Role of Education in Women Empowerment and Development: Issues and Impact

11 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2015

Date Written: September 26, 2015

Abstract

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once said: “If you educate a man you educate an individual, however, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family. Women empowered means mother India empowered”. When women who contribute almost half of the population are empowered it will strengthen the national economy. Education is considered as a milestone for women empowerment because it enables them to respond to the challenges, to confront their traditional role and change their lives. Increasing access to education notwithstanding, gender discrimination still persists in India and lot more needs to be done in the field of women's education in India. Women have so much unexplored potential which has never been tapped. As education is both an input and input of human development, educational equity will ensure enabling and entrepreneurial development. Today, the female literacy levels according to the Literacy Rate 2011 census are 65.46% where the male literacy rate is over 80%. Even beyond literacy there is much that education can do for women’s rights, dignity and security. Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom for development. Eileen Malone Beach sees education, health care, and income as a blessed trinity because they are so closely related. This paper discusses the impact of education on empowerment of women as well as the challenges and changes that we must have to deal with during the process. We call for a renewed emphasis on relevant, quality and holistic education to ensure the desired results.

Keywords: Development, Education, Empowerment, India, Women

JEL Classification: I23, I24, I25, I28, J16, O15

Suggested Citation

Shetty, Sowjanya and Hans, V. Basil, Role of Education in Women Empowerment and Development: Issues and Impact (September 26, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2665898 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2665898

Sowjanya Shetty

Poornaprajna College ( email )

Udupi
Uduoi District
Karnataka
India

V. Basil Hans (Contact Author)

Srinivas University ( email )

Mangalore
India

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