Women's empowerment in India: a comparison of microfinance and transport sector initiatives

“赋予妇女权力”经常被确定为国际发展政策的一个重要目标，许多捐助机构现在将赋予妇女权力纳入其战略。发展中国家的许多此类项目旨在通过使用小额信贷促进妇女赋权。大多数关于小额信贷的宣传文献都隐含着这样一种假设，即小额信贷体现了提高妇女赋权地位的社会资本的各个方面。虽然许多学术研究支持将小额信贷作为一种发展战略，但越来越多的研究人员对小额信贷纠正长期存在的社会弊病、填补正规工资工作的空白以及在现有父权结构中赋予妇女权力的能力持批评和怀疑态度(Scully，2004，Norwood引用，2014)。Kabel(2001)认为，仅仅获得经济资源并不一定足以解决平等和赋予妇女权力的问题。为了将妇女置于赋权进程的中心，一些作者建议，妇女赋权的概念应该从注重福利的方法转变为公平的方法，寻求结束性别歧视(Nayak和Mahanta，2009年)。然而，大多数倡议仍然试图通过对创收项目进行相对较小的投资来满足贫穷妇女的需求(Bdora等人，2014年)。这类项目之所以失败，往往是因为它们的动机是福利，而不是发展方面的关切，为妇女提供临时和兼职工作，从事市场有限的编织和缝纫等传统女性技能(同上)。问题是，如果妇女可以选择离开传统上由妇女主导的工作岗位，进入其他经济部门，她们是否会获得更大的权力。这项研究将通过比较两个项目来揭示这场争论。这项研究旨在围绕如何赋予女性权力展开新的对话，重点关注在传统上被排除在外的环境中工作的女性不仅对自己，而且对社区的影响。这项研究将分析两个旨在促进女性赋权的不同经济模式的项目。其中一个案例研究将着眼于印度安德拉邦农村地区妇女小额信贷方案，该方案由非政府组织Fundación Vicente Ferrer管理。另一个项目将研究由卡鲁纳-舍臣组织运营的女性电动人力车司机项目，该项目为处于不利地位的女性提供在印度菩提伽亚担任电动三轮车司机所需的技能和手段。通过比较这些方案，这项研究将检验两种旨在赋予妇女权力的经济模式，以及每种干预措施对参与的妇女所产生的影响。为了回答这一研究问题，将使用人类学数据收集技术，包括参与者观察和半结构化访谈。这项研究将在印度进行，在那里将对方案的工作人员和参与者以及家庭和社区成员进行采访。将评估赋权的各个方面，包括妇女的知识以及她们的身体、情感、经济和社会自主性等要素。这项研究将着眼于目前关于发展机构如何参与改变父权结构而不是在不公平的现有秩序中容纳妇女的辩论，探讨如何实现这一点，以及如何促进妇女生活的改变。它将分析在传统男性环境中工作可能产生的影响，不仅在创收方面，而且是改变女性看待自己的方式的一种方式，从而使她们能够摆脱限制她们的期望。

The 'empowerment of women' is often identified as an important aim of international developmentpolicies, and many donor agencies now include women's empowerment in their strategies. Many of theseprojects in developing countries aim to promote women's empowerment by using microcredit. Theassumption that microfinance embodies aspects of social capital that enhances women's empowermentstatus is implicit in most advocacy literature on microcredit. While much academic research supportsmicrocredit as a development strategy, a growing number of researchers are critical and suspiciousabout microcredit's ability to correct longstanding social ills, fill the void of formal wage work, andempower women within existing patriarchal structures (Scully, 2004, cited by Norwood, 2014). Kabeer(2001) suggests that access to economic resources alone is not necessarily sufficient to addressinequality and to empower women. To locate women at the centre of the empowerment process, someauthors suggest that the concept of women's empowerment should change from a welfare-orientedapproach to an equity approach, seeking to end gender discrimination (Nayak and Mahanta, 2009).However, most initiatives are still trying to respond to the needs of poor women by making relativelysmall investments in income-generating projects (Badola et al., 2014). Often such projects fail becausethey are motivated by welfare and not development concerns, offering women temporary and part-timeemployment in traditionally female skills such as knitting and sewing that have limited markets (ibid.).The question arises as to whether women would be more empowered if they had the option to leavetraditionally female-dominated work roles and enter other economic sectors. This research will shedsome light on this debate by comparing two projects. It aims to open new conversations around ways toempower women, focusing on the effect that women working in environments where they havetraditionally been excluded will have not only for themselves, but also for their communities.The study will analyse two programmes using differing economic models that aim to promote women'sempowerment. One case study will look at a microcredit programme for women in rural areas of AndhraPradesh, India, managed by the NGO Fundación Vicente Ferrer (FVF). The other will look at the FemaleElectric Rickshaw Driver programme run by the Karuna-Shechen organisation, a programme thatprovides disadvantaged women with the skills and the means they need to work as e-rickshaw taxidrivers in Bodhgaya, India. By comparing these programmes, the research will examine two economicmodels intended to empower women, and the resulting effect of each intervention on the womeninvolved.To answer the research question, anthropological data collection techniques will be used, includingparticipant observation and semi-structured interviews. The research will take place in India whereinterviews will be carried out with staff and participants of the programmes, as well as family andcommunity members. Dimensions of empowerment will be assessed including elements such aswomen's knowledge, as well as their physical, emotional, economic and social autonomy.Focusing on current debates around how development agencies can engage in changing patriarchalstructures rather than accommodating women within the inequitable existing order, the research will askhow this can be achieved, and what facilitates change in women's lives. It will analyse the impact thatworking in a traditionally male environment can have, not only in terms of income generation, but also asa way to change how women see themselves, in turn enabling them to step away from the expectationsthat limit them.