ABSTRACT
Women empowerment is a broader concept including economic empowerment assessed by earning capacity, economic status and type of employment. Social empowerment is calculated by health, education and so on. Political empowerment is assessed by the percentage of women in parliament, percentage of women in legislature and so on. The crimes against women are also an indicator to assess the level of women empowerment. The word ‘empowerment’ is one, which is widely used but seldom defined. It is an active, multidimensional process which encompasses several multi-reinforcing components that begin with and are supported by economic independence. Empowerment literally means becoming powerful. In that perspective, the empowerment of women and the improvement of their status, particularly in respect of education, health and economic opportunities, are highly important. Women need to be empowered in order to become strong and ready to take up new challenges for building up of the family, society and the nation. According to Sushama Shay (1998), ‘Women Empowerment is a process which helps women to change other women’s consciousness through creating awareness’.
