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Microcredit as a poverty alleviation strategy, women's empowerment and gender relations
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Kumari, Kumar Bhargavi Valsala. Microcredit as a poverty alleviation strategy, women's empowerment and gender relations. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3VQ321H

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TitleMicrocredit as a poverty alleviation strategy, women's empowerment and gender relations
NameKumari, Kumar Bhargavi Valsala (author); Fernandes, Leela (chair); Hodgson, Dorothy (internal member); BROOKS, ETHEL (internal member); SWAMINATHAN, PADMINI (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2011
Other Date2011-05 (degree)
SubjectWomen's and Gender Studies, Microfinance--India, Women-owned business enterprises--India, Women-owned business enterprises--Finance
Extentxi, 291 p. : ill.
DescriptionThis dissertation is about how women are empowered when they gain access to small loans (microcredit) and how that alters or reinforces existing gender relations. My study shows that “the poor” is not a monolithic entity but is an aggregation of differentiated categories with the most vulnerable segments of society occupying the lowest rung of society. The state-civil society synergy that is so characteristic of the state of Kerala does not percolate down to the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society and the tribes for a variety of reasons. If these segments of the population have to benefit, the structure of microcredit has to be redesigned to make it more appropriate and responsive to their special needs. Microcredit provides the entry point but it is the networking that empowers impoverished women who lack material resources. Networking itself is an umbrella term that entails different kinds of networking. My conclusion is that the women-centric microcredit program sponsored by the state marks a departure from the earlier paradigms of developments in which women were not placed at the center of developmental activities. The new paradigm is the state’s attempt at negotiating privatized strategies of development in the larger context of liberalization espoused by the Indian state. My study reveals that microcredit does help women tide over the emergency needs of the family without relying on others. But it is not a substitute for long term structural problems of poverty. The social solidarity generated by different kinds of networking helps women’s empowerment by way of expanding their consciousness through new knowledge including legal literacy and through exposure to other people with other ideals and ethics. I also find that the social capital generated by the networking of over 3.7 million women through self help groups has not transformed into organized demand cutting across party politics for radical changes like redistribution of resources especially arable land. Microcredit has functioned to depoliticize what could have been a progressive politics for gender equity.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
NoteIncludes vita
Noteby Kumar Bhargavi Valsala Kumari
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3VQ321H
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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