Women’s empowerment, or autonomy, is a multifaceted concept. In a patriarchal society, as exists in large parts of India, men are placed in a more advantageous position than women. The family lineage and living arrangements are centered on men, and inheritance and succession practices tend to neglect women as well.

The state of male supremacy is reflected in the child rearing and caring practices, the celebrations for the birth of a male child and the differential treatment meted out to boys. Access to nutrition, child care and education all favour boys over girls. From a very early age, a girl is socialized to give priority to the needs of the male members in the family.

The effect of these practices is a tilt in the power relations in favour of males. Women’s empowerment is essentially an effort to rectify this imbalance and attain gender equity [1].

The most common indicators for measuring empowerment measure capabilities, education and health in particular, and control over economic and political resources and decision-making. Numerous factors environmental, socio-cultural, political and economic affect women’s health outcomes. The excess health burden for women negatively impacts the health of families and communities [2].

The WHO concludes that there is significant greater impact on several health related outcomes, including mortality rates for children under five years of age, adult female and male mortality, adult female and male life expectancy at birth and total fertility rates when it is compared to income, women’s educational level, particularly the aspects of generation and utilization of new knowledge [3].

Gains in women’s health have been uneven and gaps continue to exist in accessing healthcare, which reflects class ethnic, and rural and urban inequalities among others. Lack of infrastructure, capacity building and financing continue to be the issues as does societal discrimination. Hence, WHO (2008) report focuses on primary healthcare as a means to address inequalities in access [4 5].

The health of Indian women is intrinsically linked to their status in society. Research on women’s status has found that the contributions made by Indian women to families are often overlooked, and instead they are viewed as economic burdens.

Sampling Method: Interview technique was used to fill the predesigned and pretested proforma.

Sample Collection: All married females from 200 households were interviewed in rural (CHC Bhadson) and urban (MCH Center Tripuri) field practice areas attached with department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala (100 households each from rural and urban). And urban (MCH Center Tripuriatt) field practice area attached with department of community medicine, Government medical college Patiala.

Married females from age group of 18 – 49 years were included in this study. A pre-tested proforma was used to collect information of knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding women empowerment and their health status. Every 5^th house was selected by systematic random sampling technique in both the areas.

In this way, 200 houses including 100 each in urban and rural areas were surveyed and every married women in the house in the age group of 18-49 years was interviewed. Total 110 married females from rural and 103 married females from urban area were included in the study.

Information was collected regarding their sociodemographic characteristics, their health status, their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding various domains under study. Every women was interviewed individually. On an average each women was interviewed for 45 minutes. The study was conducted between March 2011 to June 2012.

Inclusion Criteria: Those women who were married from age group 18-49 years and submitted written consent to participate in the study included.

Exclusion Criteria: those married females were excluded from the study who were not fulfilling the above criteria and refused to submit the written consent for the study.

Statistical Methods: were used to collect so and analysis the data.

Ethical Consideration and Permission: The permission was obtained from the Institutional Ethical Committee.

The major findings of the study are as below:

Table-1: Knowledge of Respondents about

Table 5 depicts that majority (60.91% rural and 51.46% urban women) reported that they had experienced domestic violence.

The data also reveal that the attitude of husbands in urban is better (63.11%) to give helping hand in household work as compared to rural area husbands (49.09 %).

Table- 6: Health Status of Respondent

Table 6 depicts that the overall health status of the respondents in rural areas is better as compared to urban areas (18.2% and 28.15% health problems respectively.

Table-7: Comparison of the Empowerment Status of the Respondents

Table 7 reveals that status of empowerment in the rural as well as urban women is better among those who are employed.

Table-8: Socioeconomic Status of Respondents Versus Attitude Regarding Different Domestic Issues

Percentage of Sikh population in this study was less (43.64% rural and 22.33% urban) as compared to that of Punjab where Sikh population is 53%.

Literacy rate of urban women was 96.12% which was higher than rural women where literacy rate was 80%. Female literacy rate has increased from 53% in 2001 to 65.46% in 2011 in India [6].

Literacy rate in Punjab of women in rural as well as in urban areas is much better than the figures at National Level i.e. NFHS-3 Survey 69% [7]. According to National Family Welfare Statistics (NFWS) in 2011 it is 71.34%. [8].

In a study conducted in South India in 2007 to assess reproductive health awareness 79.5% of women aged 13-49 years of age knew that legal age of marriage and reported that child bearing before the age of 20 years is unsafe and endanger life [9].

The mean age of marriage and mean age at first pregnancy was higher in urban area women as compared to the women from rural area. According to NFHS-3 the median age at first marriage in Punjab is 19.8 years among the women.

One-fifth of women age 20-24 years got married before the legal minimum age of 18 years [7] in a study carried out in Kabul by International Centre For Reproductive Health, University of Ghent, Belgium in 2002 the mean age at marriage was 17.2 years .16.2 percent of the participating women are were married at the age of 14 years or younger, [10].

A study carried out by Aggarwal et al (2004), 84% pregnant and 92.2 % lactating women were with severe anaemia in 9.2 and 7.3 per cent respectively [13]. thirty eight percent of Punjab women have anaemia, 26 percent with mild, 10 percent moderate and 1 percent with severe anaemia [11].

Status of anaemia according to National Family Welfare Statistics, NFWS (2011) is that 20.8% in India and 48.05% in Punjab are anaemic [8].

Amartya Sen analyzed that 100 million women are missing from this planet due to worsening gender ratio in India, China, South and West Asia et. United Nations Children Fund estimated that upto 50 million women and girls are missing from India only because of female foeticide or high mortality rate of girl child due to lack of proper care in home and at health facilities, son preference and sex ratio in India (940) and in Punjab (893) continues to be unfavourable to females.

contributed to guide, collect and analyse the data. Dr. Yash Mitra along with author and co-authors contributed to construct the tables and helped in corresponding various activities to complete the original article. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

There are problems of knowledge, attitude and practices regarding existing education system, legal age of marriage, partial family welfare services, MMR, IMR, infanticide and foeticide, Honour killings.

Therefore following steps by the health department in particular and in general the Govt. and community must share the responsibility to empower the women by implementing and enforcing following steps to change the worst scenario existing in rural areas of Punjab and even the slums of urban areas of Punjab:

• Literacy rate is to be enhanced.
• The health and family welfare department should start a campaign in the sub-urban, urban and rural areas to educate the population regarding legal age of marriage, to provide family welfare services in addition to the health services.
• The activities of health and family welfare department will lead to decrease in various morbidity and mortality (MMR, IMR, infanticide, foeticide) rates. It is further recommended that the campaign by the health and family welfare department should be a continuous process to sustain and enhance the health status of the women in the family.
• The community leaders as well as the Government authorities should have a vigorous campaign of education and counseling against honour killings in the community.
• The attitudes or opinions of the women in a family are definitely influenced by the better empowerment status of the women so it is recommended that provision of education, employment and improving their socio economic status by the Government and responsibilities of families will lead to better health status and modification in the overall health scenario of the family, community, state as well as the country.