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2014 14: 31Progress in Development StudiesMaria Costanza Torri and Andrea Martinez

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Progress in Development Studies 14, 1 (2014) pp. 31–48

© 2014 SAGE Publications 10.1177/1464993413504347

Women’s empowerment and micro-entrepreneurship in India: Constructing a new development paradigm?

Maria Costanza Torri

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology University of New Brunswick, Canada

Andrea Martinez

Full Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Women’s Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: While the contribution of women to the economies of developing countries is critical, women rarely find employment in the regulated unionized sectors of these countries, and are found instead in overwhelming numbers in the sector that is variously termed ‘unorganized’, ‘unprotected’, ‘unregistered’ or ‘informal’. Although producers’ groups and collectives have been considered a way forward in promoting gender empowerment in the informal sector, the process to organize and develop these grass-root initiatives are challenging in a variety of ways, some of the impediments arising from women’s lack of bargaining power with outsiders and lack of internal inclusiveness of its own members. The purpose of this article is to advance discussion on women’s narratives of empowerment by exploring the case of Gram Mooligai Company Limited (GMCL). GMCL is the first female community enterprise in India active in the herbal sector, entirely formed and managed by untouchables. The findings show that GMCL enhances women’s productive capabilities, leadership skills and to some extent social learning abilities, but falls short to confronting marginalization resulting from issues of caste embedded in established patriarchal norms and practices. This case study points to the significance to adopt a more holistic approach, which conceives empowerment as a dynamic, socio-culturally constructed process.

Key words: development, power relations, rural micro-entrepreneurship, empowerment narratives, India

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32 Women’s empowerment and micro-entrepreneurship


I IntroductionIn the past few years there has been an increas-ing surge of interest in ways of increasing women’s access to income through community enterprise programmes such as producer groups and cooperatives. More than four decades of ‘development’ in the developing countries have not resulted in the predicted absorption, or even the significant displacement, of marginal small-scale economic activities by large-scale technology-intensive ventures, even in coun-tries that have witnessed dramatic economic growth and rapid industrialization. Brisk population growth, increasing landlessness, inadequate social support programmes and growing rural-urban migration are presumably some of the factors that have ensured that large enterprises are unable to create enough jobs to absorb the swelling supply of labour. Under such circumstances, increasing numbers of urban and rural people have been forced to, or have chosen to, create alternative sources of employment. All such unregistered, and there-fore unrecognized, manufacturing, service and petty trade activities have come to be known collectively as the ‘informal sector’, the sector of economic activity that is not registered with government agencies and does not comply with regulations governing labour practices, taxes and licensing (Amin and Topa, 2003). In coun-tries like India, the informal sector accounts for 93 per cent of the total labour force and 64 per cent of gross domestic product (Johnson, 2005). Because it is contradictory and unjust to describe such a large, dynamic workforce in terms that relegate it to a peripheral pos-ition, many authors and activists prefer to use the term ‘self-employed’, arguing that these workers are essentially entrepreneurs, since they assume all the risks of their businesses (Jejeebhoy, 2000).

The importance of organizing workers in the informal sector to occupy a central place in the economy hardly needs to be elaborated upon. Within such movements, the integration and solidarity of women deserve special attention due to a variety of social, cultural,

economic and political factors that work against them. Indeed, in the face of globalizing economies and competitive industrial growth, self-employed women face bleak prospects if they remain isolated.

The informal sector centered on traditional medicine and herbal products is steadily increasing, Asia included (Johnson et al., 2006), having a growing economic relevance for local communities (van Dierman, 2004). Studies emphasize how medicinal products based on local plants and other derivates contribute to the well-being and even the very survival of millions of poor households worldwide, women included (Belcher, 2005; Fischer, 2004; Scherr et al., 2004).

While the benefits of organizing are quite clear, the process itself can be challenging in a variety of ways. Some of the impediments to organizing arise from women’s weak start- ing positions and lack of bargaining power while others are a result of the weaknesses of these collective organizations created for the women.

