A Study of Social Welfare Measures and Human Resource Development in Tamil Nadu with Special Reference to Women Empowerment

Abstract

Throughout history, women have been subjected to oppression and exploitation. The degree of the subjugation differs widely depending on the nation and their socio-economic status. The status of women in India is highly dismal in general as evident from the huge gender gap found in literacy level and the work force participation. Indian women are perpetual victims of poverty, violence and superstitions. A woman of progressive and independent ideas is looked down upon and projected by the society as characterless. Though a few women have overcome the hurdles and reached good positions, the status of majority of the women is still remaining very low. The status of women in Tamil Nadu is slightly better comparing with the rest of the nation, thanks to the efforts of social reformers. newlineThe concept of Women Empowerment has emerged worldwide since the Beijing Declaration in 1995. Promoting women empowerment has become one of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals which envisages elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and at all levels by 2015. In view of this, a huge number of social welfare measures have been initiated by the Governments such as Conditional Cash Transfer schemes which aim at raising the survival rate, literacy level and age-at-marriage of girls. As the society is too much obsessed with women oppressive ideas, innovative schemes aiming at attitudinal change among women, men and society are the need of the hour to bring about real empowerment of women. newlineThe huge potential of the women of Tamil Nadu remains underutilized which leads to low human resource formation of the State. As per the report of the International Monetary Fund released in August 2018, the eventual harnessing of the unleashed potential of women in India would improve the economy of the nation by 27%. The transformation of women into human resources through social welfare measures is hampered by several societal, cultural and psychological factors. The present study based on primary data attempts to identify such factors. The influence of these factors on empowering women of Tamil Nadu has been tested using appropriate statistical tools. A Women Empowerment Model has been constructed using 190 indicators to measure the empowerment level of the women in seven dimensions viz. economic, intellectual, physical, psychological, domestic, social and political. newline