By Ramphal Kataria
Empowerment Without Agency: Gender and Governance in 21st-Century India
Abstract
This essay examines the paradox of women’s empowerment in India between 2014 and 2025 — a period marked by unprecedented policy attention and persistent patriarchy. Despite visible participation of women in education, politics, and the workforce, the Indian woman continues to live in a society that both venerates and violates her. From womb to workplace, her existence is mediated by hierarchy — as daughter, wife, mother, and worker — and confined by custom. Drawing upon historical patterns, contemporary data, and sociological insight, this paper argues that empowerment remains a half-realized promise: state schemes offer welfare, not freedom; policy celebrates inclusion, not agency. The modern Indian woman is told she is free — but every choice is pre-scripted. True liberation demands dismantling the moral, economic, and structural constraints that reduce her to a beneficiary rather than a citizen.
I. The Myth of Progress
“She is told she is free, yet every choice is pre-scripted.”
In twenty-first century India, women walk with smartphones, degrees, and dreams — yet their footsteps echo centuries of subjugation. The paradox is stark: while India celebrates women presidents, fighter pilots, and CEOs, millions of its daughters remain unseen, uneducated, and unheard.
The decade from 2014 to 2025 has witnessed both progress and paradox. Policies such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Ladli Lakshmi Yojana, and Poshan Abhiyaan have placed the girl child at the rhetorical center of national development. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) reports improvement in female literacy (71.5%) and institutional deliveries (89%), yet also reveals enduring disparities in nutrition, education, and autonomy.
Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP) rose from 23.3% (2017–18) to 37% (2022–23) — a welcome rebound after years of decline. However, more than 70% of working women remain in informal, low-paid, and insecure work. The appearance of empowerment conceals the persistence of dependency.
As the economist Devaki Jain once observed, “Women’s work is visible only when it is invisible.” The Indian woman’s contribution to the economy — as farmer, caregiver, and informal worker — remains grossly undervalued. Her identity, from the cradle to the cremation ground, continues to be defined in relation to a man: father, husband, son.
II. Second in Line: The Cultural Script of Subordination
“In the name of protection, the Indian woman has been fenced in.”
The second-rank status of women in Indian society is not merely an economic condition but a deeply embedded cultural code. Ancient scriptures, colonial morality, and modern patriarchy have all conspired to construct the Indian woman as an emblem of purity and sacrifice rather than autonomy and choice.
From birth, her worth is measured not in aspirations but in acquiescence. Sex-selective abortions, though declining, persist — the child sex ratio stood at 929 girls per 1,000 boys (NFHS-5). Nutrition inequality begins at home: a UNICEF 2023 report found that girls are more likely than boys to be underweight or anemic.
In family spaces, decisions about education, marriage, and mobility remain dominated by patriarchal authority. The social expectation that a woman must marry early, bear children, and prioritize family over career continues to limit her life chances.
Freedom in mate selection — a basic human right — remains contested. The rise in “honour killings,” restrictions on inter-caste and inter-faith marriages, and surveillance of women’s romantic choices reflect the state’s complicity in regulating female sexuality. The Khaps in Haryana, the love jihad discourse, and moral policing across states collectively reinforce that a woman’s body is not her own — it is the battleground for community honour and male control.
III. The Machine Metaphor: Motherhood as Destiny
“The womb has been worshipped, but never truly owned.”
The Indian woman has long been portrayed as a goddess, mother, or martyr — roles that glorify her capacity for endurance, not her right to autonomy. Motherhood, exalted in rhetoric, often translates into economic and emotional servitude.
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 extended paid leave to 26 weeks, yet 93.5% of women in informal employment receive no such benefit. India’s care economy — estimated to be worth trillions in unpaid labour — rests on women’s invisible work: cooking, cleaning, caregiving, and emotional management.
Empirical studies suggest that Indian women spend 9.8 times more hours on unpaid care than men (NITI Aayog, 2023). This unpaid labour subsidizes the formal economy, allowing men’s uninterrupted participation in paid work.
The paradox is moral as well as material. The nation glorifies the mother as “Bharat Mata” yet denies her nutritional security, bodily integrity, and decision-making power. Reproductive rights remain fragile; abortion access, while legal, is constrained by stigma and medical gatekeeping.