Although the literature on gender and economic restructuring is voluminous (Bird and Brush, 2002), gender was neglected by those studying the informal economy for many years (Dana and Dana, 2005). For example, in smaller research studies using non-probability samples, Sarri and Trihopoulou (2005) did not indicate who in the household was reporting informal activities and did not use gender as a predictor variable. Bygrave et al. (2002) focused on the household as a whole rather than on individuals within the household.

While there is little research to document the participation of women in the informal sector market, more research has been done to answer the question of women’s level of engagement, and this work suggests that the presence of women in the informal sector may be larger than men. Most scholars have focussed on either women’s participation in the labour market in general or ‘women’s unpaid’ work in the home. Only recently research extended this inquiry to consider informal



Maria Costanza Torri and Andrea Martinez 33


work outside of the home (Gupta et al., 2008; Harrison and Mason, 2007; Marlow, 2002).

Some scholars (Flax, 1990; Mitra, 2002) argue that women choose informal sector employment because of its compatibility with their household work, while others tend to argue that women are forced into the informal sector because the formal sector fails to accommodate their household responsibilities. For instance, Menzies et al. (2004) argue that the decision whether to participate in the labour market is frequently seen as a decision between two choices: to work or not to work. Given the general perception of the informal sector as an inferior alternative to the formal sector for employment, some scholars have voiced concerns about women being marginalized in this sector (Dumas, 2001). While this may be an appropriate way to understand that decision for men, there is some question as to how well it explains the labour force participation of women.

Despite the international community’s efforts to provide entrepreneurial opportun-ities to impoverished women, most critics also suggest that the majority of female micro-enterprise programmes fail to make any significant impact on women’s revenue, empowerment and capacity building. For instance, some detractors contend that these programmes incorporate social development components with a view to promote change at the grassroots level but have on the whole benefited better-off women (Guerin and Marius-Gnanou, 2005).

Under these political economy conditions, it is crucial to examine whether and how current women’s micro-enterprise programmes can or should be changed in order to increase their social and economic empowerment through networks of solidarity. The case of Gram Mooligai Limited Company (GMLC), the first female community-based enterprise of herb gatherers based in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu (India) and promoted by local NGOs as an exemplary alternative to improve women’s livelihoods presents an opportunity to critically assess its transformative potential.

By using this term community-based enterprise (CBE) we refer to the definition of the International Cooperative Alliance’s Statement on the Cooperative Identity (ICA, 2008), which defines ‘community enterprise’ as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. From an organizational point of view, the approach of GMCL presents, in its structure, an innovative element if com-pared to that of a cooperative or enterprise: A cooperative is generally formed by individual producers that join together to form a new economic entity.

As for GMCL, this enterprise is formed by different groups/associations of farmers (not individuals), which confers a strong grassroots community dimension. GMCL is also the very first community-based enterprise active in the herbal sector in India which managed to link the supply and the demand side and actively involves women belonging to Scheduled Tribes, for example, what are considered to be the ‘untouchables’, endeavouring to promote at the same time their social empowerment, capacity building and income. The study of women enterprise such as GMCL and the ways in which it operates at grass-root level, could provide lessons for the creation of gender enterprises more participative and inclusive in their approach to women’s needs.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the entrepreneurial approach followed by GMCL in order to identify how far this initiative has been translated into an effective process of poverty alleviation for women that provides them with the capacity to exercise autonomous agency through an enhanced empowerment. The following key questions will be a guide throughout the analysis in this article:

1. What possible changes has this initiative brought about in terms of socio-economic empowerment of its members?





2. How effective has this initiative been in promoting full inclusiveness of the women?

3. What is the possible impact of the inter-section of class, caste and gender on the prospects of women’s empowerment/capacity building in this form of collective initiative?

Before proceeding to elaborate the GMLC case, our article focuses on the past and current experiences of community enterprise programmes for women, providing a critical review of the empowerment debate in development literature.

