Education and Empowerment of Women in India -Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The great visionary Swami Vivekananda emphasized “Women must be educated, for it is the women who mold the next generation and hence, the destiny of the country”. Empowerment represents the ability of women to handle responsibilities, to dream a better future and to work to overcome the obstacles that confront her in her day to day life. Women empowerment is used in two broad phrases, general and specific (Dasarathi Bhuyan 2006). Empowerment is an all-encompassing term in which a whole range of activities like economic, social, and political including income generation, agriculture and group organization, education and health care systems would work synergistically towards the common goal of empowering the poor ( Bhasin, 1985). Education is a potent tool in the emancipation and empowerment of women. Education especially of women has a major impact on health and nutrition and as an instrument of developing a sustainable strategy for population control. Moreover educated women can play an equally important role as men in nation building. This paper tries to highlight the trends, challenges and opportunities to educate and empower women to attain sustainability in development and provide proper suggestions to remedy the problems.