Succeeded where others have failed? Has Rojiroti’s model of microfinance led to a reduction in domestic violence?

Gordon, Rebecca

doi:10.3362/1755-1986.2016.015

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Rojiroti is a grassroots microfinance organisation, operating in rural Bihar, whose membership is predominantly women from scheduled or disadvantaged castes and tribes (Gordon 2016). Although microfinance has been strongly critiqued as a povertyalleviation approach, and for its ability to support the improvement of women's lives (Bateman and Chang 2012;Wilson 2015), Rojiroti operates in distinct ways.…”

Section: Rojiroti Microfinancementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Your mind becomes open with education’ : exploring mothers’ aspirations for girls’ education in rural Bihar

Gordon

2021

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

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The transformational power of education is considered crucial to improving life outcomes. However, girls in rural India often still face barriers to learning. The literature notes economic and sociocultural barriers to girls' education which both mediate, and are affected by, parental aspirations. This research explored the aspirations for girls' education of members of a grassroots microfinance organisation in rural Bihar through one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions. Economic factors, such as increased awareness of employment opportunities and changing financial situations enabled mothers to act on their pre-existing aspirations for daughters' education, supported by shifts in the requirement of higher levels of education for marriage. Mothers also emphasised the potential for education to enhance their daughters' wellbeing as influencing their aspirations. Therefore, policymakers must prioritise education that has a socially transformative agenda, as well as providing support to tackle economic and socio-cultural barriers to girls' education.

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Section: Rojiroti Microfinancementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Your mind becomes open with education’ : exploring mothers’ aspirations for girls’ education in rural Bihar

Gordon

2021

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

Self Cite

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“…It is clear then that many microfinance organisations do not support women's empowerment. However, previous research with a grassroots microfinance organisation in rural India, Rojiroti, found that it operated differently compared to the microfinance organisations subject to mainstream critique (Gordon, 2016). Whilst microfinance organisations predominantly provide services to women, previous studies have noted a dearth of women in leadership roles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Transformative Grassroots Leadership: Understanding the Role of Rojiroti’s Women Leaders in Supporting Social Change

Gordon

2020

PaG

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Many have argued that supporting women’s leadership is an important pathway to women’s empowerment. However, there is still a need for better understanding of how women become leaders, particularly at the grassroots level, and how they support social change. This article explores women’s leadership as part of a grassroots microfinance organisation, Rojiroti. Through interviews and focus group discussions, it finds that Rojiroti’s women leaders were motivated to become leaders to create better opportunities for their families and communities, and that they lead in line with frameworks of transformative leadership by supporting relationship building, by facilitating and guiding knowledge transfer and by providing space for reflection and skills for action (Wakefield, 2017). In particular, their situated knowledge was essential for inspiring shared vision for challenging unequal power relations. Overall, better understanding their leadership, that particularly nurtures relationships and collaboration, due to their position as being from the social groups they sought to support, is critical to the current challenges facing interventions and activism that seek to promote women’s empowerment and contribute to social change.

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“…Secondly, although there is a wide recognition and understanding of the potential benefits of microfinance participation in India, there is little evidence on how to address spousal violence with regard to credit program participation. A few studies based on small scale sample tries to understand its association (Gordon, 2016; Leach & Sitaram, 2002), but the results cannot be generalized for the entire country. Thirdly, the data from the recent National Family Health Survey (henceforth, NFHS) IV reveals that one out of every three ever-married Indian women experience physical, sexual, or emotional violence (IIPS and ICF, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trick or Treat: Does a Microfinance Loan Induce or Reduce the Chances of Spousal Violence against Women? Answers from India

Sinha

Kumar

2020

J Interpers Violence

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It is a common belief that microfinance plays a dual role of poverty alleviation and socioeconomic upliftment of its women participants. However, there are enough researches that negates the positive impact of microfinance loans on spousal violence. Recognized as one of the most predominant social evils, violence against women is not only a violation of their human rights but also an act of exploitation and denial of freedom. In the present study, we have tried to investigate if microfinance loan takers experience more spousal violence as compared to their counterparts by analyzing the National Family Health Survey IV, 2015–16. Our results indicate that 40.8% of women microfinance participants experience spousal violence. Additionally, the likelihood of microfinance participants to experience spousal violence is much higher than the non-microfinance participants (odds ratio = 1.35, p value = .000). Microfinance programs are designed to increase the individual agencies of women participants, which, in turn, reduce the chances of them becoming victims of spousal violence. However, if the credit program participation induces the woman to be a victim of spousal violence together with becoming financially autonomous, then such hidden costs need to be taken into account while evaluating the effectiveness of the gendered policy design.

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Succeeded where others have failed? Has Rojiroti’s model of microfinance led to a reduction in domestic violence?

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

‘Your mind becomes open with education’ : exploring mothers’ aspirations for girls’ education in rural Bihar

‘Your mind becomes open with education’ : exploring mothers’ aspirations for girls’ education in rural Bihar

Transformative Grassroots Leadership: Understanding the Role of Rojiroti’s Women Leaders in Supporting Social Change

Trick or Treat: Does a Microfinance Loan Induce or Reduce the Chances of Spousal Violence against Women? Answers from India

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