Empowerment of Indian Women: An Inter-State Comparative Analysis with Special Reference to West Bengal

Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, societies and countries. Women empowerment and economic development are closely related to each other. This is an Inter Indian states/UTs analysis of women empowering situations based on secondary data obtained from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). Some indices based on the indicators relating women empowerment obtained from NFHS-5 have been introduced by the authors. For each indicators and indices, top five and bottom five states/UTs have been mentioned. Indian states/UTs have been ranked on the basis of the values of the selected indicators and the indices introduced. Associations among indicators and indices have been evaluated through correlation coefficients. Women empowerment schemes undertaken by the Government of India have been highlighted. Special initiatives undertaken by the Government of West Bengal in this respect have also been pointed out. Some policy recommendations relating to women empowerment have been presented.