Chaotic, raucous, bustling and diverse- these are among the multitude of labels applicable to the world's largest liberal democracy. Home to 1.19 billion people representing a plethora of religious faiths, India is certainly a melting pot of cultures and traditions. Yet, this 2,973,190 sq km sub-continent is also becoming an increasingly prominent economic player. According to a Goldman Sachs report Dreaming with BRICs: The Path to 2050, India could become the third largest global economy by 2040. The March 2006 U.S.-India nuclear deal, a marriage of the world's richest and largest democracies, marks India's latest step onto the world stage, and such developments are inciting increasing interest in this nascent superpower.

India's economic advancement is underpinned by equally important domestic changes, particularly with regard to the position of women. In an April 2006 article, published by the Foreign Policy Association, Pat Orvis, a United Nations correspondent described "A quiet revolution growing here in the world's biggest democracy. The women of India are uniting to free themselves from centuries of gender-based restrictions, and it has made life for many both better and worse".

In many ways, economic development has facilitated an expansion of female choice, and "as businesses go into the country, it does give women opportunities", Seema Desai, Director of the Foreign Policy Center's Rising Powers Program, said. Outsourcing, the delegation of non-core jobs to an external entity, has changed the employment market. Companies such as Dell and AT&T wireless have received enormous publicity for their decision to use non-US labor, and call centers have sprung up throughout India. The country has also proved an attractive location for financial outsourcing of data analysis operations. Daily transaction data generated by the New York Stock exchange is sent to analysis centers in Bangalore, advantageous because of its position at the opposite end of the time zone. This outsourcing trend has increased female employment opportunities indeed, "you can now go to Bangalore and now see women working in the call centers", said Dr Gareth Price, Head of the Asia Program at Chatham House.

However, the impact of economic development on female choice is also refracted through a prism of geographic and socio-economic considerations. The presence of women at the apex of the career ladder is certainly increasing, but acceptance of female economic empowerment has been slower to percolate to lower levels. According to Desai, "there are now very senior women in politics, business and non-government organizations but, below this, women are still expected to play a care-giver role…the tendency is still to go for more feminized occupations", she said.

The effect of India's economic development on its female population is also informed by rural-urban divisions. Economic advancement has fuelled the expansion of urban agglomerations such as Chennai and Mumbai, whilst Delhi is ranked the 5th most populous megalopolis in the world with a population of 19.5million people. Yet despite this growth, 70% of the population dwell in rural areas, and 60% of the 496.4million strong national labor force are employed in agriculture. Consequently, the influence of economic progress on the position of women in rural communities is often minimal. "Most people in India work in agriculture and developments in big cities are often completely unrelated to the lives of Indian women who are poor and work on farms", said Price.

This rural-urban dichotomy is also pertinent to cultural changes in the position of women. The practice of arranged marriage, a union based on considerations other than pre-existing mutual attraction of partners, provides an instructive case in point. Indian marriages are often considered a union of families rather than individuals. The custom is rooted in the Hindu tradition, and emerged historically, under a rigid caste system which prohibited free mixing of the sexes.

Although arranged marriages remain common in modern India, "attitudes have definitely changed over the past few decades as people have become more mobile", Desai said. Whereas girls aged eight or nine were once considered eligible for marriage the legal age of marital consent is now 18 for females and 21 for males. Yet beneath this general liberalization, the rural-urban divide remains present. In urban areas such as Bangalore and Delhi, an influx of foreign investment and business has vastly augmented female employment prospects. Such expanded opportunities have induced some women to postpone marriage and child-bearing in favor of a career. By contrast, in many rural communities, the comparative lack of female opportunity has served to buttress the custom. "In many cities, a larger number of people do not practice arranged marriages but in rural areas it remains quite prevalent", said Desai.

Economic and geopolitical advancement have evidently improved the quality of life for many Indian women. However, the consequent amplification of female choice is paralleled by the continuation of a plethora of seemingly intractable problems. "India is so big and there are lots of different trends throughout the place. For all the stories of women's empowerment, there are also gruesome stories which suggest women are not empowered", Price said.

The persistence of sex selective abortion and female infanticide exemplify this dichotomy. According to a January 2006 report published by the British medical journal, The Lancet, an estimated 10million female foetus may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years. The 1991 sex ratio of 945 females per 1,000 males dropped to 927 females per 1,000 males by 2001, and it is estimated that by 2020 there will be 35million surplus young men in the world's twin emerging superpowers, India and China.

The marked preference for sons in India is the product of socio-economic and religious forces. Men are more likely to supply an income and old-age support, whereas the dowry system means daughters merit a financial burden upon marriage. India's economic growth spurt has accentuated the economic value attached to male offspring. Measured in purchasing power parity, India is the 4th largest global economic power, and the male bias is "linked to economic growth and liberalization; it is now seen that having a son will enable a family to benefit more from the economic boom", said Desai.

Cultural considerations have also encouraged discrimination against female children. India's patriarchal family system means sons are an essential pre-requisite for the continuation of the blood line. In this respect, "men are seen as much more important than women", Price said. Such familial requirements are buttressed by the tenets of Hinduism to create a religious preference for sons. According to the Hindu faith, sons are obligated to light the funeral pyre of their late parents, an act which is crucial to salvation of the soul.

Sex selective abortion and female infanticide are among the largest obstacles to female empowerment in modern India, yet there is cause for optimism. Earlier this year a doctor and his assistant were jailed for two years in Delhi for using ultrasound scans to facilitate gender-based terminations. On a national level, the government has also joined forces with the international charity; PLAN to highlight the problem through a 13 part soap opera entitled Atmajaa or Born from the Soul.

Furthermore, initiatives to combat female infanticide have also been taken at a state level. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, efforts are being made to address the underlying economic causes. Families with at least one daughter and no sons are eligible for state government subsidies on the condition that either one of the parents are sterilized. Payments amounting to US$160 are made annually throughout the child's education, and on the occasion of the daughter's 20th birthday, a lump sum of US$650 is provided to contribute to the dowry or fund further education.

Whilst these initiatives constitute an important attempt to address female feticide and infanticide, the scale of the problem remains overwhelming. Such practices are inextricably linked to the institution of the dowry, based upon the ancient customs of kangadon 'giving away the daughter' and varadakshina, 'gifting the groom'. This places an enormous financial burden on the parents of female children, and has created intense social pressure to produce male offspring. Consequently, analysts suggest that despite commendable national and state initiatives, attitudes will take much longer to change. According to Price, "one would think that the value of women will eventually rise because there will be less of them, but this hasn't happened yet". Desai endorses this, "female feticide is illegal but there are clinics that will go ahead nonetheless….you can have laws but it takes longer to shift social attitudes", she said.

India's economic development, and the assumption of an increasingly important geopolitical role, has undoubtedly encouraged positive change. Foreign investment has increased female opportunities, and augmented employment prospects have facilitated shifts in traditional cultural conceptions of women. However, this huge and diverse nation defies generalization. Whilst, the quality of life for many women has increased, the horizons of others are constrained by pressure to produce sons or suffer the economic penalty. Female empowerment for these women remains a foreign and distant dream.