THE SPATIAL LANDSCAPE OF GENDER INEQUALITY: EVALUATING FEMALE EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA USING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

Female empowerment is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional determinant of economic growth, yet its regional distribution within India remains unevenly studied. This paper constructs a Female Empowerment Index for all 28 Indian states and 8 union territories using NFHS-5 (2019–2021) data across three standardized indicators: female literacy, spousal violence prevalence, and women\'s participation in household decision-making. Principal Component Analysis is used to derive composite weights, with the first principal component explaining approximately 68% of total variance, followed by hierarchical clustering using Ward\'s linkage and Euclidean distance to identify spatial patterns of empowerment across states. Silhouette score analysis identifies five distinct clusters, ranging from comprehensively high-performing states such as Kerala, Mizoram, and Goa, to structurally marginalized clusters comprising a substantial proportion of states. The analysis also reveals a subgroup—including Tamil Nadu and Manipur—where high literacy and decision-making autonomy coexist with elevated reported rates of spousal violence, highlighting the multidimensional nature of empowerment. Results indicate substantial intra-zonal as well as inter-zonal disparity, suggesting that national-level averages may mask meaningful state-level heterogeneity. The findings support a shift away from uniform, top-down policy design toward localized, state-specific interventions, particularly in education, safety, and household decision-making. As India pursues continued economic growth, the paper argues that regionally targeted investment in female literacy, safety, and household decision-making capacity is important to translating national gender policy into measurable empowerment outcomes.