Passage Based Questions: English - 21 | Passage Based Questions for CLAT Preparation PDF Download

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Gender issues and ‘women-empowerment’ has become the new buzzword across the globe in the last few decades. The increased familiarity with this term has resulted in the slow transformation of most of the ideologies that have justified inequalities in the social structures for the past so many years. The emerging debates that surround the concept of ‘empowerment’ have had considerable effects on the well-established roots of the institutions that provide support to the existing power structures such as family, state etc. Women have started to become aware of the limitations and confines of the territories within which they have been placed all these years. They have demanded control over their own bodies, equal spaces in the social institutions and an acknowledgment for their identity. Last few years have witnessed a sharp increase in the strategies of women’s development by the state in order to eliminate the gender gaps in the work opportunities, political participation, health facilities and distribution of resources. India as a nation has taken significant steps to fill the gender gaps existing in the societies here. The constitution of India provides equality of employment opportunity, voting rights and equal pay for equal work. It lays great emphasis upon the dignity of women and constitutes several pro-visions like maternity reliefs to maintain a gender-sensitive environment at the workplace. Government schemes like ‘Beti bachao-Beti padhao’, ‘janani suraksha’, intend to ensure the better health care and education facilities.
Policies like ‘New National Policy for Women’ endeavour to follow the ‘so-cially inclusive rights-based approach’ for the women empowerment. Apart from this, the introduction of Gender Budget Statement promises a just distribution of resources in the country across gender divisions as well. The past decade has also experienced an expansion of the definitions of terms like ‘rape’ and ‘violence’ in the legal context. Law has enlarged its frame in order to bring the exploitation of women in private and public sphere through the formulations of laws like Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005’ and ‘Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013’. Institutions like the National Commission for Women have been formed to identify and register the cases of oppression faced by women. Ministry of Women and Child Development is specifically dedicated to addressing the issues, policies and their implementations related to the women and children in the country. India has observed immense changes in its socio-political and economic conditions by the introduction of these measures as well as under the impact of globalization and technological advancements. Census 2001-2011 has recorded a significant rise in the literacy rate of women. The expansion of the service sector has generated fresh work opportunities for women. To a large extent, equality in the wages and participating roles among the women and men can be seen in the urban areas. It is in these areas that the phenomenon of ‘emerging women power’ is being most acutely observed.