Social networks, mobility, and political participation: The potential for women’s self-help groups to improve access and use of public entitlement schemes in India

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dc.creatorKumar, Neha
dc.creatorRaghunathan, Kalyani
dc.creatorArrieta, Alejandra
dc.creatorJilani, Amir Hamza
dc.creatorChakrabarti, Suman
dc.creatorMenon, Purnima
dc.creatorQuisumbing, Agnes R.
dc.date2019-02-06
dc.date2024-06-21T09:05:00Z
dc.date2024-06-21T09:05:00Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:04:50Z
dc.descriptionWomen’s self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members’ ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency.
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/145760
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/93916
dc.languageen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/145759
dc.relationhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/world-development/special-issue/10HB9DTV77Q
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105579
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceKumar, Neha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Arrieta, Alejandra; Jilani, Amir Hamza; Chakrabarti, Suman; Menon, Purnima; and Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2019. Social networks, mobility, and political participation: The potential for women’s self-help groups to improve access and use of public entitlement schemes in India. World Development 114(February 2019): 28-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.09.023
dc.subjectsocial capital
dc.subjectgender
dc.subjectsocial networks
dc.subjectempowerment
dc.subjectself-help groups
dc.subjectpublic services
dc.subjectpublic participation
dc.subjectwomen
dc.titleSocial networks, mobility, and political participation: The potential for women’s self-help groups to improve access and use of public entitlement schemes in India
dc.typeJournal Article

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)