Whenever we wish to play a game, we have to assume certain things designed to make that game possible e.g., If you wish to play cricket, you agree to follow certain guidelines, rules and procedures which are devised to make possible a cricket match.

Similar is true for all human endeavor including all forms of knowledge and faiths be it Physics, Economics, Sociology or Theology.
Thus any more has to begin with some assumption. The more which we propose assumes-
1.      People are born with differences. Every individual being is unique and different from each other.
2.      Evaluation of differences is a social reconstruction and in any unjust social construction, differential values are associated to differential categories which creates imbalance between binary oppositions, world is made up of. In this sense of association of values that we say that ‘Gender’ is a social construction and this construction is imbalanced and consciously designed to remain titled towards only one Gender. In order to re-balance this equation of genders, the concept of women empowerment has come into being. It is about assisting women to uplift to a level play ground equal to man through conscious intervention into lower, access, values and self -worth.
Few Questions (For Evidence as well as Discussions):
1.      Why female forms of expressions (E.g. Songs, Domestic Ritual Songs or Farm Songs, Etc), have always been under-valued and even subjugated and eliminated wherever possible by more cultured male forms of expressions, throughout the history of mankind. Why ‘culture’ has been given importance over ‘Nature’ (which is the primary of birth and life)?
Moreover, why ‘oral forms’ have been continuously neglected which are more akin to female, in the chronicles, compilations and histories of cultures?
2.      Why there are so few female poets countable on fingers in the whole history and what is the sociological reason that suddenly we come to see an explosion of talent in female of Bhakti era of Indian history which gave freedom for all identities to evolve? (Mira, Rabia Andal, etc)
3.      Why the language available to us is primarily a language of men E.g. ‘Mankind’, Mr./Mrs. Etc ?
4.      Why the work of women throughout the history remained unmeasured, uncalculated, unpaid, unidentified and mostly under control of men.
5.      Why all the knowledge systems have been designed in such a way that gives primacy to ‘Reason’ over ‘Passion’, ‘Abstraction’ over ‘Sensuality’, ‘Idea’ over ‘Concrete’ and ‘Theology (In ancient times)’ & ‘Science(In modern times)’ over (Claim transcendence/ Objective Knowledge) Subjectivities?
 
Initiatives and Interventions:
1.      Case of Bangladesh, every one of us knows, SHG’s, Women Organizations and Co-operative Banking etc have become a success. In South India, such initiatives have been taken, specially the role of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.
2.      In India, Ninth Five Year plan (1997-02) adopted the strategy of women’s component plan. After a task force was constituted in 2002 and then many action plans were initiated –

Example:   
a) STEP: Support for Training and Employment
b) Swavlamban : An economic programme.
c) Family Counseling Centers
d) Short stay homes
e) Protection from Domestic Violence Bill 2002.       
Many other programs are run by State Government separately.
 
Few Facts: 1.      Women are the poorest of world’s poor, representing 70% or almost 900 Million of the 1.3 Billion people who live in absolute poverty.
2.      Women are two-third of the world’s illiterate population of about 876 Million.
3.      Between 1987 and 1996, the number of female ministers in national governments Worldwide increased two fold from a mere 3.4% to just 6.8%. As of 1996, 48 countries have no female ministers in their national government at all.
4.      As of March 2002, women hold just 14.2% of representative posts in national parliament around the world. As of 1999, women occupied more than 30% of parliamentary positions in just 5 countries worldwide. In 31 countries at that same time, they hold less than 5% of positions.
5.      As estimated one in three women worldwide have been subjected to violence in an intimate relationship.
6.      Sex-ratio (National Family Health Survey) 934 (1992) > 926(1998) > 918(2005) {0-6 years}.
Sex ratio at birth 941(187-91) > 938(1993-97) > 919(2000-04)
 
7.      Percentage of Boys/ Girls attending schools:

 UrbanRuralCommon
Age groupBoysGirlsBoysGirlsBoysGirls
6-17----7566
6-10888884798581
11-14838179668070
15-17525147284934

Source—NFHS-03
Other indications are age at first marriage, Employment status, wages, etc.
(You can see the data from any source NSSO, NFHS. It is the same story everywhere).