IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/14849.html

Are women economically more empowered in Left-run municipalities? A study of Self Help Groups in West Bengal, India

Author

Listed:
  • Husain, Zakir
  • Mukherjee, Diganta
  • Dutta, Mousumi

Abstract

Who controls the income earned by Self Help Group (SHG) members from group activities – they, or their husbands? The answer indicates the level of economic empowerment attained by SHG members. This paper examines whether identity of person controlling this income depends upon the political party ruling the municipality where the SHG is situated. Two parties are considered – the Left Front, a coalition comprising of Leftist parties, and the Indian National Congress. This paper is based on a field study of 240 SHG members in six municipalities in West Bengal, a major state in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Husain, Zakir & Mukherjee, Diganta & Dutta, Mousumi, 2010. "Are women economically more empowered in Left-run municipalities? A study of Self Help Groups in West Bengal, India," MPRA Paper 14849, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:14849
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14849/1/MPRA_paper_14849.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/39991/1/MPRA_paper_39991.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pitt, M.M. & Khandker, S.R., 1996. "Household and Intrahousehold Impact of the Grameen Bank and Similar Targeted Credit Programs in Bangladesh," World Bank - Discussion Papers 320, World Bank.
    2. Hashemi, Syed M. & Schuler, Sidney Ruth & Riley, Ann P., 1996. "Rural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 635-653, April.
    3. Goetz, Anne Marie & Gupta, Rina Sen, 1996. "Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-63, January.
    4. Kabeer, Naila, 2001. "Conflicts Over Credit: Re-Evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 63-84, January.
    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. Zakir Husain & Diganta Mukerjee & Mousumi Dutta, 2014. "Self‐Help Groups And Empowerment Of Women: Self‐Selection, Or Actual Benefits?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 422-437, May.
    2. Saha, Bibhas & Sangwan, Navjot, 2019. "Credit where credit's due: The enabling effects of empowerment in Indian microfinance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 537-551.
    3. Bhuiyan, Muhammad Faress & Ivlevs, Artjoms, 2019. "Micro-entrepreneurship and subjective well-being: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 625-645.
    4. 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.
    5. Chin, Yoo-Mi, 2012. "Credit Program Participation and Decline in Violence: Does Self-Selection Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1690-1699.
    6. Ngo, Thi Minh-Phuong & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2012. "Microfinance and gender empowerment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 1-12.
    7. Ashish Bajracharya & Sajeda Amin, 2013. "Microcredit and Domestic Violence in Bangladesh: An Exploration of Selection Bias Influences," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1819-1843, October.
    8. Lutfun N. Khan Osmani, 2007. "A breakthrough in women's bargaining power: the impact of microcredit," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 695-716.
    9. J.D. Von Pischke, 1997. "Poverty, Human Development and Financial Services," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-1997-04, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    10. Duvendack, Maren & Palmer-Jones, Richard, 2011. "The microfinance of reproduction and the reproduction of microfinance: understanding the connections between microfinance, empowerment, contraception and fertility in Bangladesh in the 1990s," MPRA Paper 32384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Tassel, Eric Van, 2004. "Household bargaining and microfinance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 449-468, August.
    12. Berber Kramer & Carly Trachtman, 2024. "Gender dynamics in seed systems: an integrative review of seed promotion interventions in Africa," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(1), pages 19-45, February.
    13. Chliova, Myrto & Brinckmann, Jan & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2015. "Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis examining development outcomes and contextual considerations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 467-487.
    14. Dr. Ishrat Jahan, 2018. "Promises vs. Realities of Women in Development (WID: Microcredit and Women’s Enterprising Work in Rural Bangladesh," International Journal of World Policy and Development Studies, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 4(2), pages 6-19, 04-2018.
    15. Johnson, Susan, 2004. "Gender Norms in Financial Markets: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1355-1374, August.
    16. Mahmud, Simeen & Shah, Nirali M. & Becker, Stan, 2012. "Measurement of Women’s Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 610-619.
    17. Anderson, Siwan & Eswaran, Mukesh, 2009. "What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 179-191, November.
    18. Evans, Timothy G. & Adams, Alayne M. & Mohammed, Rafi & Norris, Alison H., 1999. "Demystifying Nonparticipation in Microcredit: A Population-Based Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 419-430, February.
    19. Adnan M. S. Fakir & Naveen Abedin, 2021. "Empowered by Absence: Does Male Out-migration Empower Female Household Heads Left Behind?," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 503-527, June.
    20. Ramu Maurya, 2015. "Gender, Power, and Conflict with Credit Choice: Rural Credit Programme in India," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 4(2), pages 80-92, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises
    • D79 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Other
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:14849. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.