JJEM: Special Edition 3 (January 2025)
JJEM: Special Edition 3 (January 2025)
2025-01-20
Women's Economic Empowerment through Strategic Welfare Initiatives in Goa
Deepa V. Dhumatkar, Dr. (CA) Subrahmanya Bhat
The empowerment of women is not only a social and moral imperative but also a critical factor in driving sustainable economic growth globally. When women have access to basic facilities such as health care, education and economic opportunities it enables them to actively participate in the society and the economy. This in turn improves productivity, fosters innovation and enhances the overall well-being of families and communities. Empowering women means addressing systemic barriers and ensuring equality in opportunities and resources. This could involve policies promoting equal pay, access to leadership roles and protection against discrimination. Additionally, it includes supporting women in traditionally male dominated sectors, providing child care and ensuring women have access to health care and legal rights. As such the Indian government along with the State governments has actively pursued women's empowerment, implementing diverse financial schemes and welfare programmes. This paper examines the role of the government welfare schemes in the economic empowerment of women. The study aims to evaluate the economic empowerment of women beneficiaries of select government welfare schemes and also to identify the challenges faced by them in availing the schemes. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 300 women beneficiaries for the study. Statistical techniques SPSS and PLS-SEM using smart PLS were employed for the analysis of data. The study delves into the importance of welfare schemes towards the economic upliftment of women and also aims to offer valuable insights for the policymakers to effectively address the challenges associated with the implementation of schemes designed to economically uplift women.
Challenges, Economic Empowerment, Financial Schemes, Welfare Schemes, Women Beneficiaries