UILS Chandigarhs National Conference on Women Empowerment

Treasure Hunt for Womens Empowerment through Education Abstract

-Pulkit Jain 1 and Shivani Singla2 "Education is one of the most important means of empowering women with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process." -ICPD Programme of Action, paragraph 4.2 You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.

-Brigham Young The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. It not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt various measures to make special legislation for women empowerment in favour of women. Education is the major factor in the corner stone for development of any country. It is a critical area of empowerment for women as it is an entry point to opportunity because womens educational accomplishment has positive ripple effects within the family and across generations and education also empowers the state to adopt affirmative measures for prompting ways and means to empower women. With regards to girls education, while improvements have been made over the past two decades, girls continue to be deprived of this basic right, especially in developing countries, due to religious, cultural, economic and social barriers. Research shows that 54% of children that were out of primary school worldwide in 2007 were girls, and the results are far worse for secondary education. The world male literacy rate currently stands at 88.6%, in comparison with 79.7% for females.3 This means that out of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women. Improving girls access to education has a dramatic effect not only on the wellbeing of the girls themselves but also of their families and communities. It will address some of societies deeply rooted inequalities through providing girls with the knowledge and empowerment to make decisions and influence community change in key areas. Moreover in most countries including India, legislations for gender equality and women rights is well ahead of its practice. The legal rights must be transformed to ensure that women realize and can act on their rights. Therefore women needs to know which legal rights already exist in order to press for their implementation and enforcement. In order to fight against the socially
1 2

A fourth -year student of University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. A second -year student of University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook, CIA, 2013

UILS Chandigarhs National Conference on Women Empowerment

constructed gender biases, women have to swim against the system that requires more strength. Such strength comes from the process of empowerment and empowerment will come from the education. Therefore this paper attempts to throw light on the various legal remedies or rights available to women through various legal enactments which empower women education and which is the key factor for women empowerment, prosperity, development and welfare of not only women but the nation at large..