Economic Entitlements via Entrepreneurial Conduct? Women and Financial Inclusion in Neo-liberal India

Authors

  • K. Kalpana Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2015.527

Keywords:

Microfinance, Women, Neoliberal Govemmentality, Capitalist Accumulation, India

Abstract

This paper examines the gendered local character of neoliberalism at the household level by focusing on microcredit/finance programs in India. Microfinance promoted by the state as an informal activity targeting women is intended to alleviate income inequalities, even as it contributes to maintaining the world capitalist system. In India the inception of microfinance-based Self Help Groups (SHGs) or peer groups of women savers and borrowers in the 1990s has coincided with a rightward turn towards neoliberal policies of structural adjustment, privatization and economic deregulation. In this paper, I show how Indian policy makers have endeavored to make women's economic entitlements contingent upon their disciplined financial behavior and their willing participation in neoliberal agendas of creating and deepening 'self-regulating' markets at village levels. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted in a South Indian state, I show that the community level 'neoliberal disciplining' that microfinance entails does not proceed without resistance. Whilst SHGs seek to constitute women as fiscally disciplined savers and borrowers, women stake their 'rightful' entitlement to bank credit even as they reject outright the entrepreneurial subjectivities they are expected to assume. They pursue purposes and ends that extend well beyond 'financial inclusion.'

References

Aitken, Rob. 2010. “Ambiguous Incorporations: Microfinance and Global Governmentality.” Global Networks 10 (2): 223-243.

Bhaduri, A. 1986. “Forced Commerce and Agrarian Growth.” World Development 14(2): 267-72.

Bhaduri, A. 1973. “A Study in Agricultural Backwardness under Semi-Feudalism.” Economic Journal 83 (329): 120-37.

Burchell, G. 1996. ‘Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self’. Pp 19-36 in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Rationalities of Government edited by Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Chatterjee, P. 2008. “Democracy and Economic Transformation in India.” Economic and Political Weekly 43(16): 53-62.

Chatterjee, P. 1998. “Development Planning and the Indian State.” Pp 82-103 in The State, Development Planning and Liberalization in India edited by Terence J. Byres. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Corbridge, S., J. Harriss, S. Ruparelia, and S. Reddy. 2011. “Introduction: India’s Transforming Political Economy’, Pp 1-16 in Understanding India’s New Political Economy: A great transformation? edited by Sanjay Ruparelia, Sanjay Reddy, John Harriss and Stuart Corbridge. London and New York: Routledge.

Ferguson, J. and A. Gupta. 2002. “Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality.” American Ethnologist 29 (4): 981-1002.

Ghate, P., E. Ballon and V. Manalo. 1996. “Poverty Alleviation and Enterprise Development: The Need for a Differentiated Approach.” Journal of International Development 8 (2): 163-178.

Gonzalez-Vega, C. 2003. “Deepening Rural Financial Markets: Macroeconomic, Policy and Political Dimensions.” Paper for ‘Paving the way forward: An international conference on best practices in Rural Finance.’ Washington D.C., 2-4 June, 2003.

Gupta, A. and K. Sivaramakrishnan. 2011. “Introduction: The State in India after Liberalization”, Pp 1-27 in The State in India after Liberalization: Interdisciplinary Perspectives edited by Akhil Gupta and K. Sivaramakrishnan. London and New York: Routledge.

Harper, M. 2002. “Self-help Groups and Grameen Bank Groups: What are the differences?” Pp 169 - 198 in Beyond Micro-Credit: Putting Development Back into Micro-Finance, edited by Thomas Fisher and M. S. Sriram. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications and UK: Oxfam.

Harriss, J. 2011. “How far have India’s economic reforms been ‘guided by compassion and justice’? Social policy in the neoliberal era” Pp 127-139 in Understanding India’s New Political Economy: A great transformation? edited by Sanjay Ruparelia, Sanjay Reddy, John Harriss and Stuart Corbridge. London and New York: Routledge.

Hulme, D. and P. Mosley. 1996. Finance against Poverty. Volume 1. London and New York: Routledge.

Jackson, C. 1996. “Rescuing Gender from the Poverty Trap.” World Development 24 (3): 489-504.

Johnson, S., and Ben Rogaly. 1997. “Microfinance and Poverty Reduction.” UK and Ireland, Oxfam and ACTIONAID.

Kabeer, N., and Ranjani K.Murthy. 1996. “Compensating for Institutional Exclusion? Lessons from Indian Government and Non-Government Credit Interventions for the Poor”. Sussex: Institute of Development Studies, Discussion Paper – 356.

Karides, Marina. 2010. “Theorizing the Rise of Microenterprise Development in Caribbean Context.” Journal of World Systems Research 16 (2): 192-216

Karim, L., 2011. “Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh” University of Minnesota Press.

Kohli, R. 1997. “Directed Credit and Financial Reform.” Economic and Political Weekly 32 (42): 2667 – 2676.

