Is State-Sponsored Feminism an Oxymoron? Gender Transformation through Self-Help Groups in India

Sonalde B. Desai, University of Maryland
Pallavi Choudhuri, National Council of Applied Economic Research

While women’s agency is associated with many demographic outcomes, our knowledge of what affects women’s agency is limited. In some contexts, group-based mobilization has increased women’s agency. However, whether this strategy requires a grass-roots movement or can be scaled up using state resources is unclear. In this paper, we examine the impact of Ajeevika, a nationwide program initiated in 2011 and built around mobilizing women in self-help groups of about ten women and coordinated by a government employee. Using data from the India Human Development Survey, conducted in 2011-12 and 2022-24, surveying over 35,000 women in each round, we show that participation in SHGs nearly doubled between 2011 and 2024 (14% to 26%). We examine changes in three dimensions of women’s empowerment using a difference-in-difference approach and find that instead of diluting the benefits of SHG participation, increasing membership levels was associated with increased intra-household decision-making agency and autonomy in navigating public spaces. However, the program’s primary objective, increasing women’s entrepreneurship and livelihood access, did not materialize. This suggests a need to focus on labor market transformations as a complementary strategy to harvest the increase in autonomy through participation in self-help groups.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Population Policies, Population and Development, Longitudinal studies

See extended abstract.