Can Women's Self-Help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India
This paper investigates a women's self-help group program with more than 1.5 million participants in one of the poorest rural areas of Northern India. The program has four streams of activity in micro-savings, agricultural enterprise training,...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/683131568380079720/Can-Womens-Self-Help-Groups-Contribute-to-Sustainable-Development-Evidence-of-Capability-Changes-from-Northern-India http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32418 |
| Summary: | This paper investigates a women's
self-help group program with more than 1.5 million
participants in one of the poorest rural areas of Northern
India. The program has four streams of activity in
micro-savings, agricultural enterprise training, health and
nutrition education, and political participation. The paper
considers whether there is any evidence that program
membership is associated with quality of life improvement.
Using new data on a variety of self-reported capability
indicators from members and non-members, the paper estimates
propensity score matching models and reports evidence of
differences in some dimensions as well as significant
benefits to those from the most disadvantaged
groups—scheduled castes and tribes. The paper considers
robustness and concludes that for some dimensions, there is
evidence that the program has contributed to sustainable
development through improvements in the quality of life. |
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