In the 1980's Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) was virtually unheard of in India. A diagnosis of ASD in India was rare, and there was little information available. The majority of children with ASD routinely received a diagnosis of mental retardation. Others were diagnosed as having ‘Minimal Brain Dysfunction’, were called slow learners or deemed to have behaviour problems. The prevalence rate of ASD is approximately 1 in 500 or 0.20% or more than 2,160,000 people in India. The incidence rate of ASD is approximately 1 in 90,666 or 11,914 people in India. If attending school at all, children with ASD mostly were found in facilities for the mentally retarded, where the same intervention techniques were provided to all children. Generally women are subjected to social, cultural and economic disadvantages, making it more difficult for them to take part in community life. They also experience inequality in hiring, promotion rates and pay for equal work, access to training and retraining, credit and other productive resources, and rarely participate in economic decision making. Girls and Women with ASD face significantly more difficulties in both public and private spheres in attaining access to adequate housing, health, education, vocational training and employment, and are more likely to be institutionalized. Women and girls with disabilities experience double discrimination, which places them at higher risk of gender-based violence, sexual abuse, neglect, maltreatment and exploitation. The World Bank reports that every minute more than 30 women are seriously injured or disabled during labour and that those 15-50 million women generally go unnoticed. Nowadays, both educational and workplace environments become increasingly competitive, autistic children specifically, prevalence rates for sexual abuse are estimated to be 16.6% and 18.5% of children with ASD have been physically abused. Promoting gender equality and empowerment of girls and women are essential to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals. In India, appropriate legislation and services for people with disabilities are few. This paper explains what are the provisions, legislation and schemes available for empowerment of the girls and women with ASD.
