State Initiatives for Women's Empowerment:

(i) Law has been viewed as a powerful instrument of social change. The process of emancipating women from the clutches of oppressive social customs started even before India became independent. Since 1829, when the Sati Prohibition Act was passed, a number of laws have been passed to remove the legal hurdles to women's empowerment. We have also seen that amendments have been brought to many of the existing laws in order to make them stronger and more stringent. But law alone cannot bring about a change in the position of women. Constant and special efforts have to be made to improve their standards of living. This was mainly sought to be done through the Five Year Plans.

(ii) Since the planning period began in 1951, a number of have been designed and implemented for women's empowerment. But all these efforts have not been able to remove gender discrimination inherent in such sectors as family life, health, education, employment and political participation. Dedicating one year to women's empowerment or one decade to girl children will not automatically bring about women's emancipation. There must be a commitment to make all these programmes functional in a way as to remove gaps between men and women on the one hand, and among women of different groups on the other. The need of the hour is an Action Plan, which believes in action and not just in talking about women. We will have to wait and see what the tenth plan does.