Special Provisions for Protection and Empowerment of Differently-Abled Women in India

Abstract

Women empowerment means giving powers to women so they can decide for their lives or inculcate such abilities in them so that they could be able to find their rightful place in society. The main reason for empowering women is due to domination and discrimination against women faced by them since ages. India was a patriarchal society where women were subjected to ill practices and tortures by men and society as a whole. Because of such long practices, even women themselves got used to such domination and torture. There are also women and girls with disabilities who are likely to experience the double discrimination, which includes the gender-based violence, abuse and marginalization, and also discrimination due to their disabilities.  Women with disabilities are three times more likely to experience gender-based violence compared to non-disabled ones. As a result, women with disabilities often must confront additional disadvantages even as compared to men with disabilities and women without disabilities. Though to eliminate these ill practices and discrimination against women various constitutional and legal rights are there but in actual, there are tons to be done. Several self-help groups and NGOs; both at the international and national levels are working for upliftment; also women themselves are breaking the societal barriers and achieving great heights altogether dimensions. But society as a whole has still not accepted women as being equal to men and violence, or abuses against women are still on the rise especially when the women are disabled. This paper outlines various constitutional and legal provisions relating to empowerment and protection of women who are experiencing double discrimination, i.e. gender and disability discrimination and attitude towards women with disability at international level and keen role played by NGOs, self-help groups and government policies and also discusses various suggestion to combat discrimination against disabled women.