Abstract Education, throughout the ages, has been increasingly recognized as key factor in the progress and survival of the individual and the society. Education acquired a great importance after the independence of the country. It was realized that if we really want to bring positive changes in society we need to educate all the citizens. The women constitute half of the country’s population and therefore it was important to educate them .It was felt that the socio-economic development of a country cannot be fully realized so long as its women are confined to subordinate position and their talents remain unexplored. It was thus concluded that educating women would help in their empowerment, enhance their status and they would be able to contribute their bit for society and play an important role in nation building. This realization inspired the founding fathers of the constitution of free India to include liberal educational provisions in the constitution. There are as many as 32 Articles in the Sixth and Seventh schedule of the Constitution which pertain to Education. Apart from Constitutional provisions, the Government of India also started various programmes from time to time, to promote women education in the country. The present paper tries to look into various causes of low literacy among women in India and the paper also tries to go through some major programmes and policies on education initiated by the Government of India, which have helped in encouraging and promoting education of women in India and are working towards their empowerment.