Abstract Paper

Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research

Title	: EMPOWERING YOUNG GIRLS: EFFECTIVE PATHWAYS AND WAY FORWARD
Author(s)	: Mary Jessi Rani. P
Article Information	: Volume 04 - Issue 01 (December - 2019) , 77-84
Affiliation(s)	: Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Loyola College, Chennai-600 034.

Abstract :

India is a nation with the fastest growing youth population (22.8%). The steady rise and sheer increase in number of young people calls attention and focus on this group as they serve as a critical demographic indicator for the nation’s progress. Young women constitute half of this proportion and play a significant contributory role towards nation building. In reality, the socio-cultural practices bound by rigid patriarchal ideologies have consistently deprived women their access to become empowered. While acknowledging the efforts of State and other stakeholders in working with and for young women, however in reality they remain an invisible and vulnerable lot who largely get misfocussed in all developmental initiatives. A paradigm shift in designing initiatives amalgamated with a gendered lens to promote equity and inclusion as a systemic approach is the need of the hour. Years of negligence and passiveness have led to large scale socio-cultural and economic disparities that have denied young women their access to the forefront. This has to be addressed with compensatory efforts that focus and attend to their overall development. When young women of today embark the future of tomorrow, it becomes pivotal to enable them to become strong and confident to develop ‘agency’ that could positively shape oneself and the world around them. This article brings out the key barriers that impede the progress of women especially those in the fringes of the society and spells out the effective pathways that would facilitate the empowerment of young women as a way forward to emancipate themselves and their societies.

Keywords	: Young Women, Empowerment, Gender Equity, Inclusion, Nation Building, Effective Pathways.
Document Type	: Research Paper
Publication date	: November 29, 2019