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

“赋予妇女权力”往往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。发展中国家的许多这类项目旨在通过利用小额信贷促进赋予妇女权力。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，填补正式工资工作的空白以及在现有父权制结构中赋予妇女权力的能力持批评和怀疑态度（Scully，2004，诺伍德引用，2014）。Kabeer（2001年）认为，仅仅获得经济资源不一定足以解决平等问题和赋予妇女权力。为了将妇女置于赋权过程的中心，一些作者建议，妇女赋权的概念应从福利导向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困妇女的需求（Badola等人，2009年）。2014）。这些项目往往失败，因为它们的动机是福利而不是发展问题，为妇女提供了市场有限的针织和缝纫等传统女性技能方面的临时和非全时就业机会（同上）。由此产生的问题是，如果妇女可以选择离开传统上以女性为主的工作角色，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为这场争论提供一些线索。该研究旨在围绕赋予妇女权力的方式展开新的对话，重点是在传统上被排斥的环境中工作的妇女不仅对自己而且对社区的影响。一项个案研究将探讨由非政府组织比森特·费雷尔基金会管理的印度安德拉邦农村地区妇女小额信贷方案。另一个将着眼于由Karuna-Shechen组织运行的女性电动人力车司机计划，该计划为弱势妇女提供在印度Bodhgaya担任电动人力车出租车司机所需的技能和手段。通过比较这些方案，本研究将考察旨在赋予妇女权力的两种经济模式，以及每种干预措施对所涉妇女的影响。为了回答研究问题，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，在那里将与方案的工作人员和参与者以及家庭和社区成员进行访谈。将评估赋予权力的各个方面，包括妇女的知识以及她们的身体、情感、经济和社会自主权等因素。研究重点是当前围绕发展机构如何参与改变父权制结构而不是在不公平的现有秩序中容纳妇女的辩论，研究将探讨如何实现这一目标，以及什么有助于改变妇女的生活。它将分析在传统的男性环境中工作可能产生的影响，不仅是在创收方面，而且是改变妇女如何看待自己的阿萨种方式，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.