Dissertation Improvement Award: ICTs and Capabilities in the Kudumbashree Mission of Kerala

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This dissertation improvement project, funded by the Science and Society Program, will examine the influence of Kudumbashree, a government sponsored development initiative targeting women in Kerala, India. This research is of particular relevance to one of the most prominent current perspectives on development, Amartya Sen's capability approach, which focuses on the freedoms generated by commodities rather than commodities themselves. Specifically, this study examines two categories of Kudumbashree programs -- information and communication technology (ICT) enterprises that offer services such as data entry and hardware assembly and rely to varying degrees on government support and traditional enterprises that offer services reflective of indigenous modes of production such as catering and craft production and compete on the open market. The central problem is whether these efforts differ in terms of social and economic outcomes and sustainability. Eighty face-to-face qualitative interviews are conducted in and around Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, with Kudumbashree enterprise groups and individual group members as well as top Kudumbashree officials and community supporters of the organization. Observations of daily activities of each enterprise group also are made and their yearly financial reports are analyzed. The intellectual merit of this study lies in its aim to provide an assessment of two topics frequently addressed theoretically but seldom tested empirically: ICT development policy and capability enhancement. This research contributes to gender, technology, and development discourse as well as to the theoretical understanding of the capability approach. It has broader impacts on development practice by enhancing our understanding of the relationship between development policy and practice, including the strategies and tactics that show promise in cultivating and sustaining economic growth among poor women in developing areas.