Description

Rural women in India are asset less, unemployed, illiterate and yet over worked. Although accorded little social status or recognition, women's earnings are frequently essential to the survival of the family. In many cases women are the actual de facto heads of the family by virtue of desertion, migration, illness, unemployment or the addictive habits of their husbands. However, because of their lack of recognition in society, women are powerless and deprived of access to improved means of production through credit, technical advice, training, marketing skills and more. Hence, promoting micro-credit with groups of women is increasingly seen as the panacea for reducing poverty and empowering women. In the last two decades, the Indian Government, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and various NGOs have started a variety of group based micro-credit programs based on this principle.

Poor Indian women face a double set of problems; being poor and from the discriminated sex (Begum, 1989, 520). Given the constraints faced by poor women, any development approach for providing assistance needs to consider their reality. If women begin to address their problems in society and are integrated into the development process, they will require greater assistance appropriate to their special situation. Under past development programmes and projects initiated by the Indian Government, the focus has been on economic activities. The initial focus on economics has helped the most immediate problem facing poor rural women: their daily struggle to feed, clothe and shelter their families. Women, however, do not function in a vacuum and in many instances social factors restrict women's economic advancement. Hence, a holistic approach to women's development is required.

Women have to be considered as equal participants in shaping the future society in India. It is not enough for poor women to earn more; she must have control over her earnings in order to continue to be productive.