The concerns and obstacles faced by women are discussed in this chapter. Women's empowerment has become one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century. Women nowadays are confronted with a variety of issues. Rape, dowry, and sexual harassment are just a few of the most common offences.

Kidnapping, cruelty by a husband or relatives, assault on a woman, and sex trafficking are all examples of crimes. The government has implemented numerous business programmes and enacted numerous laws which contains a number of women's rights and protections. Education is the most crucial aspect of one's life. Women's empowerment is aided by this tool. It educates women about their rights authority and empowers them.

Introduction
Women constitute an important role in all society, but their rights were being the deprived time to time. As a result of United Nations encouraged and adopted in 1979 in general assembly on international bill of rights for women. The convention defines discrimination against women as "any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status on a basis of equality of men and women' of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field". Therefore deprivation and discrimination of Women can be eradicate by bringing them in development programmes and projects.

Thus in early 1970 women in development (WID) approach emerged,because most social and economic development programs not benefitted women as much as it benefitted man The term (WID)came into existence by the publication of Ester boserup's "women's role in economic development".She highlighted the gender as an independent variable in her analysis. She for the first time describe the sexual division of labour at global level. In the second half of the 1970 WAD(women and development) approach emerged as a concern with limitation of modernization theory.

The approach recognises and believed that women position will improve when international Structures become more equitable. In 1980 Gender and development GAD approach came into existence which takes all aspects of women lives. The approach focused on the roles ascribed to both women and men in different societies. It also emphasizes state support for imposing the women lives by providing them social services.

In its emancipatory sense, empowerment is a serious phrase that raises the issue of personal agency. one that connects action to needs and, as a result, leads in meaningful group change. It's also a term that encompasses more than simply personal identification, eliciting a broader examination of human rights and social justice. When it comes to gender issues, the term "empowerment" is used to draw women into the political arena, both privately and publicly.

In this sense, empowerment refers to a process of redistributing power between men and women in individual relationships as well as in institutions across society. During the 1980s, the women's movement around the world sparked various key critiques and discussions that resulted in the concept of women's empowerment, when feminists, particularly in the Third World, were growing dissatisfied with the primarily apolitical and economist 'WID', 'WAD', and 'GAD' development intervention models.

The secretary-general of the United Nations Kofi Annan, for example, has argued that achieving gender equality is a prerequisite to achieving the other Millennium development goals (MDG) including poverty eradication, achieving Universal education and eliminating the gender gap in education by 2015 United Nation( 2005), World Bank (2001), also recommend for policies to address gender imbalance in rights resource and voice and promote equality in institutional structures because it is necessary for development.

Thus we can say there is a lack of gender aware analysis and due to which development programmes fails to consider women issues. We evaluate development strategies in terms of savings, investment, growth poverty and income. In order to make development programs more effective general needs to be included in designing and implementation of programs therefore participation and access to sources are key aspect of development.

We assume that women position would improve with general improvement in economy. Economic development is not enough to bring complete equality between men and women in fact women were lost out as they were associated with backwardness while men were benefited with modernization.Such as men were assisted with the new agricultural Technologies and cash crops and women were being excluded. As a result they become more vulnerable instead of being empowered. women will become empowered when they were included in all spheres.

Concept Of Women Empowerment

Empowerment refers to the improving the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. Women empowerment is empowering the women to take their own resolutions for their personal development as well as social development.

As Pramila Kapoor (2001)argues that "women empowerment could be described as a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources_ material,human and intellectual like knowledge, information,Idea and financial resources like money and access to money_and control over decision making in the home,community,societies and nation and to gain power".

According to Kabeer, empowerment "is the process where people make strategic life choices in a situation where this ability has been previously denied to them". She defines three dimension to empowerment which are connected to others.-resources, agency and achievements. Resources can be physical resources, individual capacities and claims that individual can make on others. In agency she includes processes of decision making and achievements Involves wellbeing outcomes. Kabeer's strategic life choices are major decisions such as choice of livelihood, whether and who to marry. The crucial factor is whether the choices that people are making are based on their own preferences and priorities or limitations in their options.

One set of qualifiers is the need to distinguish between choices made from the perspective of options and those rejecting the absence, or the expensive cost, of alternatives. A second set of qualifiers addressed the need to discern between strategic life choices and second-order options. The transformative potential of a choice, or the extent to which it has the ability to challenge and destabilize existing imbalances rather than simply expressing and reproducing them, can also be analyzed.

Social Work pioneers embodied empowerment practice at early 1890s (ortiz, 1994; parsons, Gutierrez, DCox, 1998; Simon, 1994). Solomon's writing about empowerment in 1976 is most notable work. In her work Black Empowerment he highlights the powerlessness of African Americans and focuses on increasing their intrapersonal, interpersonal, economic and political power as a means of enhance their capacity in order to influence decision making that affect their lives.

