Rao, D. Pulla  <br/><br/>
Policies and programmes for empowerment of women in India: An historical perspective. 

 - South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies   
 - 25(2), Jan-Jun, 2025: p.93-96 
<br/><br/> <br/>Indian women suffered severely under male chauvinism for centuries. The Law of Manu had thrown them into sub human life. The efforts of the reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Savitribai Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Jyotirao Phule could only bring the issue to the forefront to be taken up by the democratic government after independence. The Government of India has been implementing several programmes to improve their lot over the past sixty seven years and considerable changes are being noticed in their status. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is doing a good service to ameliorate their lot. The gender budget introduced in the year 2006 is a novel feature. The Ministry of Rural Development is favouring women in its programmes, particularly the MGNREGA. Yet, the achievements are much lower than expected and the gender gap is still much wider. Only about 24% of Indian females are covered under some programme or the other leaving 76% of women to fend for themselves. The lower coverage owes to the lower budgetary allocation for women (5.83% in the central budget for 2013-14).- Reproduced <br/><br/>https://www.sajospsglobal.com/current.html<br/>