CHAPTER - II REVIEW OF LITERATURE In India, where 300 million people or about 60 milloin households are living below the

poverty line, the micro finance imperative for the upliftment of rural poor. The micro finance scene is dominated by self help groups-bank linkage programme formally launched in 1992 by NABARD. The self help groups bank linkage programme has registered tremendous growth in rural India. The present paper unfurls the growth of SHGs program in regional perspectives. The paper also pinpoints the various constants and challenges faced by SHGs in fulfilling its goals of poverty alleviation and empowerment of rural poor. In last the paper suggests some fruitful measures to overcome the constraints and challenges.

Over the past several decades several things have happened to blur the sex differences in leader emergence. The mass entrance of women into the workforce, increasing number of female managers, societal shift in gender role perception made the researchers to through light on leadership gender gap issues. Until 1970s the researchers ignored issues related to gender and leadership. Popular press reported differences between women and men in the year that women are inferior to men and women lacked skills and traits necessary for managerial success (1977). The only gender difference that exists between men and women is women tend to use a more participative style or democratic style than men.

Women under representation in high level leadership positions revolve around three types of explanations first human capital: Education, work experience, developmental opportunities, and work home conflict. Second gender differences: Style and effectiveness, commitment and motivation, self promotion, negotiation and evolution. Third prejudice: Gender stereotypes, biased perceptions and evolutions, vulnerability and reactance, cross pressures. The forth factor which is invisible barrier preventing women from ascending into elite leadership positions commonly called the glass ceiling. There are a variety of understandings of the term empowerment due to its widespread usage. Yet this widely used term is rarely defined. The claims for womens empowerment to be the goal or ultimate objective of many development policies and programs leads to a demand for indicators of empowerment, both to reveal the extent to which women are already empowered, and also to evaluate if such policies and programs have been effective towards their stated aims. To understand clearly the concept of empowerment, it is important to delineate certain overlapping concepts. (a) Social Inclusion Key to Empowerment: Empowerment is described as the enhancement of assets and capabilities of diverse individuals and groups to engage, influence and hold accountable the institutions which affect them. Social inclusion is defined as the removal of institutional barriers and the enhancement of incentives to increase the access of diverse individuals and groups to assets and development opportunities Thus, empowerment process, operates from below and involves agency, as exercised by individuals and groups. Social inclusion, in contrast, requires systemic change that may be initiated from above.

(b)

Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment: There could be statistical data indicating improvements in indicators of gender equality,

but unless the intervening process involved women as agents of that change, one cannot term it as empowerment. Whereas the role of agency in the discourse on empowerment assumes prime importance, gender equality or equity indicates the degree of equivalence in life outcomes for women and men, recognizing their different needs and interests and requiring a redistribution of power and resources. (c) Powerful and Empowerment:

One way of thinking about power is in terms of the ability to make choices: to be disempowered, therefore, implies to be denied the choice. Thus, the notion of empowerment is that it is inescapably bound up with the condition of disempowerment and refers to the processes by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such ability. (The word acquire is very important here). In other words, empowerment entails a process of change. People who exercise a great deal of choice in their lives may be very powerful, but they are not empowered in the sense in which empowerment has been described here, because they were never disempowered in the first place. There are various attempts in the literature to develop a comprehensive understanding of empowerment through breaking the process down into key components. Kabeers (2001) understanding of choice comprises three inter-related components: Resources: or enabling factors or catalysts for conditions under which empowerment is likely to occur i.e., they form the conditions under which choices are made; Agency: which is at the heart of the process through which choices are made, and;

Achievements, which are conceived as the outcomes of choices. According to Naila Kabeer, empowerment is the expansion in peoples ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them. According to Kabeer, empowerment cannot be reduced to a single aspect of process or outcome. How women exercise choice and the actual outcomes will depend on the individual. Choices will vary across class, time and space. Moreover, impacts on empowerment perceived by outsiders might not necessarily be those most valued by women themselves. Thus, there could be statistical data indicating improvements in indicators of gender equality, but unless the intervening process involved women as agents of that change, one cannot term it as empowerment. Understanding empowerment in this way means that development agencies cannot claim to empower women rather they can provide appropriate external support and intervention, which can however be important to foster and support the process of empowerment i.e., act as facilitators. Consensus on Macro and Micro Indicators of Empowerment There are a variety of ways in which indicators of empowerment can be developed. Each have some value, but none can be taken as complete or absolute measure, because the nature of empowerment as a multi-faceted concept means that it is not readily quantifiable. To understand empowerment it is helpful to divide indicators of empowerment into two categories: those which attempt to measure womens empowerment at a broad societal level, in order to gain information and make comparisons between countries (GEM, GDI), and those which are developed in order to measure the effects of specific projects or programs or catalytic factors (education, employment etc.) requiring a micro approach involving women themselves as agents of change.

