPURIA: Her service makes sure everybody has an unforgettable wedding from delicious menus to wedding dresses.
2. SHUBHRA CHADDA: The CEO of chumbak Shobha cadda, it is a brand of lifestyle products like bags, wallets. phone cover, etc.
3. VANDANA  LUTHRA: Founder of VLCC health care, which provides beauty care solutions. She was listed as the 33rd most powerful woman in business in India.
4. RAVINA RAJ KOHLI: She is the founder of "JobCorp Company Pvt. Ltd." The company's goal is to empower women.

On 26th January 2020, contingent Led by Captain Tanya Shergil and also...

Women bikers of CRPF performed daredevil stunts for the first time. 

WATCH WOMEN SIGNATURE ON RAJPATH!!

Must be inspired eh... :)

They are a true example of women empowerment & there are many such examples. Women can do anything or everything, they just need resources, support from society. Feminism is a popular term concerning women empowerment but many of the people don't quite know the meaning for feminism and support even bad deeds of women by saying that we are feminists!! which it sends the wrong message all over the world that feminist is something women can use to protect themselves even if they are wrong. But the true meaning of women empowerment according to me is something by which a woman is encouraged to grow, to help them explore different things they wanted, given the opportunity, educate themselves, being respected, gender bias won't be an issue, this is women empowerment.

THANKYOU!!