Role of Women and Women’s Organisations

What the official syllabus says

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, Paper II: General Studies I.

Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

This page covers the first part of the line: the role of women and women’s organisations, their problems and remedies.

Topics in detail

Status and role of women

• Women in ancient, medieval and colonial India: changes in status
• Women in the social reform and national movements
• Women’s role in the family, the economy, politics and the community
• Changing roles with education, urbanisation and employment

Women’s organisations and movements

• Early organisations: Bharat Stree Mahamandal, the Women’s Indian Association (1917), the All India Women’s Conference (1927)
• After independence: the National Federation of Indian Women, the women’s movement of the 1970s and 1980s
• SEWA (the Self-Employed Women’s Association) and organising women in the informal sector
• Self-help groups and collectives such as Kerala’s Kudumbashree
• Women’s groups in environmental and local movements (Chipko, anti-liquor movements)
• The National Commission for Women and the state women’s commissions

Problems faced by women

• Adverse sex ratio, female foeticide and the child sex ratio
• Violence: domestic violence, dowry, sexual harassment, trafficking, crimes in public spaces
• Low labour force participation, wage gaps, unpaid care work
• Gaps in health and nutrition (anaemia, maternal health) and in education
• Under-representation in legislatures, the judiciary and management; the digital gender divide
• Problems of particular groups: single women, widows, Dalit and tribal women, women in conflict areas

Remedies: law, policy and society

• Constitutional provisions: Articles 14, 15(3), 39, 42, 51A(e); one-third reservation in panchayats and municipalities (73rd and 74th Amendments)
• The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023: reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies
• Laws: the Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), the PCPNDT Act (1994), the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (2013), the maternity benefit law
• Schemes by type: education of girls (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao), maternity support, safety, livelihoods and credit
• Gender budgeting; women-led development
• Social change: education, changing attitudes, men as partners

Overlaps

• General Studies II covers schemes and mechanisms for vulnerable sections, including women.
• Women’s issues are also material for the Essay.