Impact Factor : 5.750 
PAPER ID:IJIM/V.2(VIII)/236-241/38
AUTHOR: Pankaj Kumar Garg
ABSTRACT: Women empowerment and promoting women’s rights have emerged as a part of a major global movement and is continuing to break new ground in recent years. Empowerment provides a greater access to knowledge and resources, more independence in decision making, considerable ability to plan lives, more control over the circumstances which influence lives, and freedom from customs, beliefs and practices. Thus, women empowerment is a process in which women challenge the existing norms and culture, to effectively promote their well being. But despite a great deal of progress, women and girls continue to face discrimination and violence in every part of the world. Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities and countries. The issue of religion based family laws in India has been looked at from many perspectives i.e. secularism, modernity, national unity and integration, community identity, religious freedom and the right to equality. The different religious communities like Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Paris are governed by their respective personal law either codified or un-codified rules on issues relating to marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and inheritance. In India, during British rule some religion based practices which were found particularly unjust, backward and barbaric were modified and unified. In Indian society, women occupy a vital position. Domestic relations law has struggled with achieving the goals of women empowerment and has never truly found a place in the family law arena. So, through this research paper, the author has made an attempt to find out the role of various family laws particularly along with the landmark judicial pronouncements in ensuring the women empowerment in India. The author has adopted the doctrinal approach and analyzed the various available study material, journals, reports and authenticated websites in completing the present study.
KEYWORDS: Women Empowerment, Discrimination, Customs, Secularism, Religion, Family Law, Codification, Equality.