Poverty alleviation schemes in Madhya Pradesh and their impact on empowerment of women

Abstract

The paper looks at the functioning of two Anti-poverty schemes, theSwamajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and the District Poverty Initiatives Project,in Madhya Pradesh. The paper tries to assess the impact of the two schemes onthe empowerment of women. It looks at the assumption that access to financialresources will automatically lead to empowerment of women. Both the schemesbeing implemented in Madhya Pradesh are working on the assumption that womenshould be targeted because they are poorer and because they tend to spend more onhousehold well being than men. Therefore any increase in the incomes of womenwill lead to improved spending on household well being and a rise in the incomeof the family will lead to poverty alleviation. The paper concludes that theSwamajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana needs to be implemented in a morefocused manner if a significant impact on poverty alleviation has to be achieved.Inadequate budgetary allocation, over emphasis on targets and lack of capacitybuilding of the implementing staff, may lead to results that may be far below thedesired level. As far as empowerment of women is concerned, there is evidencethat women who are members of self help groups, believe that they are more selfconfident, and are better able to talk to outsiders. They also reported animprovement in mobility. In some cases, the behaviour of the family, especiallythe husband has improved. Thus, the study concludes that in the case ofSwarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, vibrant, well performing groups areshowing an improvement in social and psychological empowerment of women.In the case of District Poverty Initiatives Project, the Common Interest Groups ofwomen seem to be utilizing the grant given to them with care and frugality. Thefocused approach of looking at only some clusters of village, lack of targets,flexibility in choice of economic activity and capacity building of staff is leadingto effective implementation of the programme. So far, no evidence of misuse ofgrant was found. As far as empowerment of women is concerned, the members ofthe Common Interest Groups also reported an increase in self-confidence, and theability to talk to outsiders. However, the confidence was less visible in the case ofthese women. In some cases, the women reported that the behaviour of familymembers and husbands was improving. However, the male members of the familywere controlling the activities taken up by the women. In an attempt to benefit thehousehold as a whole, the Project seems to be careful not to upset the equationsinside the family. Therefore, economic empowerment of women is taking placeonly in a limited sense.This is an exploratory study based on a survey conducted on women belonging toSelf Help Groups and Common Interest Groups, in three Blocks of Guna Districtand three Blocks of Dewas district in Madhya Pradesh. The data collected wasanalyzed using simple descriptive statistics.