Renegotiating Patriarchal Bargains? Rural Women’s Collective Livelihood Initiatives in India

Abstract

Since the 1990s, a range of collective livelihood activities for women have been sponsored by the state and non-governmental organisations in India. This chapter presents case studies of three collective livelihood interventions for rural poor women in India, drawing on exploratory qualitative field research conducted with two co-operatives and a private limited company. Using a gendered livelihoods perspective, the chapter investigates two key questions: first, the extent to which collective livelihood interventions for the economic empowerment of poor women are in fact controlled by women, rather than by the men of their households; second, whether such collective initiatives offer rural p..