Then and Now: The Truth behind the Development Measures for Women in India

Today world has almost 7 billion populations. The sex ratio of the world is 990. It means about 50% population is female. In case of India, here, the sex ratio is 940 (Census 2011) and has 47% female population. India has enacted various development measures and constitutional safeguards for women empowerment viz. ‘Child marriage Restriction (Amendment) Act-1978’, ‘Dowry Abolition Act - 1967’ ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, ‘Mahila Samakhya Programme’ etc. ‘National Commission for Women’ on 31st December, 1992 and ‘National Credit Fund for Women’ on 30th march, 1993 are also set up. Besides, all these programmes, females are still in very inferior position. As per the census 2011, literacy ratio of females in India is 65.46%, while it is 82.14% for males. Why? The answer is not very simple. There are many factors and causes behind this. The present paper on one hand, examines almost all development programmes and safeguards provided for females and on the other hand, it critically evaluates those programmes enumerating various causes for their success and failures. Overall, it reveals the truth of many so called ‘great developmental programmes’ for women in India.