It is primarily because of wide spread illiteracy, rampant social taboos, and prevailing mind set of people aided and abetted by our legacies of folklores, fables and mythology, where they have been shown in bad light and lowly rated. Yet some of the women have made remarkable strides in all areas of human endeavour, proving that they are no less than men folks and even superior to men by outperforming them in several areas of excellence. They are a few, who got right opportunities to make a mark in their lives and brought glories to India.

During the last two centuries, about 39 Central Laws have been enacted to empower women of India on par with their men folks; yet Equality Before Law without any discrimination, whatsoever, with Equality in Opportunity and Equality in Employment as well as Equal Pay for Equal Work, as postulated by the Constitution of India, continue to elude them! Main reasons veer round tardy implementation of laws, continuing social discrimination and prevailing built-in biases against women in general right from their birth to growth, decay, disease and death.

Be that as it may, the Union Government, in the recent past, enacted the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, giving more effective protection to women who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within a family and provided them a civil remedy to deal with such violence in order to ensure their individual honour and personal dignity in the family structure. The Centre also enacted and enforced a major and far reaching significant amendment in the Hindu Succession Act, 1955, to make Hindu women's inheritance rights in coparcenaries property equal to that of men. This means both son and daughter are equal sharers of inherited property.

In addition, amendments have been effected in the criminal laws prohibiting arrest of women after sun set and before sun rise, medical examination of persons accused of committing or attempting to commit rape, and mandatory judicial inquiry in case of rape while in police custody. Besides, a bill has been introduced in Parliament to amend the Factories Act, 1948, seeking to provide flexibility in the employment of women at night while requiring the employer to ensure measures for safety and protection, to generate employment for women.

The Government has also introduced gender budgeting for improving the sensitivity and effectiveness of developmental programmes and schemes for women's welfare. The budgetary outlay for cent per cent women specific programmes has been ever rising. In the financial year 2008-09, Rs.11, 460 crores has been provided. During the current 11th Plan period, the Centre has decided to ensure that at least 33 per cent beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl children. This has been fixed as a key target during the current Five Year Plan.

The new Cantonment Act, 2006, initiated by the UPA Government, provides for reservation for women for the first time. Wards have, accordingly, been reserved in the elections to Cantonment Boards scheduled in 2008 onwards. However, 33 per cent reservations for women in legislature, Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies, are still elusive for want of consensus, although conceived thoughtfully by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Bill to this effect, introduced by successive Union Government including the one by the present UPA Government, got stuck in the Parliament for want of a broad agreement over sub-quota for women of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward classes and minorities within the proposed 33 per cent quota for women. The general perception of proponents of sub-quota is that without such Constitutional provision within the quota, entire 33 per cent reservation quota would be appropriated by the upper castes as they have done so far in gobbling up the rightful dues of the down trodden, the backwards, dalits and minorities!

As for girls' education, 2,180 residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya schools have been opened. These schools are providing elementary education to 1, 82, 000 out-of-school girls across the country.

Strides have been made in the form of a recent historic decision of the three Services Chiefs of Indian Armed Forces to allow women officers in the permanent commission up to the higher and top echelons, over and above the existing system allowing all women officers, including those in the short service commission, holding substantive rank of captain, major and lieutenant colonel, after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively, and tenure of short service commission officer expandable from 10 years to 14 years, to provide women officers parity with their male counterparts.

All the methods tried heretofore for empowering women of India have been helpful partly in a very limited way. The country has miles to go before our women start enjoying fruits of Constitutional, legal and developmental measures taken so far. To stem the rot, intensified public awareness campaign, increased literacy of women, use of nationwide scientific temper and pivotal role of women in the over all development of human resource need to be taken up and enforced on a war footing with a meaningful implementation of policies and developmental plans lest the nation should be losing out on the human development indices!#