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Abstract
Through an analysis of the impact of two phases of a bio-agriculture and credit project of M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in southern India, this article argues that there is no automatic link between agriculture and credit projects’ goals of increasing women's efficiency, reducing women's poverty, and women's empowerment. It posits that these links have to be consciously fostered through particular measures. Supporting women's economic efficiency as a means to further their empowerment must be differentiated from increasing ‘women's efficiency’ for other goals.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the work of Dr Balasubrahmaniam, Dr Thamizoli, Mr Selva Mukhilan, Mr Srinivasan, Mr Murugakhani, and Mr Subhas Chandra Bose of MSSRF on which this article is based.
Notes
1. Human development value as used by the Planning Commission of the Indian government is a composite index capturing attainments with regard to per capita monthly expenditure, adjusted for inequality, a combination of literacy rate and intensity of formal education, and a combination of life expectancy at age one and infant mortality rate (Planning Commission Citation2001, 140).
2. Sex ratio at birth is females born per 1000 males born.
3. www.mssrf.org/about_us/index.htm (last checked by authors October 2007).
4. Administrative blocks in Tamil Nadu comprise several clusters of villages. Several blocks together make a district. Tamil Nadu consists of 30 districts. In Tamil Nadu, each cluster of villages has its own first tier of local governance unit, called Gram Panchayat. At the block level, there is the second tier of local governance, called the Block Panchayat or Panchayat Union. The third tier is at the district level, consisting of the Zilla Parishad.
5. Scheduled castes refer to those belonging to castes falling under the Part VI, Article 341 of the Indian (Schedule Castes) Order 1950 of the government of India. Backward castes refers to those castes classified as socio-economically backward by the Indian government, but of better social and economic status than the scheduled castes. Forward castes refer to those considered as socially and economically forward by the Indian government.
6. Wealth ranking refers to a participatory method used by people from the community to classify households into four or five levels of poverty based on their own criteria. Normally it includes access to basic needs, income, productive assets, health status of household members, level of indebtedness, headship, proportion of earning members etc.