Mayoux, L. 2002. “Women’s Empowerment or Feminization of Debt? Towards a New Agenda in African Micro Finance.” Report based on a One World Action Conference. London, March 2002. Available:

http://www.womankind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/49.Womens-Empowerment-or-Feminisation-of-Debt1.pdf. Accessed 17 March 2015

Mies, M., 1981. “Dynamics of sexual division of labour and capital accumulation: Women lace workers of Narsapur.” Economic and Political Weekly 16 (10/12): 487-500.

Miller, P. and N. Rose 1990. ‘Governing Economic Life’, Economy and Society, 19 (1): 1-31.

Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) n.d. “National Rural Livelihoods Mission: Framework for Implementation.” Government of India. Available: http://rural.nic.in/sites/downloads/latest/NRLM_23122010.pdf Accessed 17 March, 2015.

Murray, J. and R. Rosenberg. 2006. “Community-managed Loan Funds: Which Ones Work?” Small Enterprise Development, 17 (3): 13-27.

NABARD. 2013. “Status of Microfinance in India 2012-2013.” Micro Credit Innovations Department, Mumbai: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

NABARD. 2006. “Progress of SHG Bank Linkage in India 2005-06.” Mumbai: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

NABARD. 2005. “Annual Report 2004-2005.” Mumbai: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

NABARD. 2002. “Guidelines for the Pilot Project for linking banks with Self Help Groups’, Circular dated 26 February, 1992, Development Policy Department: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

NABARD. 1999. ‘Microfinance Scenario in the Country,’ (Chapter 1) in Task Force on Supportive Policy and Regulatory Framework for Microfinance, Report. Mumbai: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

Pagura, M. and M. Kirsten. 2006. “Formal-informal Financial Linkages: Lessons from Developing Countries.” Small Enterprise Development 17(1): 16-29

Polanyi, Karl. 1957. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.

Prahalad C.K. 2005. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. New Jersey, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Pulley, Robert V. 1989. “Making the Poor Creditworthy: A Case Study of the Integrated Rural Development Program in India.” World Bank Discussion Papers, Washington DC: The World Bank

Rai, Shirin M. 2008. The Gender Politics of Development. New Delhi: Zubaan and London and New York: Zed Books

Rankin, K.N. 2001. “Governing Development: Neoliberalism, Microcredit and Rational Economic Woman.” Economy and Society 30 (1):18-37.

Razavi, S. 1997. “Fitting Gender into Development Institutions.” World Development 25(7): 1111 – 1125.

Reserve Bank of India. 2011. Master Circular on Priority Sector Lending – Special Programs – SGSY. (http://rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewMasCirculardetails.aspx?Id=6557&Mode=0) Accessed 17 March, 2015

Reserve Bank of India. 2009. “Master Circular on Micro Credit”, Available:

(http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/notification/PDFs/40MCMC010709_F.pdf). Accessed 17 March, 2015

Rose, N. 1999. The Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sangari, K. 2007. “Shaping Pressures and Symbolic Horizons: The Women’s Movement in India” Pp 36-67 in At the Cutting Edge: Essays in Honour of Kumari Jayawardena edited by Neloufer De Mel and Selvy Thiruchandran. New Delhi: Women Unlimited.

Subramaniam, M. 2015. “Introduction: States and Social Movements in the Modern World-System” Journal of World Systems Research.

Thomas, Caroline. 2000. Global Governance, Development and Human Security: The Challenge of Poverty and Inequality. London: Pluto Press.

Vasavi A.R., and Catherine P. Kingfisher. 2003. “Poor Women as Economic Agents.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 10 (1): 1-24.

Von Pischke, J.D. 2003. ‘The Evolution of Institutional Issues in Rural Finance: Outreach, Risk Management and Sustainability’, Paper for ‘Paving the Way Forward for Rural Finance: An International Conference on Best Practices’, Washington D.C., 2-4 June, 2003.

Wallerstein, Immanuel and Joan Smith. 1984. “Core-periphery and Household Structures” Pp. 253-262 in Households and the World Economy edited by J. Smith, I. Wallerstein, and H. Evers. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Weber, H. 2002. “The Imposition of a Global Development Architecture: The Example of Microcredit.” Review of International Studies 28 (3): 537-555.

Wenner, Mark D.1995. “Group Credit: A means to Improve Information Transfer and Loan Repayment Performance.” Journal of Development Studies 32(2): 263-281.

Yunus, Muhammad. 2005. “Eliminating Poverty through Market-based Social Entrepreneurship.” Global Urban Development Magazine 1(1). Available:

http://www.globalurban.org/Issue1PIMag05/Yunus%20article.htm Accessed 17 March 2015

Downloads

Published

2015-02-26

How to Cite

Kalpana, K. (2015). Economic Entitlements via Entrepreneurial Conduct? Women and Financial Inclusion in Neo-liberal India. Journal of World-Systems Research, 21(1), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2015.527

Issue

Section

States and Social Movements in the Modern World-System