Gender Bias and Empowerment

Abstract

India is emerging as one of the largest democracies in the world today. However, it is an undeniable fact that without equality and social justice there can be no democracy. Equality means a person-to-person relationship based on freedom and dignity. However as much we may talk of these, equality, between men and women still seems a far possibility. Abolition of sati, abolition of dowry, child marriages, the education of girl child, the eradication of illiteracy among women, and so on were the issues the sociologists were concerned with when it came to lift women from the morass of self esteem. Disparity in wages between employed men and women, discrimination and harassment were other issues. The women’s movements, the social organizations and the NGOs had their hands full in interacting with the government to pass protective legislations. Family courts were established, the Hindu Code Bill was passed. The constitution itself declared “No discrimination on grounds of sex,’ and women's representation in the village Panchayats in India is now a reality. Yet much more remains to the accomplished.