Gutierrez, Delois, et al. (1995) described intervention methods of empowerment practice as basing the helping relationship on collaboration, trust and share power; utilizing small groups; accepting the client's definition of the problem ; identifying and building on the client's strengths; raising the client's consciousness of issues of class and power; actively involving the client in the change process; teaching specific skills ;..... experiencing a sense of personal power within the helping relationship ; and mobilizing resources or advocating for clients(p. 535).

In social Work four strategies are used in order to help powerless individuals to achieve empowerment i. e Enabling (identifying and recognizing the strengths of individuals) ; linking (involves connecting individuals with others who share common histories and issues) catalyzing ( involves obtaining additional resources for individuals and families so that they can achieve independence and power on the assumption that these resources are prerequisites to the family fully utilizing their existing resources ( Lum, p. 253). In priming, social workers act as brokers for individuals or families with systems that have been historically challenging and seek to educate the professionals in these systems about the barriers and difficulties that disempowered individuals.

Challenges And Issues Of Women

Women in India confront numerous challenges. Rape, dowry death, sexual harassment, kidnapping, obscenity and pornography, domestic violence, and other horrors await them.

Rape

Rape is one of the most horrific acts perpetrated against women in our culture. On December 16, 2012, one year after the Nirbhaya incident, in which a 23-year-old paramedical student was raped by a group of men on a moving bus in Delhi. (https://www.indiaspend.com).The 19-year-old died in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital 15 days after she was allegedly gang raped and tormented by a group of upper-caste men in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras. She was the sixth girl, and the third Dalith girl, to be raped and brutally murdered in Uttar Pradesh. Women in India confront numerous challenges.

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is defined as when one adult in a relationship abuses his or her position to exert control over another. It is the use of violence to instill fear in a relationship, which includes various forms of abuse. Physical abuse, sexual assault, and threats are all possible forms of violence. (Saba Yunus and Saba Varma, 2015)

Dowry

In India, it is customary for the girl's parents to present a gift or an amount at the time of her marriage ceremony. Later on, it developed into a dowry issue. Every year, a large number of dowry instances are disclosed in India. It is a severe issue that Indian women and their parents encounter.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment occurs when one person engages in an unwanted act of physical closeness with another person, such as grasping, brushing, touching, pinching, or eve teasing, uninvited demand or solicitation for sexual favors from another, either directly or indirectly person, in the form of images or videos, shows a person any sexually explicit visual material cartoons, pin-ups, calendars, computer screensavers, or any other inappropriate textual material or pornographic-mails, or any other sort of sexually inappropriate activity, eve teasing, jokes that are likely to cause embarrassment or discomfort, innuendos, and sexist statements Child abuse, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking are all examples of human trafficking. (N.Subasini, 2021)

In earlier times women were responsible only to household activities i.e caring and bearing of children, cooking and looking after elderly persons. In modern era no doubt their status has been improved and they has become economically empowered, but still they are facing many problems and issues both in family and professional life. One of the common issue which women face in houses and offices is sexual harassment. Various Other issues are violence within and outside the family like wife battering, marital rape, deprivation of healthy food, kidnapping, rape and murder.

According to NCRB Report ," A total of 4,05,861 cases of crime against women were registered during 2019,As on 2018 it was 3,78,236 cases. Thus showing an increase of 7.3percent. Majority cases crime against women were registered under IPC which include cruelty by husband or his relatives (30.9%),followed by assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty(21.8%),kidnapping and abduction of women(17.9%) and rape(7.9%).

women should have equal political economic, social, cultural and Civic rights regardless of their marital status, according to CEDAW which requires states to implement National legislation prohibiting discrimination (article 1, 2 and 3).It empowers states to take temporary exceptional measures to speed tendencies that perpetuate discrimination (article5).contracts and other private instrument that limit women's legal competence will be judged null and void according to the states parties article 15 in addition the invention highlights the need for equal access to education.

Discrimination against women is defined under the CEDAW as follows: any distinction exclusive or restriction based on sex that has the effect or purpose of impeding or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women regardless of their marital status of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political economic cost a social,cultural,civil or any other field on the base of equality of men and women an act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including the threats of such act coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of Liberty, whether occurring in public or private life has been defined as a violence against women. declaration on the elimination of violence against women

More than half of the 25 countries with the highest incidence of femicide are in the Americas. In response to the rising incidence of violence against women reported as a result of organised crime, human, drug, and arms trafficking, UN Women and the UN Human Rights Office have established a Model Protocol to guide investigations into gender-based homicides. Several Latin American countries are attempting to put the Protocol into effect, with the objective of improving victim care and ending impunity for the tens of thousands of women and girls murdered each year in the region.

There are various Constitutional rights and provisions for women.