Empowerment cannot be built on sanctification. When motherhood is enforced — socially or economically — it ceases to be a choice and becomes a chain.
IV. Education: Enlightenment Deferred
“Education has opened doors, but not yet unbarred the walls.”
The spread of education has been India’s most visible success in women’s development, yet its impact is uneven. Female literacy rose to 71.5% (NFHS-5), and enrolment in higher education reached 27.3% (AISHE 2023). Still, dropout rates remain high, particularly after adolescence, due to early marriage, domestic responsibilities, and inadequate infrastructure like toilets and safe transport.
The promise of education often collides with patriarchal pragmatism: families invest in daughters’ schooling to improve marriage prospects, not to foster independence. Even among educated women, employment outcomes remain limited — the transition from classroom to career is fraught with social and logistical barriers.
The deeper challenge lies in pedagogy. Education systems rarely question gender hierarchies; textbooks continue to depict women as caregivers and men as decision-makers. As sociologist Nandini Sundar notes, “Our education system teaches girls to excel, not to dissent.”
Until education nurtures critical consciousness — the ability to question inequality — it cannot truly liberate.
V. The Digital Divide and the Mirage of Modernity
“Technology promised freedom; patriarchy coded the passwords.”
The digital revolution was expected to democratize opportunity. India’s smartphone penetration and internet connectivity expanded rapidly in the 2010s and 2020s, but the digital gender divide remains acute.
According to GSMA (2023), Indian women are 30% less likely than men to own a smartphone and 33% less likely to use mobile internet. This exclusion denies women access to digital payments, e-learning, telemedicine, and online employment — the very platforms that define the new economy.
Even when access exists, digital spaces replicate offline hierarchies. Women face disproportionate cyberbullying, surveillance, and harassment. The internet, often touted as a site of liberation, has become another arena of patriarchal control.
Digital empowerment, therefore, cannot be measured merely by connectivity. It requires literacy, safety, and voice — the ability to participate without fear and to create without permission.
VI. Welfare Without Freedom: The Trap of Token Empowerment
“Schemes feed the body; they seldom nourish the soul.”
The Indian state’s approach to women’s empowerment remains trapped between welfare and tokenism. Schemes like Ladli Lakshmi Yojana, Ujjwala, and PM Matru Vandana Yojana provide important social protection but reinforce women’s role as dependents and caregivers rather than rights-bearing citizens.
While direct benefit transfers and cash incentives improve short-term well-being, they rarely alter power structures within families or workplaces. The woman becomes a beneficiary — not an equal stakeholder.
Moreover, many programs rely on bureaucratic gatekeeping: benefits are conditional on marital status, motherhood, or family approval, thus reinforcing patriarchal hierarchies. As feminist economist Jayati Ghosh observes, “Welfare without autonomy merely rebrands dependency.”
The state’s narrative of “protecting women” often translates into regulating them — from surveillance of “love marriages” to moral policing of attire and mobility. In the name of safety, freedom is fenced.
VII. Politics and the Performance of Empowerment
“Representation without authority is presence without power.”
Women’s political representation has improved in numbers but not necessarily in influence. The Women’s Reservation Bill (2023), ensuring 33% reservation in Parliament and State Assemblies, marks a historic promise — yet its implementation is deferred until the next delimitation exercise, possibly after 2029.
At the grassroots, over 1.4 million women serve as elected representatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions. However, many remain “proxy leaders,” their husbands or fathers making decisions in their name.
The problem is not visibility but voice. Political empowerment requires capacity building, financial independence, and institutional respect for women’s leadership. Without these, representation risks becoming ritual.
The few who defy this pattern — from grassroots activists to parliamentarians — face online abuse, character assassination, and threats. The message is clear: You may enter the arena, but not speak too loudly.
VIII. The Liberal, The Rebel, and the New Indian Woman
“She has learned to speak softly — but she has stopped being silent.”
The 21st-century Indian woman is both heir and rebel — shaped by tradition yet fighting to transcend it. Across cities and villages, she negotiates between obedience and agency. She enters universities, workplaces, and public spaces with unprecedented confidence, yet each step invites scrutiny.
