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Self-Employment, Waged or Unpaid Work: Influences on the Choices of Poor Women

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Book cover Land, Labour and Livelihoods

Part of the book series: Gender, Development and Social Change ((GDSC))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the choices of women who are supported with technical and financial resources from the Kudumbashree programme in Kerala to initiate self-employment via group-owned micro-enterprises. The results indicate that while some remain in the group based self-employment, others—both housewives with no prior paid work experience and former wage workers—may be predisposed to drop-out due to enterprise failure. Does the failure of group enterprises constitute a waste of scarce resources? Critics of the programme consider the subsidy provided to the groups as a drain on Government resources as many enterprises are short-lived. However, in the current socioeconomic context and prevailing inequalities therein, the group approach remains relevant for improving women’s participation in economic activities in regions where patriarchal influences remain strong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, India

    Dimple Tresa Abraham

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  1. Dimple Tresa Abraham
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Correspondence to Dimple Tresa Abraham .

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Abraham, D.T. (2016). Self-Employment, Waged or Unpaid Work: Influences on the Choices of Poor Women. In: Land, Labour and Livelihoods. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40865-1_14

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