Measuring Gender Empowerment Index Dimension Political participation and decision making Indicator Female & Male shares in parliamentary seats Female & Male shares of positions as legislators, senior officials and managers Equality Distributed Equivalence % (EDEP) Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) EDEP for parliamentary representation EDEP for economic participation Female & male shares of professional and technical positions EDEP for income Economic participation and decision-making Power over economic resources Female and male estimated earned income

There have been several efforts to devise micro indicators of empowerment. In this effort, Naila Kabeer, Linda Mayoux, Anne Marie Goetz, Rahman, Ackerley, JSI (John Show International researchers), Sara Longwe and Hashmi have provided their own indicators.

JSI Six Domains of Empowerment Domain Expressions

1. Sense of Self & vision Assertiveness, plans for the future, future-oriented actions, of a future relative freedom from threat of physical violence, awareness of own problems and options, actions indicating sense of security. 2. Mobility & visibility Activities outside of the home, relative freedom from harassment in public spaces, interaction with men. 3. Economic Security Property ownership, new skills and knowledge and increased income, engaged in new/non-traditional types of work 4. Status & decision- Self-confidence, controlling spending money, enhanced status in

making power within the family, has/controls/spends money, participation in/makes the household 5. Ability to decisions on allocation of resources, not dominated by others interact Awareness of legal status and services available, ability to get

effectively in the public access to social services, political awareness, participation in sphere credit program, provider of service in community.

6. Participation on non- Identified as a person outside of the family, forum for creating family groups sense of solidarity with other women, self-expression and articulation of problems, participating in a group with autonomous structure.

JSI defines empowerment in a behavioral sense as the ability to take effective action encompassing inner state (sense of self, of ones autonomy, self-confidence, openness to new ideas, belief in ones own potential to act effectively) and a persons status and efficacy in social interactions. In particular, it is the ability to make and carry out significant decisions affecting ones own life and the lives of others. An increasing body of research indicates that commonly used proxy variables such as education or employment are conceptually distant from the dimensions of gender ratification that are hypothesized to affect the outcomes of interest in these studies, and may in some cases be irrelevant or misleading. In response, there have been increasing efforts at capturing the process through direct measures of decision-making, control, choice, etc. Such measures are seen as the most effective representations of the process of empowerment by many authors since they are closest to measuring agency It could be argued that the indicators with face validity (i.e. indicators of empowerment based on survey questions referring to very specific, concrete actions) represent power relationships and are meaningful within a particular social context. Certain empirical examples cited from the review of literature point out to the fact that mere swells in government programmes for empowerment of women do not guarantee womens empowered status. For example Goetz and Sen Guptas study of credit programs in Bangladesh challenges the assumption that loans made to women are always used by women. They found that in two-thirds of the loans in their study, men either significantly or partially controlled the credit women brought into the household. Women were unable to make their own decisions on how to invest or use the loan. This is an important finding as it supports Mayouxs point that empowerment cannot be assumed to be an automatic outcome of microfinance programs. Thus, a micro approach is required to assess the real situation.

In our larger study we developed a comprehensive model of empowerment based on certain concrete micro inidicators of empowerment. (as shown in fig. 1) Fig:1 Fig. 1

MODEL OF EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

CONSUMPTION PATTERN 1. Number of meals a day 2. Skipping meals so that the rest of the family can have enough 3. Frequency of meals skipped over a month

WORK PARTICIPATION OF RURAL WOMEN

ACCESS TO & CONTROL OVER RESOURCES 1. What do you do with your earned/saved income? 2. Whom do you ask money for you petty needs? 3. Do you set aside some money that you can use as you wish? 4. Have you made any contribution out of your income? 5. When money is tight who takes the responsibility for stretching it? DECISION MAKING 1. 2. 3. 4. Trivial issues Issues Related to Children Issues related to Own Self Critical Issues

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

SELF ESTEEM/ SELF RESPECT

1. Husband justified for wife beating if he suspects her for being unfaithful 2. If her natal family does not pay the promised dowry 3. If she shows disrespect towards her in-laws 4. If she goes out without telling him 5. If she neglects the house or children 6. If she does not cook food properly

AWARENESS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Ideal age of marriage of daughters Why (if) early marriage perceived for daughters? Education level for girls Why (if) low education for girls preferred? Awareness/ and use of on family planning methods Awareness on Child spacing

Bhowmik Krishna (2006) analyses the need for women to enter into employment, various opportunities for employment and attitude of their life partners towards the womens employment. He reveals the problems faced by women in their dual performance at home and outside home and analyses the marginalization of women by exploiting them. He also reviews the need for women empowerment and the related issues like ongoing approaches and strategies of the government and non-government organizations.

