India has a rich and diverse history of strong women who have contributed immensely in shaping up the cultural, economic and political landscape of the nation. The government, under Prime minister Narendra Modi, greatly cherishes the role of women in the nation’s progress and has been extensively vocal about the need to empower them. In order to harbour a gender neutral equality approach and to bring women at the forefront of all incisive, positive developments, the government has focused on a holistic approach ranging from launching numerous programmes for married and pregnant women, to making institutional changes for childbirth, rolling out several initiatives to support and educate adolescent girl child, to giving impetus to career-oriented women workforce.

The government has planned vigorously for the overall transformation of this historically neglected section of the population thereby creating a whole new paradigm for social transformation and women empowerment Starting with the budget, the government in FY 2023-24 has increased the budget allocation for women by 50 times to Rs. 25,390 crore from Rs. 500 crore in FY 2013-14.

The government has made comprehensive efforts for all different sections and strata of women which has borne successful results, as visible from several achievements such as improvement in sex ratio at birth - 934 in 2021-22 as compared to 918 in 2014-15, improvement in maternal mortality ratio with 97 deaths per lakh in 2018-20 as compared to 130 per lakh in 2014-16, along with a significant rise in institutional delivery from 79 per cent in 2015-16 to 89 per cent in 2019-20.

The government has started numerous universal women welfare initiatives such as Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) to meet enhanced nutritional needs and compensate for wage loss of expecting mothers, Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative (LaQshya) launched by government aims to improve the quality of care in labour rooms and maternity operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and the immediate postpartum period. Till date under Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan around 4 crore pregnant women have been examined and have benefited through this scheme. POSHAN Abhiyaan was started with the goal to achieve improvement in the nutritional status of children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers and has been rolled out across all the 36 States/UTs which covers around 10 crore beneficiaries in 730 districts across India, including 112 aspirational districts.

PM Modi greatly emphasizes the continued focus on the education of the girl child which can be visibly seen through the success of his visionary policies which has brought landmark results. 5,646 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) have been sanctioned to promote girl child education on a larger scale. As per UDISE data of Ministry of Education, the gross enrolment ratio of girls in the schools at secondary level has increased from 75.51% percent in (2014-15) to 79.4% in 2021-22. Girls’ enrolment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths is at 43 percent today, more than countries like America, UK and Germany. Some of the government’s commendable initiatives to ensure quality education through e-learning to students across the country include Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), SWAYAM PRABHA, National Digital Library (NDL), Virtual Lab, and PM e-Vidya.

Various programmes by the government have given women a new voice in the economic decisions of their households. PM Awas Yojna is a step in the direction of women empowerment as most of the three crore houses are in the name of women. Some other flagship initiatives include distribution of domestic LPG under PM Ujjwala Yojana which has benefited around 9.6 crore women, over 48 crore Jan Dhan accounts for financial independency, 11.6 crore toilets Swachh Bharat Mission, and 8.6 crore taps under Jal Jeevan Mission which have lifted the quality of life of women .

Moving with the spirit of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas, PM Modi envisions a nation having women-led development. In pursuance of this, the government has enthusiastically encouraged women-led startups and entrepreneurship. As per Udyam Registration Portal, there has been an 81% increase in women-owned enterprises in the last three years. Currently, around 28 crore MUDRA accounts are held by women.

The government under PM Modi has launched multiple programmes such as Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ (WEE), Udyam Sakhi Portal to provide information regarding the financial schemes, policies and programmes of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises, Startup India - Women , digital skilling of women, Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), to strengthen the efforts towards making the women economically sound and resilient. The Stand-Up India programme by the government aims to promote entrepreneurship amongst Women, Scheduled Castes (SC) & Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories and help them in starting a greenfield enterprise. Under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, nearly 8.7 crore women are connected with around 81 lakh women’s self-help groups. The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) implemented various skill development schemes namely ‘Seekho Aur Kamao’, ‘USTTAD’ and ‘Nai Manzil’ for six notified minority communities in which minimum 30% seats were earmarked for female trainees.

Because of the government's continuous momentum towards bringing more women in different fields like science and technology, medical, sports, business or politics, not only has the participation of women grown but they are leading from the front. As per AISHE Report, the number of female students enrolled in STEM courses has increased from 41.97 lakh in 2016-17 to 43.87 lakh in 2020-21. Female enrolment in IITs has increased from 8% in 2016 to 20% in 2021-22. India currently has 3 times the global average of women pilots. There is a lot of demand for Indian nurses in global healthcare for their expertise and capability. India recently sent an all-woman UN peacekeeping contingent which is the largest ever women-led peacekeeping UN contingency.

The government has addressed the need for women security and taken integrated measures in order to provide safety and support to women in distress. Under the Samagra Shiksha programme , the government is training girls of classes 6 to 12 of government schools in self-defense. Under Mission Shakti, the government has provided Shakti Sadan which is an integrated relief and rehabilitation home for women in distressed situations and difficult circumstances. The government has also launched several other initiatives such as Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women & Children (CCPWC), setting up and strengthening of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUS) in all districts of states & UTs and making the police stations more women-friendly and approachable .

The government’s unequivocal support through a slew of initiatives and PM Modi’s agenda to bring a major fillip to the economic status of women and make them financially independent is bringing positive results and making today’s woman a harbinger of change.