Author(s): Shruthi S, Nutan Kumari and Jyoti S Hallad

Abstract:
Women’s empowerment has been a global priority, to achieve significant growth and economic development of a country. The present study attempts to analyze the women's financial autonomy, property ownership and participation in household decision making across India based on the recently released NFHS-5 (National Family Health Survey) dataset. Bivariate and logistic regression was used to identity significant predictors of empowerment in each domain and adjusted odds ratios along with their 95% confidence intervals. The Findings reveal that 30.7% of women are involved in financial decision-making, 30.4% of women own property, and 19.2% participate in major household decisions. Factors such as age, education, occupation, wealth index, and place of residence are significantly associated with these dimensions of women's empowerment. Notably, state-level variations are evident: financial empowerment is highest in Goa (68%), ownership of property is most prevalent in Telangana (52%), and household decision-making is highest in Tamil Nadu (40%). These findings offer valuable insights into the relationship between women's property ownership and overall empowerment among women in India.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/23957476.2025.v11.i3e.2015