Questioning what is done under the rubric of women's empowerment : contextualising measurement criteria in evaluations of self help group (SHG) projects in India

Despite the widespread use of rights based terminology, assuming inclusive practice and participation, theoretical frameworks being applied to women’s empowerment projects in India such as self help groups (SHGs) continue to be dominated by top down development models. These models privilege the conceptualizations of empowerment held by researchers, development practitioners, government and non-government organizations (NGOs). Research on the implications of such top down frameworks suggests the potential for significantly disempowering impacts in beneficiaries’ lives. This paper looks at the results of a small qualitative study evaluating a single SHG program in an urban slum in India. Qualitative content analysis techniques are used to analyse beneficiairies’ interview transcripts from 2008. The analysis makes it evident that there is a need to break down taken for granted assumptions about key development terms and to examine the critical importance of context, when evaluating SHG projects. This paper argues for the need to question linguistic assumptions and break down the varying meanings of dominant terminology used in development discourse in order to ensure that the goals of beneficiaries are evident. While much has been achieved in terms of women’s rights through empowerment based projects, often catchphrases such as empowerment, human rights, participation and social justice carry fine sounding ideals of moral superiority, while hiding practices that exclude the very people they aim to empower. It is argued that such gaps between theoretical positions and field-based practices need to be critically acknowledged by practitioners working in the area of international social work, and thus this small case study is of value to international social work education and practice.