Maharashtra has made significant strides in implementing women-centric policies, with a focus on education, health, safety, and economic empowerment. Due credit is given to Sharad Pawar for setting Maharashtra on the path of women’s empowerment. It was under his leadership that the state administration rolled out the first Women Policy in 1994, a landmark initiative that laid the groundwork for similar policies in the future. The state administration has released three more women’s policies since then, with the latest one introduced earlier this year.
Maharashtra’s fourth and latest women’s policy is aimed at advancing gender equality. Included in this policy is a notable new mandate requiring mothers’ names to be prioritised on official documents. The policy focuses on eight key areas: women’s health, education, and skill-building opportunities; combating gender-based violence; economic opportunities; infrastructure; political participation; climate change adaptation; and a specialised sports policy for women.
Apart from this policy, the present government under Eknath Shinde has rolled out several ambitious schemes aimed at promoting gender inclusiveness. The latest of these, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, specifically targets the financial empowerment of women. Under the scheme, women between the ages of 21 and 65 will receive financial assistance amounting to Rs 1500 every month. Single, unmarried women, single mothers, destitute, divorced, and widowed women are expected to be the beneficiaries of the scheme, enabling them to live with dignity and independence.
The present government has also rolled out other major schemes aimed at improving the lives of women in Maharashtra. These include a 50% concession in travel fares for women of all ages on state transport corporation buses. The Mukhyamantri Annapoorna Yojana scheme promises to provide three free cooking gas cylinders to women every year. The Lek Ladki Yojana offers total assistance of Rs1,01,000/- to every girl child born in the state at five different intervals, a scheme aimed not only at financial empowerment but also at ensuring that the girls don’t drop out of school and don’t leave their education halfway.
However, despite these well-intentioned schemes, the state of women in Maharashtra remains a cause for concern. According to the latest National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report, the state ranks only next to Uttar Pradesh (UP) in terms of the number of crimes against women. This alarming statistic indicates an increasing perception that the state is becoming increasingly unsafe for women. Several challenges must be tackled and issues addressed to ensure the effective implementation of the schemes and achieve maximum impact.
Maharashtra is also one of the few states in India that have enacted laws to ensure equal representation of women in the elected wing of city governments and as presidents of councils. However, despite this equal representation, women political leaders are often not sufficiently empowered and enabled to carry out their responsibilities effectively. Thus, they cannot respond fully to the needs of local governance. Women in such leadership positions also face discrimination and bias when it comes to decision-making, often because of their lack of experience in local politics, compounded by inadequate technical and administrative knowledge. This leads to decisions being taken by a selected, dominant few. Thus, the intent of the law to empower women in local governance is not fulfilled. This problem is intersectional and often affects women at all levels, both at the decision-making level and those in administrative positions implementing programmes and policies.
At the community level, women’s representation is also visible through self-help groups (SHGs), which are predominantly composed of women from low-income and marginalised communities. Maharashtra is one of the few states that has a strong SHG network. However, when it comes to empowering them with livelihood opportunities, there is inequitable treatment. Women’s SHGs face biases in being awarded formal contracts and other livelihood opportunities, preventing these women from developing their collective agency and fully participating in the economic life of their communities.
At the household level, gender dynamics continue to pose challenges, particularly in decision-making related to access to sanitation. Men often dominate these decisions, with insufficient involvement from women, leading to outcomes that do not adequately address women’s needs. As a result, women and girls are forced to use shared toilet facilities, which is detrimental to their menstrual hygiene management (MHM) needs and poses a risk to their overall health and well-being.
Despite these well-intended policies, the gap between policy formulation and effective implementation remains a major challenge. It is now upon the well-rooted political parties to address the issue of these gaps between policies and implementation, ensuring that the ambitious goals set out in these policies are translated into tangible outcomes. The state would need visionary leadership to see this happen.
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