Status of Rural Women Empowerment in Haryana Malik JS Professor, Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, SGT University, Gurugram–122505, Haryana, India Email id: jsmalik124@rediffmail.com
Online Published on 17 February, 2024. Abstract Background Contribution of women towards development of society is much more than recognised. Gender equality is essential for society to ensure sustainable development of the country. As status of women increases there will be much more development of societies. Women empowerment is critical to achieve gender equality and reduction in crime against women. Objectives of the study To study status of women empowerment and participation of women in women empowerment activities in rural areas of Haryana. Methodology Type of Study: Crossectional descriptive, Study Settings: Study carried out in Block Lakhan Mujra. Study population: Women 18 years and above. Sampling Technique Stratified sampling technique for selection of study population to represent all strata of population in equal proportion. Systematic random sampling for interviewing the study subjects. Results and discussion Among 1000 study participants 47.8% were housewives. Mobility of females in rural areas is restricted and they are not permitted to move out of house independently. Among the participants 4.7% women owned land, 6.3% women had their own productive assets like cattle’s, sewing machines and 11% women possessed own cash savings. Minority (16.8%) participants were aware of involvement of women in political activities and 83.2% were not aware and were not involved in political activities as they were not allowed to participate in political activities. It was observed that 9.4% participants exercised voting by their own choice and 51.2% voted according to desire of male members of the family. As awareness regarding political activities, participation and voting rights is low among the rural females and they are economically not secure. Conclusion It is concluded that rural females are not yet empowered. More need to be done to empower them. Top Keywords Empowerment, Haryana, Rural, Status, Women. Top |