One factor that is totally ignored in all deliberations on women’s empowerment is the role of high quality healthcare. Education, jobs and bank accounts remain the thrust areas of rural empowerment programmes, which leave sanitation, hygiene, family planning and safe motherhood out of their strategies. Take the case of Bihar, hailed for the recent government initiatives taken to boost the status of women: MukhyamantriNari Shakti Yojana, 50 per cent reservations for women in local Panchayati Raj bodies, the introduction of a 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs in the state, and so on.

 

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