INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES,
ENGINEERING & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES

Md. Arif Anwar Hashami, Ashok Kumar Sharma

MONAD UNIVERSITY

The Indian society is an amalgamation of different people from all walks of life. This social diversity is in the form of cultural diversity, gender diversity, ethnic diversity and so on. The major pillars that hold the society together are the male and female components of society that mark a sense of balance within it. In early Rig Vedic age the women in India were given a strong and valued place in the society. They were respected and were regarded as equivalent to the Goddess herself. But as the time advanced by the later Vedic age the condition of women started deteriorating and even till today the condition of women is not as good as it should be in a balanced society. Malpractices like Sati, Dowry, Polygamy, abuse and ill treatment worsened the situation of the women. Although after some reforms in the society some grim practices like sati etc. were abolished but the new millennium marked different sorts of problems emerging for the women. The women is subjected to abuse, violence, sexual assaults, even little unborn girls are killed in the womb before they could even be born, the girl child is not given proper education, women face innumerable problems in workplace like unequal remuneration and harassment and some are not even allowed to work, such is the condition of the women in today’s time who at one point of time were revered as a Goddess in this culture. The new times have encompassed new set of problems but by spreading awareness and taking stand for the cause of the women of this country the citizens can help improve the condition of women manifolds. Though various organizations and the government is bringing forth a lot of schemes and agendas for the empowerment of the women in India but still a lot has to be done. This review article portrays the situation of the Indian women since the last century, along with the reasons for their present conditions and also the ways through which women empowerment can be reinforced in the Indian society.