Role of Public Libraries in Information Literacy for Women Empowerment: With special reference to Kanyashree girls of Nabagram in Murshidabad District of West Bengal

As per Michelle Obama, "No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens". It is quite lucid that empowerment of women means making women economically and socially independent, self-reliant, confident and positive in attitude. Kanyashree Prakalpa is considered as one of the most significant tools in this regard with a participatory approach for the empowerment of women. This helps the women to develop themselves individually and to participate in the developmental activities of the family and society. The main objective of the conduct of the study is to find out the level of socio-economic empowerment of women through Kanyashree Prakalpa. The result of the study clearly shows that Kanyashree Prakalpa creates a great opportunity for women for their socio-economic empowerment. The study further revealed that the role of public libraries in empowering women is undoubtedly profound.