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GenderGovernance & AccountabilityPublic Finance Reports PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

Understanding Gendered Empowerment Through a Government Run Microfinance Programme: The Case of Stree Shakti in Karnataka

10 Aug 2017


Author: Niveditha Menon, Priyanka Dutta, Mrinalika R Pandit

Funding Partner: UNICEF Hyderabad

Abstract

The Stree Shakti programme (SSP) was conceptualised in 2000-2001 as a women’s empowerment programme to strengthen their access to financial resources. TSSP was based on the principles of self-help groups (SHGs), wherein skill development and other incentives are provided to rural women through micro-credit and savings to enhance their opportunities for economic and social mobility. Seventeen years later, the importance of the programme in changing in the lives of millions of women is acknowledged by various sources and there has been a large-scale effort to pool both human and material resources to empower women in rural areas. However, evaluation reports as well as annual reports indicate that some aspects of the programme are not fully functional. For example, there appears to be a lack of training of the Stree Shakti Groups (SSGs) in critical aspects of marketing and an absence of infrastructure that could help in the marketing efforts. This has led to a downturn in of some of the activities and functions of the SSGs.

While several research and evaluation studies have been completed on the Stree Shakthi programme, a systematic analysis of these evaluations and research studies has not yet been undertaken. The present report is a review of the research studies, evaluation studies, recommendations, and the realities of the implementation of the SSP. It enables an understanding and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the programme and points to ways to improve it. Findings indicate towards some areas requiring specific attention, such as the SSGs relationship with materialised concepts like savings and governance, as well as quality of training and overall objectives.

CBPS. (2017). Understanding gendered empwoerment through a government-run microfinance programme: the case of Stree Shakti in Karnataka. Bengaluru: Centre for Budget and Policy Studies.

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