Abstract:
Women are discriminated against in every sphere of life, accorded inequitably a lower status than men. Further, their lower level literacy, lack of skills, general enfeeblement and withdrawn nature has reduced them to lead a life of dependency. But, women play a key role in development both in the context of the family and in society at large, including economy and social system and constitute nearly half of the population worldwide. In India, there are 407.] Million females in the total population of 847.3 million as per the 1991 census (Census of India, 1991). They constitute a sizable part of the potential human capital resource of the country. Hence in the process of economic growth, it is essential to attain more importance to the accumulation of human capital. As women are the key to economic growth in the developing countries, no country can eradicate poverty, if it ignores women. Women are the tremendous resource which no country can afford to undervalue or under- use (Young, Kate, 1993). Therefore empowering women is a key element in the success of any Human Resource Development (HRD) programme. The rural women in India constitute nearly 77 percent of the total female population. They play significant role in agriculture and allied activities and also artisan activities, apart from the household activities. Women are engaged in secondary and tertiary sectors which accounts for 5 percent and 16 percent respectively. The rise in work participation of rural females has been even steeper from 15.92 percent in 1971 to 26.79 percent in 1991. (Census of India, 1991). In India, poverty in general and extreme poverty in particular has a significant gender dimension and women are more sensitive than men to the extremes of poverty and its consequences. The rural women are critical to the processes of moving their families out of poverty. Around 30 to 35 percent of the rural Indian households are estimated to be headed by women. In Tamil Nadu, 15 percent of the households are headed by women compared with 10 percent for India as a whole. Among the states, Tamil Nadu has the fourth highest percentage of female headed households in the country.
