Empowering the Women of India’s Poorest Region

Although the mid-Gangetic plains are a large and fertile area with abundant groundwater endowments, the largest concentration of India’s poor can be found here.

This, when strong patriarchal forces and rigid caste divisions are taken to account, explains why the women of this region experience greater deprivation than those elsewhere.

With a $52.5 million (USD) budget, the program aims to increase productivity and improve household incomes by: introducing market-linked enterprises, forming sustainable grass-roots institutions including self-help groups, producers’ groups and community service centers, and enhancing the capacity of financial institutions and the private sector.

If all goes as planned, the 108,000 poor rural women involved in the program will observe an increase in their incomes and the diversification of their livelihoods opportunities within India’s wider economy, both on and off the farm.

Beyond increasing access to financial institutions, the program also aims to enhance women’s political influence in the region, by strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations and encourage women’s increased participation in local government.

To learn more about initiatives to empower rural women, see:  Innovation of the Week: Feeding Communities by Focusing on Women, Strengthening Rural Women’s Leadership in Farming and Producer Organization, Rural Women’s Leadership in Agriculture and NRM Scoping Studies, Turning the Catch of the Day into Improved Livelihoods for the Whole Community, Women Farmers: An ‘Untapped Solution’ to Global Hunger and Women Entrepreneurs: Adding Value.

Danielle Nierenberg

Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.

Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.