GENDER EQUALITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF WOMEN WELFARE PROGRAMMES IN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i7s.2026.8190Keywords:
Gender Equality, Women Welfare Programmes, Social Transformation, Sustainable Development, NFHS-5, Self-Help Groups, India, Secondary Data AnalysisAbstract [English]
Gender equality and women's empowerment are universally recognised as foundational prerequisites for sustainable development, enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) of the 2030 Agenda. Despite substantive policy commitments and the proliferation of women welfare programmes across India, the translation of these interventions into lasting social transformation remains uneven, contested, and insufficiently evidenced at the aggregate level. This study undertakes a systematic secondary data analysis to examine the role of women welfare programmes in advancing gender equality and fostering sustainable social transformation in India. Drawing upon nationally representative and internationally validated datasets — including the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5, 2019-21), NFHS-4 (2015-16), the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS, 2022-23), the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report (2023), the UNDP Gender Inequality Index (2022), the Economic Survey 2022-23, and MoWCD Annual Reports — the study evaluates trends across economic empowerment, educational attainment, health and nutrition, and social and political agency dimensions. Findings reveal that welfare programmes have produced measurable gains across key access indicators: women's bank account ownership rose by 25.6 percentage points to 78.6%; institutional delivery rates reached 88.6%; and the SHG ecosystem now covers 142 million families through 12 million women-led groups. However, structural transformation indicators — spousal violence (−1.8 pp), child marriage (23.3%), and cash-paid employment (+0.8 pp) — remain near-stagnant, exposing a fundamental paradox at the heart of India's gender policy: impressive programme reach has not yet produced commensurate changes in power relations, economic agency, or social norms. The study contributes an intersectional, multi-source analytical framework to the gender equality literature and concludes with evidence-based policy recommendations for rights-based, convergent, and intersectional welfare programme design.
References
Anderson, S. (2024). The complexity of female empowerment in India. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 31(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/23210222241237030 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23210222241237030
Brody, C., De Hoop, T., Vojtkova, M., Warnock, R., Dunbar, M., Murthy, P., & Dworkin, S. L. (2022). Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women's self-help group program on household economic well-being in India. Journal of Development Studies, 59(4), 490–515. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2154151 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2154151
Casini, P., Vandewalle, L., & Mzayek, F. (2021). The power of the collective empowers women: Evidence from self-help groups in India. World Development, 146, 105616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105616 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105579
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Deininger, K., & Liu, Y. (2013). Economic and social impacts of an innovative self-help group model in India. World Development, 43, 149–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.09.019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.09.019
Drishti IAS. (2022). NFHS-5: A women-centric analysis. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-news-editorials/nfhs-5-a-women-centric-analysis
Esquivel, V., & Sweetman, C. (2016). Gender and the sustainable development goals. Gender and Development, 24(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2016.1153318 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2016.1153318
Frontiers in Public Health. (2025). Gender budgeting in the post-pandemic period: An analysis in the context of health and safety of women in India. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1654318 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1654318
Gopalakrishnan, L., El Ayadi, A., & Diamond-Smith, N. (2024). The role of community-level men's and women's inequitable gender norms on women's empowerment in India: A multilevel analysis using NFHS-5. PLOS ONE, 19(12), e0312465. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312465 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312465
Guduza, S. and Tshelane, M. (2026). The Role Of Education In Perpetuating Or Reducing Social Inequality: A Comparative Analysis Across Socioeconomic Groups With Case Studies From Sweden, The United States, And South Africa. ShodhSamajik: Journal of Social Studies, 3(1), 84-95. https://dx.doi.org/10.29121/ShodhSamajik.v3.i1.2026.69 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29121/ShodhSamajik.v3.i1.2026.69
Holmes, R., & Jones, N. (2013). Gender and social protection in the developing world: Beyond mothers and safety nets. Zed Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350220300
India Development Review (IDR). (2022). What does NFHS-5 data tell us about women empowerment in India? https://idronline.org/what-does-nfhs-5-data-tell-us-about-women-empowerment-in-india/
IndiaSPEND. (2024). How India's women and girls have fared. https://www.indiaspend.com/data-viz/how-indias-women-girls-have-fared-in-the-modi-years-904079
IWWAGE. (2023). Women and work 2023: Looking ahead towards women-led sustainable development. Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality. https://iwwage.org
IWWAGE. (2024). Women and work 2024. Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality. https://iwwage.org
JSSPI. (2025). A study of the government-led Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme. Journal of Social Sciences and Policy Implications, 13. https://jsspi.thebrpi.org/journals/jsspi/Vol_13_2025/5.pdf
Kabeer, N. (1994). Reversed realities: Gender hierarchies in development thought. Verso.
Kabeer, N. (2005). Gender equality and women's empowerment: A critical analysis of the third millennium development goal. Gender and Development, 13(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332273 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332273
Lim, S. S., Dandona, L., Hoisington, J. A., James, S. L., Hogan, M. C., & Gakidou, E. (2010). India's Janani Suraksha Yojana: An impact evaluation. The Lancet, 375(9730), 2009–2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60744-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60744-1
Ministry of Finance, Government of India. (2023). Economic Survey 2022-23. Government of India Press.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). (2017). National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16: India report. IIPS.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). (2021). National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21: India report. IIPS.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). (2023). Periodic Labour Force Survey annual report 2022-23. Government of India.
Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD). (2023). Annual report 2022-23. Government of India. https://wcd.nic.in
Moser, C. (1993). Gender planning and development: Theory, practice and training. Routledge.
Muralidharan, K., & Prakash, N. (2017). Cycling to school: Increasing secondary school enrollment for girls in India. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(3), 321–350. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160004
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.
Swaminathan, M. (2020). Credit access and women's micro-entrepreneurship in India: Evidence from PM Mudra Yojana. Journal of Development Studies, 56(4), 782–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1626835 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1626835
UN Women. (2018). Turning promises into action: Gender equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://www.unwomen.org
UN Women. (2023). Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2023. UN Women and UN DESA.
UNICEF. (2017). Gender equality: Glossary of terms and concepts. https://www.unicef.org/rosa/media/1761/file/Gender%20glossary%20of%20terms%20and%20concepts%20.pdf
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2024). Human Development Report 2023-24. UNDP. https://hdr.undp.org
Vartanian, T. P. (2011). Secondary data analysis. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388817.001.0001
Vignitha, R., et al. (2024). Women's empowerment in India: State-wise insights from the National Family Health Survey 5. Cureus, 16(8). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.67134 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.65509
World Economic Forum (WEF). (2023). Global gender gap report 2023. WEF. https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2023
World Health Organization (WHO). (2011). Gender mainstreaming for health managers: A practical approach. WHO. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/44516
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Anika Gandhi, Dr. Lopamudra Das
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute, and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask for further permission from the author or journal board.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
