Women constitute nearly half of the world's population, making their participation essential for achieving any meaningful development agenda. Yet women and girls continue to face barriers in education, healthcare, employment, political participation, financial inclusion and decision-making.
Bringing women to the forefront in the wider political and economic discourse is very crucial for the development of our country and to reach its vision of Viksit Bharat (Developed India ) by 2047. BRICS Women Ministerial Meeting which recently concluded in Kochi, Kerala ( July 6-9) is pointing towards the fact that BRICS under the Indian presidency is formulating a different approach towards women lead development and BRICS countries are leveling up in their agenda of achieving gender equality.
On 9 June 2016, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA), a scheme built on a deceptively simple premise: that if every pregnant woman in the country were examined by a qualified physician and appropriately investigated at least once during her second or third trimester, a measurable share of preventable maternal and neonatal deaths could be averted.
In the 18th Lok Sabha Elections, the overall female voters’ turnout was 65.78 percent, just .02 percent short of the overall male voters’ turnout, which amounted to 65.80 percent, marking the active participation of women in undertaking the democratic process of choosing our leaders. And in many states, women voters outperformed in comparison to the male counterpart reflecting their intent in performing their political duty. (Election Commission of India, 2026). Yet, in that same election, out of 543 Members of Parliament who were elected, only 74 women candidates were voted to power, amounting to only 14 percent. (Association for Democratic Reforms, 2026, p.24), a dip from 14.4 percent in the previous Lok Sabha elections. (PRS, May 2019).
Since the introduction of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), India's female labour force participation rate (LFPR) has risen sharply from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 41.7 per cent by 2023-24. LFPR counts women who are either working or actively looking for work. This article looks at a related but different number: the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which counts only women who are actually employed. WPR is the number PLFS publishes broken down by education level, and it answers the question that matters most for policy, not whether a woman is looking for work, but whether she has found it.
The Palna scheme was started by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on 1 April 2022. This is part of the Samarthya component of Mission Shakti. It replaced the National Creche Scheme. The Ministry of Women and Child Development gave guidelines for the Palna scheme on 14 July 2022. The Palna scheme is based on two schemes. The Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme and the National Creche Scheme. The Palna scheme provides childcare for children aged 6 months to 6 years. The main reason for the Palna scheme is to help women work by taking care of their children.
India’s rural development policy has gone through three main phases. The first, called “women's welfare,” saw women mostly as recipients of nutrition, health, and poverty relief. The second, “women empowerment,” developed alongside the Self-Help Group (SHG) movement in the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on savings, access to credit, and community involvement. The third and current phase, known as “women-led development,” now sees rural women as economic actors who can drive local development (Ministry of Rural Development [MoRD], 2023).