Medha Dubashi Vinze (1987) points out that social pressures and attitude of doubting womens capability and restricting their freedom of movement was found a hurdle.

Mustiary Begum (2006) writes there are hosts of inhibiting factors: Social, economic, political and cultural which prevents women from being active participants in the development process.

Ishitha Mukherjee and Suvarna Sen (2006) provides a contemporary overview of gender and development concerns in India and throws light on the various aspects of gender related issues by examining the trends in womens employment, wages, literacy and school enrollment. In India, although the process of womens empowerment has been successful to some extent, gender-related socio-economic biases still exist. These can be addressed by properly identifying the areas of concern and implementing suitable policies.

Jeanne Halladay Coughlin and Thomas R Andrew (2002) talks about the self-employed women in developing countries and women-owned business enterprises in developing countries. The authors discuss the economic, social and personal motivations for female entrepreneurs, the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs, the tools and processes helping female entrepreneurs and gives entry-strategy analysis, monitoring and evaluation of programmes in support of women entrepreneurs. And also provides female entrepreneur resource guide.

Meenakshi Malhotra (2004), in her work entitled, Empowerment of Women, deals with the issues leading to empowerment of women with particular reference to rural women. In three volumes she dealt with issues like gender inequalities in labour market, micro finance options for women empowerment and the in third volume she described the various programmes introduced to empower women and bring them into the orbit of development network.

J.Bhagya Lakshmi(2004), in the article, Womens Empowerment Miles to Go points out that India as a signatory to the UN conventional has taken several measures to ensure full development and advancement of women, yet, one feels, there are miles to go and promises to keep. All forms of violence against women, physical and mental, whether at domestic or societal level shall dealt with effectively.

Dr. Rakesh Chandra in his article titled Women Empowerment In India Milestones and Challenges discussed about the various initiatives of state and central government. His paper argued on the low consideration on women and budget allotment to women specific programmes.

Sushma Singhal (1995) in her book titled Development of Education, Occupation and Employment of women in India, critically analyzed on the education level of women, occupation and employment partners of Indian women and the governmental programmes for women in achieving financial stability. The author concluded that women have, a dual proactive economic role as unpaid workers at home and on the family farm and as paid laborers outside home. The author emphasized that the womens role in economic development is vital, positive and essential.

Gabriele Griffin (2005) in his book titled Doing womens studies employment opportunities, personal impacts and social consequences, focused on the employment opportunities for women and the main features of women employment. His study also focused on the consequences of uneven development of the institutionalization of womens studies.

Anil Rajpal and Pragya Singh (2007) in their article titled Workforce of India: A silent revolution in the making, focused on the importance and advancement of women workforce in India. The paper highlighted on the implications and imperatives of women workers working in India in many sectors. The paper concluded that the women are

taking leaps in all spheres education, career or social empowerment. Rising women workforce is bound to change the ways of companies to design and make market products.

According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), women represent more than one third of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. Women are more likely to play a greater role when informal sectors are considered. Morris (2001) asserted that higher levels of entrepreneurship in developing countries will improve the economic performance and raise incomes. Micro businesses empower the poor by developing skills, self-esteem and self-

sufficiency(Mukherjee, 2007). The role entrepreneur is explained from the neoclassical paradigm and the need for a separate theoretical base for entrepreneurship is questioned (Demstez, 1983 and Kirzner, 1983).

The empirical theory presented by Viceana looks at the entrepreneur as the one who is associated with starting of a new business with innovation and success as additional roles. According McClelland (1961) motivation to achieve is conditional factor for development. The characteristics of an entrepreneur are: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Originality and innovation, Moderate risk taking ability, Having individual responsibility, Depending on feedback and

(v)

Plan on a long term basis.

Shriver (2009), based on the fact that half the US workforce is now female, used the phrase female nation to highlight the fact that this body of employed women is going to bring about changes to men, women, families, organizations and society as a whole. More working women now have children. An increasing number of women are earning more salary than their husbands or partners do. These facts are changing the nature of families and the roles that men and women play.

