Socio-economic Empowerment of Women in India: State-level Differentials and Determinants

This article is an attempt to assess the socio-economic empowerment of women across the states of India. The article considers empowerment as perceived by women, and a Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) is constructed using data from the National Family Health Survey-5. Its determinants are divided into five broad categories, namely health, human capital, government initiatives and political representation, access to finance and digital modes, and macroeconomic indicators, which are analysed using data drawn from several secondary data sources. The results suggest a weighted WEI (on a scale of 0–1) of 0.59 at the all-India level with a wide spatial differential across states, with values ranging from 0.33 to 0.91. The determinants that significantly influence women’s empowerment are various employment-related parameters, financial inclusion of women and women-centric government schemes.