Some of the major rights related to women protection are as:

• Article 14: Equality before Law
• Article 15(1): Prohibition of discrimination, religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
• Article 15(3): The state is empowered to make any special provision for women.
• Article 16(2): Equality of opportunity for all citizens in employment or appointment to any office under the state.
• Article 19(1): Right to information
• Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty
• Article 21(A): Right to Education.
• Article 23(1): Traffic in human beings and forced labour are prohibited.
• Article 39(A): The state to secure for men and women equally the right to an adequate means of livelihood. The state to secure equal pay for equal work for both Indian men and women.
• Article 39(E): The state is required to ensure that the health and strength of women workers are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their strength.
• Article 42: The state shall make provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
• Article 51-A(e): It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
• Article 243-D(3): One third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every panchayat shall be reserved for women.
• Article 243-D(4): One third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the panchayats shall be reserved for women.
• Article 243-1(3): One third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every municipality shall be reserved for women.
• Article 243-T(4): The offices of chairpersons in the municipalities shall be reserved for women in such manner as the state legislature may provide.

Law related to Women Empowerment:

1. Indian Penal Code (1860): Contains provisions to protect Indian women from dowry death, rape, kidnapping, cruelty, and other offences.
   
2. Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act (1939): Grants a Muslim wife the right to seek the dissolution of her marriage.
   
3. Minimum Wages Act (1948): Does not allow discrimination between male and female workers or different minimum wages for them.
   
4. Mines Act (1952) and Factories Act (1948): Prohibits the employment of women between 7 P.M. to 6 A.M. in mines and factories and provides for their safety and welfare.
   
5. Hindu Marriage Act (1955): It provided equal rights to Indian man and woman in respect of marriage and divorce.
   
6. Hindu Succession Act (1956): Recognizes the right of women to inherit parental property equally with men.
   
7. Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (1956): The premier legislation for prevention of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
   
8. Dowry Prohibition Act (1961): Prohibits the giving or taking of dowry at or before or any time after the marriage from women.
   
9. Maternity Benefit Act (1961): Regulates the employment of women in certain establishments for a certain period before and after childbirth and provides for maternity benefit and certain other benefits.
   
10. Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1971): Allows the termination of certain pregnancies by registered medical practitioners on humanitarian and medical grounds.
    
11. Code of Criminal Procedure (1973): Has certain safeguards for women like the obligation of a person to maintain his wife and the arrest of women by female police.
    
12. Equal Remuneration Act (1976): Provides for payment of equal remuneration to both men and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature.
    
13. Family Courts Act (1984): Provides for the establishment of family courts for the speedy settlement of family disputes.
    
14. Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act (1986): Prohibits indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures, or in any other manner.
    
15. Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act (1986): Protects the rights of Muslim women who have been divorced by or have obtained divorce from their husbands.
    
16. Legal Services Authorities Act (1987): Provides for free legal service to Indian women.
    
17. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005):
    Violence of any kind, whether physical, sexual, mental, verbal, or emotional.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women has formally enshrined women's rights as human rights (CEDAW). The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which, unlike CEDAW, is not a binding treaty, has defined indigenous peoples' human rights. The Declaration does not create any new rights; rather, it establishes an instrument that recognizes and considers the unique characteristics of indigenous peoples' human rights (including collective human rights), resulting in a more effective framework for exercising and enforcing those rights. The key issue for indigenous women is to pursue a human rights framework that not only advances individual and collective rights at the same time, but also explicitly addresses gender-specific human rights violations of indigenous women in a way that does not ignore colonialism's ongoing practices and effects. The tension between the two movements is rooted in the international women's movement's "overemphasis on gender discrimination and gender equality, which depoliticizes issues confronting Indigenous women" and fails to recognize indigenous women's unique circumstances, according to indigenous women's criticism of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995),

Thus The Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, which is not legally binding but has been helpful in identifying areas of urgent concern and developing a forward-looking agenda for attaining gender equality, was signed by 189 governments. Poverty, education, health, violence against women, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision making, institutional mechanisms for women's advancement, human rights, the media, the environment, and girl children are among the twelve priority topics where action is needed to address gender inequality. Recognizing that "discrimination against women starts at the earliest stages of life and must be addressed from the beginning,"

Conclusion:
Women's empowerment has become one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, not only on the national but also on an international basis. No doubt in today's era women status has enhances but their are certain area where her recognition and acknowledgement has been denied. I.e. land rights, inheritance property rights ,decision making power.

Initiatives by the government alone would not be adequate to empower women unless and until the society would not acknowledge her contribution towards her family and society ,otherwise her situation will be vulnerable and she will be harassed and violence would happen despite of the stringent laws and convention. Despite to empower women need to emancipate. Therefore the most significant and necessary instrument to empower and emancipate women is to educate them.

References:

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