• The reality of gender inequality in India is very complex and diversified, because it is present in many ways, many fields and many classes.  
• Over the past decade, gender equality and women‘s empowerment have been explicitly recognized as key not only to the health of nations, but also to social and economic development. India‘s National Population Policy 2000 has empowering women for health and nutrition as one of its crosscutting strategic themes. Additionally, the promotion of gender equality and empowering of women was one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to which India was a signatory.  

Three important aspect of gender can be identified-

1. Gender tends not be value neutral. The roles, rights, and obligations assigned to each sex are not just different, but also unequal with male roles and rights generally being valued more highly than female roles and rights.
2. Gender involves differences in power, both power to and power over”. The concept of power to encompass legal and informal rights, access to resources, and pursuit of knowledge and personal goals, and cuts across most domains of human functioning, including familial, cultural, and institutional domains
3. Gender is not static or immutable. Being socially constructed, gender roles, rights, and expectations can change over time and across geographical space as societal needs, opportunities, and customs change.

• In the ancient India women were held in high esteem and the position of a woman in the Vedas and the Upanishads was that of a mother (maata) or goddess (Devi). In the Manusmriti, woman was considered as a precious being and in the early Vedic age, girls were looked after with care. 
• Then practice of polygamy deteriorated the status of woman and in the medieval period, the practices of purda system, dowry and sati came into being.
• With the passage of time, the status of woman was lowered. After the development of science and technology, female foeticide is being practiced on a large scale. This has led to a drop in the female ratio. According to the census 2001, the sex ratio in India is 927 females to   1,000 males. And then dowry have become common and started Female infanticide practices in few areas. 
• In many parts of India, women are viewed as an economic liability despite contribution in several ways to our society and economy. The crime graph against women is increasing at an alarming rate. The condition of an Indian widow is quite deplorable.
• At home, the woman’s contribution towards home as a housewife is not recognized. Domestic Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation, molestation, eve-teasing, forced prostitution, sexual harassment at workplaces etc. are a common affair today and in some cases, it’s too tragic that it gets the global attention.  
• The major reasons for this inequality are identified as the need of a male heir for the family, huge dowry, continued financial support to a girl child, poverty, domestic violence, farming as a major job for poor and the caste system. 
• At work, the disparity is visible through a different working environment for women, unequal wages, undignified treatment, sexual harassment, higher working hours, engagement in harmful industries, occupational hazards, working roughly twice as many hours as men and a nearly 27 percentage of women are accounted by unpaid activities.  
• Violence against women is also prominent in India which leads to every 42 minutes a sexual harassment occurring, every 43 minutes a woman kidnapped and every 93 minutes a woman is burnt for dowry. And by the pre-quarter of reported, rapes involve girls under the age of 16 years. Every 26 minutes a woman is molested and every 34 minutes a rape take place.  
• Poor health care is another attitude towards women which makes them neglected during illness, recognition of illness by herself, health services as a last resort and reluctance to be examined by male doctors.
• Lack of education in women has led to poor literacy leading to the gender gap in literacy rate and no higher education. Discriminative socialization process is another aspect of inequality towards women which leads to customary practices, more involvement in household activities only (boys not allowed), restricted to play , isolation, separation in schools and public places and restrictions to move freely.  
• Detrimental cultural practices like after marriage husbands dominating the family , dominance from In-laws family , members , never or rarely considered for any decision making, limitations in continuing relationships with brothers , sisters , relatives, child or early marriage, patriarchal attitudes and not able to continue girl or boy friendship after marriage are also contributing factor to the inequality. 
• In Governance this inequality is visible, after over sixty years of independence women are still exploited , the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments have provided 33 percent reservation for women in the Panchayati Raj System ,Panchayat and Parliament totally 790 seats by filling 6.6-8.4 percentage , women Reservation bill delayed, cast disparity and the men domination in administration. 
• Strategies for advancement of women should be higher literacy, more formal education, greater employment opportunity. In education it needs to be reducing primary and secondary dropout of female child. In post literacy, the basic literacy skills at speaking, reading, and writing and problem solving shall be imparted. Women learners should educate their children which further enhances social advancement.  

In job opportunities there shall be reservation or expenditure or provision of services or special provisions. In governance all rights and all legal measures should be available for women’s protection and support.   Human rights education , know how to take control of their circumstance , help to achieve their own goals, helping themselves, enhancing their quality of life and motivating for lobbying or advocacy are also enablers for their advancement.   Collaborators such as NGO, INGOs, NPOs, SHGs, CBOs, policy makers, local leaders , information disseminators ,health care providers , teachers and family members should help in the social advancement of women.