After Independence, the educational rights of women were promoted and they were made aware of the value of education. The ratio of women pursuing higher studies and taking education improved gradually since then. The government provided several benefits to women such as scholarship, loan facilities, hostel facilities, etc. who wished to go out to pursue higher studies. By getting such benefits a large number of women are able to pursue higher education today.
Separate schools and colleges have been established for women alone. Separate universities have been also established which are among the prestigious universities today and admits the girls obtaining merit ranks. There are many engineering and medical universities in India specially for girls which provides them with a great quality of education and help in enhancing their careers.
The number of working women has also steadily increased. Women have been recruited in all posts such as teachers, doctors, nurses, advocates, police officers, bank employees in all major cities of India. Since 1991 women have been recruited into 3 wings of armed forces that are military, air force and naval force.
The state adopted a patronizing role towards women. Women in India did not have to struggle for basic rights as did women in the West. This was a period primarily of accommodation. Some of the organizations took up ,Constitutional measures such as The Marriage Act of 1954 ,The Hindu Code Bill 1955 –56,these Bills took up the issue of marriage , divorce, succession, guardianship and adoption. The Hindu marriage Act made monogamy legal, outlawed polygamy among all Hindus and conferred equal rights of divorce on both men and women. It also made inter-caste and interreligious marriages legal. It fixed the marriage age for boys and girls. It also made Child marriage punishable. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956,The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961,The Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 were some other acts during this period. The NFIW (National Federation of Indian Women) wing of Communist Party of India. It was established in 1954 by several leaders including Aruna Asaf Ali. It works for the empowerment of women , women's rights. National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) is affiliated to the Women’s international Democratic Federation (WIDF), composed primarily of women from socialist countries.
In 1971 ,the CPI(M) set up the Shramik Mahila Sangathana(Working Women's Organization), to mobilize women of the lower middle and working class affected by the growing economic crisis and economic hardship. The anti-price rise movement (1973) was a united front composed of women from the CPI(M), Socialist, Congress and non-party middle-class housewives from urban areas in Western India. Founded in 1974. The population base of this movement was the rural and the toiling. It was the year that the official Status of Women Commission published their report, Towards Equality, on women's low and ever decreasing status in Indian society. In 1973-74 Maoist women formed the Progressive Organization of Women, initiating a self-consciously feminist critique of radical leftist politics along with an overarching analysis of gender oppression. This led to other Maoist women’s organizations in Pune and Bombay, culminating in the first major celebration of March 8 as International Women’s Day in 1975 (Kumar 1995). They took up issues like ant dowry campaign, protests against eve teasing-the harassment of women in the street-obscenity, price rise, and against the hardships suffered by women living in slums. With the repression of the Emergency period, the organization disintegrated within only two years of its formation.
From the mid- to late 1980s women’s groups concentrated on providing services to individual women to enable them to gain advantages already given in law. This case work was significantly different from the welfare dispensed by earlier women’s groups. The earlier groups sought amelioration; the new groups sought recognition and realization of rights (Agnes 1992; Forbes 1996). Some of the important women’s organizations in this period included, SEWA, National commission of Women (New Delhi), National Council of Women (Pune), Joint Women's Program ( Delhi), Kali for Women (Delhi) and several others. Self Employed women’s association ( SEWA) the aim and goal of this organization was to provide full employment and reliance to women. Women’s Association ( SEWA,) was founded by the Civil rights leader Ela Bhatt. Its aim is to provide full employment and self-reliance to women. Its aim for its workers is to be able to hold his or her own against tyranny from employers or the state and provide social security
The 73rd amendment has made an effort to provide women with some special powers in all the 3 tiers of Panchayati Raj. As per the act, ⅓ of seats are reserved for women in addition to the seats reserved for SCs and STs. It was indeed a bold step. The rural women will also be now able to exercise some political power and play a role in decision making for village affairs.
The act has not brought about miraculous changes as expected. Though it has brought awareness on the part of women but to an extent only. Following drawbacks have been found after analyzing the impact of the Act’s implementation-
Special Marriage Act, 1954 – It provides women with the rights to inter-caste marriage, love marriage and is only permitted for the girls above 18 years.