IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0284521.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women empowerment through involvement in community-based health and nutrition interventions: Evidence from a qualitative study in India

Author

Listed:
  • Manas Ranjan Pradhan
  • Sayeed Unisa
  • Ramu Rawat
  • Somila Surabhi
  • Abhishek Saraswat
  • Reshmi R. S.
  • Vani Sethi

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is fundamental for realizing unalienable human rights and is vital to sustainable development outcomes. In India, the SWABHIMAAN intervention program was an integrated multi-sectoral strategy to improve girls’ and women’s nutrition before conception, during pregnancy, and after childbirth. This study assesses the role of self-help-group (SHGs) in improving the effectiveness of community health interventions and its impact on their self-empowerment. Qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews (IDI) with community-based SHG members involved as Nutrition Friend (Poshan Sakhi-PS) in the SWABHIMAAN program in 2018 was used for analysis. Informed consent procedures were followed, and only those who voluntarily consented to the interview were interviewed. Twenty-five IDIs of purposively selected PSs in three states (Bihar, n = 9; Chhattisgarh, n = 8; and Odisha, n = 8) were analyzed thematically, according to Braun & Clarke (2006). NVivo 12 software was used for organizing and coding data. Three central themes that emerged to explain women’s empowerment were (1) Barriers & redressal mechanisms adopted by PS, (2) PS as a change-maker, and (3) Changes in the life of PS. The study found that women perceive themselves as more empowered through involvement in the SWABHIMAN intervention program, besides improving the community’s and their households’ nutritional status. The results suggest that policies and programs on health and nutrition interventions need to involve peer women from the community, leading to more effective outcomes. Empowering women and closing gender gaps in employment/work are critical to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Manas Ranjan Pradhan & Sayeed Unisa & Ramu Rawat & Somila Surabhi & Abhishek Saraswat & Reshmi R. S. & Vani Sethi, 2023. "Women empowerment through involvement in community-based health and nutrition interventions: Evidence from a qualitative study in India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(4), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0284521
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284521
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284521
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284521&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0284521?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roy, Kakoli & Chaudhuri, Anoshua, 2008. "Influence of socioeconomic status, wealth and financial empowerment on gender differences in health and healthcare utilization in later life: evidence from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1951-1962, May.
    2. Pitt, Mark M & Khandker, Shahidur R & Cartwright, Jennifer, 2006. "Empowering Women with Micro Finance: Evidence from Bangladesh," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 791-831, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fall, François Seck & Tchakoute Tchuigoua, Hubert & Vanhems, Anne & Simar, Léopold, 2022. "Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on microfinance social efficiency," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2022010, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    2. Nandita Saikia & Moradhvaj & Jayanta Kumar Bora, 2016. "Gender Difference in Health-Care Expenditure: Evidence from India Human Development Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, July.
    3. van den Bold, Mara & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Gillespie, Stuart, 2013. "Women’s empowerment and nutrition: An evidence review," IFPRI discussion papers 1294, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Ogochukwu Edith Nkamnebe & Abimbola Oluwaseun Oladipo, 2024. "Impact of Microcredit on Income and Social Status of Rural Women Microentrepreneurs in Southeast Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 3521-3532, August.
    5. Nudrat Faria Shreya, 2021. "Are Two Sources of Credit better than One?: Credit Access and Debt among Microfinance Clients in Bangladesh," Studies in Economics 2103, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    6. Ashraf, Nava & Karlan, Dean & Yin, Wesley, 2010. "Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-344, March.
    7. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    8. Madhuri Mahato & Julie Vardhan, 2021. "Discourses by Didis of Community Kitchens: A Case on Women Empowerment," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 10(2), pages 145-157, August.
    9. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina A.V. Fischer, 2007. "On Gender Inequality and Life Satisfaction: Does Discrimination Matter?," KOF Working papers 07-161, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    10. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    11. Azharuddin Akhtar & Indrani Roy Chowdhury, 2023. "The socioeconomic inequity in healthcare utilization among individuals with cardiovascular diseases in India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1000-1018, May.
    12. Rahul Nilakantan & Deepak Iyengar & Samar K. Datta & Shashank Rao, 2021. "On Ethical Violations in Microfinance Backed Small Businesses: Family and Household Welfare," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 785-802, September.
    13. Biswajit Mandal, 2015. "Demand for maternal health inputs in West Bengal-Inference from NFHS 3 in India," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2685-2700.
    14. Reitmann, Ann-Kristin & Goedhuys, Micheline & Grimm, Michael & Nillesen, Eleonora E.M., 2019. "Measuring attitudes on gender equality and domestic violence in the Arab context : The role of framing, priming and interviewer effects," MERIT Working Papers 2019-027, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Mohamed Arouri & Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2020. "Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(2), pages 111-124, June.
    16. Khan, Md Faisal Abedin & Uddin, Md Sazib & Giessen, Lukas, 2021. "Microcredit expansion and informal donor interests: Experiences from local NGOs in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    17. Schicks, Jessica, 2014. "Over-Indebtedness in Microfinance – An Empirical Analysis of Related Factors on the Borrower Level," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 301-324.
    18. Hermann Ndoya & Charly Tsala & Brice Kamguia, 2024. "What drive financial inclusion gender gap in Cameroon? A Fairlie decomposition approach," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(3), pages 822-838, July.
    19. Mohammad Samiul Islam, 2014. "Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Two NGOs," Bangladesh Development Research Working Paper Series (BDRWPS) BDRWPS No. 23, Bangladesh Development Research Center (BDRC).
    20. Dona Ghosh & Jaydeep Sengupta & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2020. "Revisiting the Role of Gender in Health Taxonomy: Evidence from the Elderly in India," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 24(2), pages 104-133, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0284521. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.