This article outlines the significance of the decentralisation reforms, which turned the dual federation of India into a multi-tier system, mandating systemic outcomes in democracy, accountability, local economic development, and social justice. It also examines how the grand design to strengthen the process of horizontal equity at the local level failed and probes into the potential of the Mission Antyodaya project to give an improved lease of life to the reforms and rural development.
A comprehensive literature review summarises what is known about the implementation and effectiveness of women’s groups in improving nutrition outcomes, and highlights key areas that the next generation of studies could focus on, both from implementation and evaluation standpoints. Women’s groups are undoubtedly widespread; our focus now should be on building robust evidence on how to actualise their substantial potential.
While self-help groups are seen as vital to successful anti-poverty policies , they have failed to develop the collective bargaining power of women and comprehensively incorporate the demands made by beneficiaries.
A study of three villages in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, reveals that there is an alarming decline in female agricultural wage labour, resulting in de-feminisation, devastating poverty and outmigration of young boys and men in the Terai region. De-agrarianisation in combination with the revived patriarchal “good woman” ideology explains the crises of female wage labour. The Government of West Bengal’s Anandadhara programme seeks to integrate poor women into the financial flow through microcredit/self-helf groups. However, poor landless and marginal farm women are faced with various obstacles in becoming self-employed entrepreneurs.
This paper analyses the impact of the economic programmes of SHARE, an NGO in Tamil Nadu, on poverty reduction, with the help of data collected from the households of 84 women members. The economic programmes contributed to savings and income increase for the women. However, the member group was not found to be significantly different from the comparison group in terms of control over income and decision-making.