P. Babu (1978) his

study was an attempt to find out the sociological factors that

contribute to the development of small entrepreneurs .The study showed that community and family background contributed to the success of prospective entrepreneurs, formal education has not been a positive factor in entrepreneurship development, providing infrastructure facilities alone will not promote entrepreneurship development and the Association of Small Scale Industries has Lo play an important role in identification and development of entrepreneurs, a strong policy to support the entrepreneurs is called upon ,as the economy demands the growth of women entrepreneurs., the education and other factors like the background for entrepreneurship is no a criteria for entrepreneurial growth , risking bearing attitude and innovation prove to be more encouraging towards growth.

Margaret and Anne Jardim (1979) conducted the study of women at managerial position by analyzing the life and career history of twenty-five women at the top management position in business and industry. The study reveals that women can build extremely

successful management careers even with out legal pressures to aid them. The study further reveals the price they paid -their personal lives were mortgaged to pay for their careers.

Aruna Shree P Rao (1981) made a study on the level of organizational involvement of women in development projects. The study recommends that project personnel should train participants in the skills necessary for planning and implementing project activities and Project should concentrate on activities designed to raise the income of the participants. The needs for competencies for project development are to be horned and the policies of the government help to do the same through various agencies like Mitcon for development of entrepreneurial project ventures.

Mayers (1981) conducted a research study to analyze the effect of economic pressure on employment of married women. The study reveals those married women with comparatively low economic background and having more financial burdens arc coming for wage employment and undertaking other economic activities. Women who cannot be employed ,due to other responsibilities can be encouraged to use their skills by availing the policies of the government .The policies are run through a net work of schemes that help them to financially support themselves as well as add up to the economy.

Lehrer Sara (198I) studied the effects of a women's conference on participants attitude towards women's role in society .It was observed that the conference did not make much effect on changing the attitude of participants towards women's role in the development

of society. The perception about women in the past has cajoled them to think in the direction of other people .Women has realized their own potentials as entrepreneurs but they need the encouragement from the state. The environment for women entrepreneurs to bloom can be created by the government through policies designed for women entrepreneurs.

Alman Aisha Mohammed (1981) the study was undertaken to explore the level of economic development attained by Saudi Arabia from its oil resources and its impact on the socio-economic status of women. The study showed that the economic contributions of women in the agricultural sector, in animal husbandry and in home were undervalued and their participation rate was very low. The culture in and around women is one of the factors that underrates their hand in prosperity. In countries of the Middle East the situation of women has still not changed though there is change in the world sees the women. The governance should realize that the development of its wards will lead to the development of the state; Women need to come out of their shells and face the challenges of business and economy.

Bhanu Shali (1987) conducted a study on entrepreneurship development in Kholapur district in Maharashtra. The study lead to the conclusion that persons of minority or marginal groups trained in the art of engineering and having long contact with engineering industry have better capabilities to achieve success status. The study further stresses the need for co-ordination and synchronization of various administrative and attitudinal efforts to attain maximum result with minimum waste of time and resources.

Bureaucracy is the worm that is eating up the new saps of entrepreneurship. The attitude of the official towards the policies should change, and this change can be brought by developmental thought process of the government.

Wim Vizverberg (1988) From a case study undertaken in the rural areas of Cote d' Ivoire among self employed small scale enterprises observed that self employment is an important mode of activity and a significant portion of the labour force in rural areas makes a living through self employment. The study reveals that the motive behind the starting of a majority of such enterprises is not entrepreneurial but because the market wage offer is low or the chance of receiving, a wage job is remote.

Nafziger (1988) the study investigated the motivating factors in the context of entrepreneurship development and the impact of education on entrepreneurship development in a society. The study reveals that for younger individuals formal education and working experience are lo some extend alternatives for acquiring entrepreneurial skills. Insufficient capital to start up a business is the most important economic barriers to small enterprise development. The switches from wage employment to self-employment are more likely if the individual has more assets at his disposal.

Annie Phizakka (l988) Entrepreneurship can be seen as a form of disguised unemployment. It was pointed out that self-employment is not necessarily synonymous with entrepreneurship. In many self employment units the 'boss' manages and controls the

affairs with no paid employees, very often, family members constitute the work force, with out having the status of an employer.

