Effective linkages between women empowerment and economic development in India

Abstract

Economic development without empowerment of women is hardly possible for a developing country like India. The present study tries to explore the current scenario of women empowerment in India and sketches the interface between this phenomenon and the economic development of India. It is based on the secondary data, which are collected from various reports related to human development index, Election Commission of India, General Register of India, etc. Using the statistical data regarding economic development and women empowerment, and employing multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA, i.e., Pearson product moment correlation coefficient), the obtained results show that economic development and women empowerment correlates each other in developing countries like India. The findings also indicate that the variance explained by women empowerment indicators is higher than one of the economic development indicators. On the basis of the empirical results of this research, we recommend that women empowerment should be considered by the competent authorities as well as the government, and be given the top priority that it deserves for its positive effects on the development of countries like India.