Movements such as #MeToo India (2018), Pinjra Tod, and protests against discriminatory dress codes and campus curfews signal a growing feminist consciousness that refuses silence. These are not isolated acts of defiance; they represent a generational shift — a demand for dignity, not charity.
However, her rebellion unfolds amid a larger economic contraction where job opportunities shrink not only for women but for men. This dual squeeze intensifies patriarchal backlash: as male unemployment rises, control over women becomes a substitute for lost power. The home becomes the last fortress of patriarchy — a place where authority can still be asserted when the outside world no longer listens.
Thus, women’s liberation now confronts not only cultural resistance but also economic anxiety. The struggle for equality collides with the scarcity of opportunities, making her battle both ideological and existential.
IX. The Mirror of Society: Violence, Silence, and Survival
“A woman’s safety in India is measured not by freedom, but by fear.”
Despite legal reforms, gender-based violence remains endemic. NFHS-5 (2019–21) reports that nearly 30% of women have faced physical violence since age fifteen. Rape cases increased by over 13% between 2019 and 2023 (NCRB data). The gap between law and justice is vast: conviction rates remain low, victim-blaming continues, and social stigma silences survivors.
Violence is not an aberration but an instrument of control — a reminder of limits. It operates in homes, workplaces, and online spaces. The persistence of dowry deaths, marital rape exemption, and cyber harassment underscores a society more comfortable with punishment than with equality.
In urban India, safety apps, pink buses, and CCTV cameras symbolize protection but not transformation. The woman’s body is still treated as a site of risk, not of rights. True safety lies not in surveillance but in social reform — in a culture that no longer perceives women as property to be protected but as persons to be respected.
X. The Road Ahead: Beyond Welfare, Toward Freedom
“Empowerment begins where permission ends.”
The decade ahead must redefine empowerment not as charity but as citizenship. To move beyond tokenism, India must pursue structural reforms that enable genuine equality:
1. Equal Education and Economic Access: Ensure universal secondary education for girls, gender-responsive skilling, and safe transport to bridge the school-to-work gap.
2. Care Infrastructure: Recognize unpaid care work as economic labour; invest in creches, eldercare, and flexible workplaces to redistribute responsibilities.
3. Reproductive and Marital Autonomy: Enforce women’s right to choose their partners and control their fertility without social coercion.
4. Digital Equality: Expand affordable internet access, digital literacy, and online safety mechanisms.
5. Political Power: Fast-track implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill and fund leadership training for women in governance.
6. Cultural Reform: Promote gender-sensitized curricula, media representation, and community dialogues that challenge patriarchal narratives.
The state’s role must shift from protector to partner — from granting welfare to guaranteeing rights. Empowerment is not about giving women something they lack; it is about removing the obstacles that deny what they already possess: intellect, will, and dignity.
Conclusion: The Unfinished Revolution
“In the ruins of patriarchy, she builds a home of her own.”
Between 2014 and 2025, Indian women have traveled from invisibility to visibility — yet not fully to voice. The rhetoric of empowerment echoes across slogans, schemes, and speeches, but the lived reality remains tethered to patriarchal logic.
She is told she can study, but not question; work, but not earn more than him; marry, but not choose; lead, but not decide. Her freedom is conditional, her power ornamental.
And yet, she endures and evolves. The young woman of today — armed with education, technology, and defiance — represents not a victim but a vanguard. She challenges both the state and the society to recognize her as a citizen, not a subject of welfare.
The revolution of Indian womanhood is not incomplete; it is ongoing. It will be finished only when empowerment ceases to be a policy goal and becomes a social instinct — when equality is not granted but assumed.
Until then, the Indian woman remains both the question and the answer — the most powerful idea still waiting to be realized.
Select References
1. Government of India. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, 2023.
2. Government of India. Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), 2022–23.
3. GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report, 2023.
4. NITI Aayog. India SDG Index Report, 2022.
5. Jayati Ghosh. Gender and Development in India: Beyond Welfare, EPW, 2021.
6. Devaki Jain. Women, Development and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice.
7. World Bank. World Development Indicators, 2024.
8. UNICEF. State of the World’s Children, 2023.
9. NCRB. Crime in India, 2023.
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