Microcredit and Women’s Agency: A Comparative Perspective across Socioreligious Communities in West Bengal, India

Abstract

The article explores the impact of a government-sponsored microcredit program in India on women’s decision-making powers across different socioreligious communities (SRCs). The article shows that women’s participation in the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona (SGSY) has resulted in varied patterns of decision-making across SRCs in four areas chosen for inquiry: (a) money management, (b) food items, (c) use of borrowed money, and (d) kinship and family matters. The likelihood of decisions being taken by “female-only” increased among households participating in SGSY, irrespective of caste and creed, compared to those not participating in it (the control group). However, men continue to take decisions in money management in both the participating and nonparticipating households. In the other three spheres, women of participating households have a greater say as compared to those in the control group

Key Words:

• Microcredit
• SGSY
• women’s participation
• gender roles
• decisionmaking agency
• Multinomial Logit Model