Usha Jumani (1991) conducted a study to analyze the status of self-employed women in rural areas. Economic activities through which the Income of the women will be increased have to be identified with great care. They have to be in consonance with time availability with family roles and with their awareness levels. Traditional occupations can be exchanged for the new technological based employment for women entrepreneurs, Use of Information technology and also scientific processes; can enhance economic activities in the rural area. The women need to be trained by the government for the same. Polices that encourage the training through government agencies can cover both male as well as the female business contenders.

V. Harikumar (1994) conducted a study on "Sickness in Small Scale industries in Kerala". It was observed that the rate of industrial sickness is high in Kerala and it is more significant in the small-sector. Entrepreneurs who lack entrepreneurial culture and heritage organized most of the small-scale enterprises. The agencies run by the government have to take initiative in re-organizing the sick units by being a partner to the women entrepreneurs as they have no one else to look up to for assistance. A sick unit is not only a loss to the individual but also to the economic condition of the state.

Arun A.V. (1995) conducted a study on the 'productivity of small scale industries in rural areas of Kerala'. He found that small scale industries in Kerala are running on obsolete

technology and have a very low productivity; they are very often facing acute competition from well-organized large-scale sector. No planned efforts are there to update the technology. The efforts by the agencies are not adequate for the technology to reach at grass root level .The penetration of the schemes and its use seems to lack the quality to change the situation

Masao Kikuchi (l998) made some case studies to analyze and examine how the new export market and subcontracting system resulted in the emergence of a new generation of rural entrepreneurs in Philippines. The study found that sub contracting in the export garment sector is not limited to sewing, but also for other related services. Because: of the technology used in the garment industry is labour intensive, the spread of garment sub contracting in rural areas has created employment opportunities with low opportunity costs, More fundamentally, the rise of the export garment sector gives an opportunity for new rural entrepreneurs to Create a new rural industry.

Mote Shige and Masayuki (1998) have made a study on the working and development of the "putting-cut system in Japan. The study shows how rural labor force with a very low opportunity cost can be capitalized by promoting rural entrepreneurship. The study exposed the alternative route of economic development in which there is movement of the modern production base in to the rural sector, rather than migration of the rural labor force into the urban sector. The study support a way of development in which widespread industrial activities could be organized in a decentralized manner by exploiting not only

the physical labor bat also the entrepreneurial ability of the rural people - the two important resources that were under utilized in the past.

Porus P Munshi (1999) Glass ceilings and maternal walls arc blocks faced by women in organizations. Currently, women management is handicapped by not having advisers to guide them and canvas for them in the senior management. The attitude of the society is that it looks at women as not a helping agent but as a burden. Hence the glass ceiling is the progeny of this thought. Counseling for the women as well as their counterpart will help to change this attitude. Economic independence can bring about development in thought as well as actions

Laoyan Chen (1999) The study shows that Chinese women in rural areas have increasingly adopted co-operatives as a form of organization in their effort to address the problem for their lack of access to resources including land , credit, jobs,, training and information and to participate in the main stream economy as an organized force.

Dr Sajal Kumar and his associates explained in Entrepreneurial marketing: A strategic marketing model to survive in a global economic crisis. The women entrepreneurs lack in the skills of marketing their product, and the assistance required for same is inadequate to sustain in this competitive market. The model of entrepreneurial marketing and its usage as a strategic tool to tide over crises. The statutory policies are needed to implement the marketing models.

In the traditional Indian society, women are generally accorded in inferior social status. The leadership potentials of women in basically very high, when compared to men. But the potentials are hidden by the social, economics and potentials construction. India is ranked 128th in the world gender development index (GDI) in 1995 and ranked 95th in the world gender empowerment measure (GEM) in 1995. The author is of the opinion that the women potential is not tapped fully.

According to Center for Womens Business Research, McLean Virginia, the overall scenario by 2008-2009 shows that around 10.1 million firms are owned by women in the United States. These women-owned businesses constitute 40% of all the privately held businesses. Out of these about 75% are majority women-owned firms. Moreover 3% of all women-owned businesses have revenues of $1 million or more as compared to 6% of all men-owned businesses. The United States Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2025, the percentage of women entrepreneurship will increase to over 55%.

It was reported in Canadas Labour Force Survey that in 2008 women accounted for about one-third of all the self-employed people. This means about 33% of all the entrepreneurs were women as of 2008. Though self-employed here could include people like franchise owners too, but for broader discussion I am including the data for selfemployed people.

References: Bennett Naila Kabeer, 1999

Kabeer, 2001 Mason 1995, p.8-11 Hashemi et al. 1996; Mason 1998, Mason and Smith 2000; Malhotra and Mather 1997 Goetz and Sen Guptas 1996 Linda Mayoux