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Human rights for women refer to the freedoms and rights inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and nationality. Though men and women are considered equal in the eyes of the God and human intelligentsia but sadly, that is not the case in many parts of the world. Women’s rights are often found to be ignored or illegitimately suppressed by law, custom, and behavior in certain societies. Freedom possessed by men and boys and restrictions imposed on women often indicate inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women.
Human rights for women include bodily integrity and autonomy, to vote, to work, to own property, to hold public office and fair wages, to education and to have marital, parental and religious rights. These rights are dutifully theirs but travesty is women haven’t always been allowed to use all the rights. Society views men and women equal and yet there is a blatant discrimination between the genders. Women's rights and issues have been seriously discussed by the policy makers and academicians. Considering the changing role of women in Indian society and the emphasis on women empowerment, human rights for women deserve serious consideration.
Though several policies have been drafted for the women’s rights but the grassroots situation has not shown any drastic improvement. Cases of domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, dowry, murder etc are on constant rise. Indian government has employed millions of social workers to make women aware of their rights. National Commission for Women has also been set up to protect and uplift women but more needs to be done. Even Indian constitution has provisions for the rights of Indian women. Examples include Article 14 and Article 42.
Though policies for women’s rights have been formulated and executed but there is a wide gap between conditions of urban females and rural women. Urban population has definitely shown signs of improvement in women literacy, employment ratio, wages and decreasing incidents of dowry but same cannot be said about the situations faced by rural women. Women can only be empowered when they are allowed to use their basic rights. Empowerment cannot work in isolation.
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