National conference on Gender equality and Women Empowerment was held on 6^th March 2018 by Maharashtra State Commission for Women. The conference was organised by Renaissance College of Computer Science & Advance Technology in collaboration with the Association of Interdisciplinary Policy, Research and Actions(IPRA).

The conference was held 2 days before International Women’s Day. The conference brought together over 109 academicians and professionals from Maharashtra to share their experiences and researches for mutual learning and improvement. The conference has precious presence of Honoable Dr. Puranchandra Meshram, Registrar of Rashtra Sant Tukdoji Maharaj University(RTMNU),  Honorable Sau. Neeta Thakre, member of Maharshtra State Commission for Women(MSCW) and Honorable Dr. Shailendra Lende, Head of Department of Marathi, RTMNU. The conference structured into four technical sessions dividing the study of participants into Social Development, Health and Safety, Legal and Entrepreneurship & Employment. This structure of conference allowed all participants to present their research papers and involve in practical discussions.  

Feedback from the conference was very positive – participants greatly enjoyed the chance to meet like-minded people from so many countries, the opportunity to network and to learn from one another, and the chance to explore ideas.

Since the formation and development of society for women and men, women have been given second the status of second gender. This secondary status till today has proved biased for the women in the society and has been oppressing the rights of women as human. But according to science, Gender does not exist. Gender’ is a socio-cultural term referring socially defined roles and behaviours assigned to ‘males’ and ‘females’ in a given society; whereas, the term ‘sex’ is a biological and physiological phenomenon which defines man and woman. In its social, historical and cultural aspects, gender is a function of power relationship between men and women where men are considered superior to women. Therefore, gender may be understood as a man-made concept, while ‘sex’ is natural or biological characteristics of human beings. Most surprising our society has kept the notion before science and have always treated women as a weaker sex and subordinate to men.

The system of patriarchy finds its validity and sanction in our religious beliefs. As a result of Hindu law given by Manu, still in present modern day social structure, few exceptions here and there, women have no power to take independent decisions either inside their homes or in outside world. Socially-embedded problem like gender inequality requires coordinated social policy and long-term measures from any developing state.

As a rapidly developing country, India is plagued with societal issues related to sociocultural hegemony and gender inequality that result in disparities of income and opportunity. Women do 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men. While families, societies and economies depend on this work, for women, it leads lower earnings and less time to engage in non-work activities. In addition to equal distribution of economic resources, which is not only a right, but accelerates development in multiple areas, there needs to be a fair balance of responsibility for unpaid care work between men and women. Sexual and reproductive rights are critical in their own right. Shortfalls in these multiply other forms of discrimination, depriving women of education and decent work, for example. Yet only 52 per cent of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care.

The goal of the conference was to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all state level programmes, policies and organizational practices for strong, inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic and industrial growth and the effective integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Growth that is premised on inequality is not inclusive growth. Although there have been significant achievements since, many challenges remain, and women’s socioeconomic disadvantage is reflected in pervasive gender inequalities in earned income, access to productive resources and services, educational attainment, liberty to pursue a profession, property ownership, the ability to obtain credit, and time-use. State recognizes that everyone must benefit from industrial growth, and prosperity should be shared equally among women and men in all countries.

Women constitute half power of the country so in order to make this country a fully powerful country, women empowerment is very necessary. It is empowering women to understand their rights to be independent in every area for their proper growth and development. Women give birth to the baby means future of the nation so only they can better involve in making the bright future of the nation through the proper growth and development of the children. Women need to be empowered instead of treating as a helpless victim of male chauvinism.