Gender Equality in India: Ideas of Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda is the prominent thinker of India, not only a thinker but also known by a monk, teacher, leader, mystic, philosopher also. Education for youth is the main thought of him, but with this, he always stressed upon the dignity, identity, equality of the entire individual. In all dynamics of society individual participation is the main subject and that could be possible only when equality will prevail and character formation would develop. Development is the ultimate goal of any nation and that could be achieved through the gender equality. Gender is the cultural construction of society and sex is the biological concept but both the meaning of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchanged by people which would lead to misunderstood and for this equality cannot properly be explained. According to Swami Vivekananda “There is no change for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing” which denoted the one side of development but full development cannot be met by this. India`s patriarchy use to dominate women pertain to their education, health, employment, these three basic parameters will be analyzed in this paper and also give a proper example with reference to India. In addition to this, thoughts of Vivekananda always supported girls to educate themselves on Japa, Yoga, Meditation, Moral development, worship and also religion and science; with this support, they will enjoy their equal rights with the men.