II Women’s enterprises, development and empowerment processes: Main issues of debateThe publication of Ester Boserup’s Woman’s Role in Economic Development in 1970 reflected the development experts’ concern with gender discrimination in the development process. A major focus of subsequent literature was women’s strategies to confront systematic discrimination or deprivation in the workplace, community and society. In the 1980s and 1990s, scholars and practitioners turned to empowerment, which is said to occur when women mobilize themselves and take leadership positions in work settings or the community (Chitsike, 2000; Friedmann, 1992).

In recent years the term ‘empowerment’ has become increasingly salient in govern-ment-sponsored and NGO-run community enterprise programmes for women to describe a proliferation of outcomes. For instance, various studies have aimed at measuring women’s empowerment in light of ‘autonomy’ (Jeejebhoy, 2000), ‘agency’ (Tzannatos, 1999), ‘land rights’ (Quisumbing and De la Briere, 2000), ‘domestic economic power’ (Mason, 2000), ‘bargaining power’ (Quisumbing and de la Briere, 2000) and ‘gender equality’ (World Bank, 2001). However, in the absence of a shared definition of empowerment, the similarities and the differences underlying

many of these concepts have scarcely been addressed.

A more systematic attempt to concep-tualize empowerment may be found among feminist and human rights scholars, with Moser (1989) proposing it to be the ability to increase individual’s autonomy. Meyers (1989) contends that autonomy requires an introspec-tive approach based on regular self-discovery/definition/direction. Her proposition reflects MacKinnon’s (1989) thesis that members of oppressed groups are ‘invisible’ to themselves and must ‘discover’ their identity. This idea is also embedded in Freire’s (1970; 1973) foun-dational theory of the emancipation of the oppressed and critical consciousness.

Power relations have the potential to enhance or undermine women’s sense of autonomy (Thachuk, 2007). Kabeer (2003) reinforces the concept of relational autonomy by differentiating between ‘passive agency’ (actions taken when there is little choice) versus ‘active agency’ (purposeful behaviour). She goes further to suggest that cultural and ideological norms may support inequalities of power by preventing dialogue, criticism and debate. What is important is that ‘subordinate groups are likely to accept, and even collude with, their lot in society if the alternative either does not appear possible or else carries heavy personal and social costs’ (Kabeer, 2003, Chapter 7). Consequently, agency encompasses not only active choice (decision-making, protest, bargaining and negotiation) but also the meaning, motivation and purpose that individuals bring to their actions. That is, women should be able to define self-interest and choice, and consider themselves as not only able, but entitled to make choices (Nussbaum, 2000). Resources are seen as the means to improve women’s active agency. Women who are not visible within their communities, namely those marginalized by illiteracy, poverty and unemployment, lose access to community resources (including access to knowledge and services) and remain dependent on patriarchal power structures. According to Kabeer (2001),





the extent to which women exercise agency and gain access to resources illustrates their achievements or outcomes of their efforts. Much of the emphasis on empowerment as a process is found in the conceptual literature, but this understanding is also beginning to be incorporated into the frameworks of empirical studies. For instance, Brush (2006) considers autonomy and empowerment to be fairly similar: she argues that the former is a static state and thus measurable by most available indicators, while the latter changes over time, and is not so easily measurable. Others stress the importance of agency as emerging from ‘bottom up’ rather than ‘top down’ approaches toward development (Charlier, 2005). At the institutional and aggregate levels, agency is frequently assessed in terms of participation and ‘social inclusion’ (Fernando, 2006). It is also embedded in the idea of self-efficacy and the significance of the realization by individual women that they can be the agents of change in their own lives (Narayan et al., 2000). A widely used definition of women’s empowerment is increased power achieved through participation to collective groups (Hofmann and Marius-Gnanou, 2005). Feminist experts have argued that women’s groups are vital in enabling women to increase their control of resources and decision-making capacity (Chow, 2003). More recent efforts focus on the multidimensional and complex nature of the empowerment process. Naila Kabeer (2001) found that women’s participation in microcredit programmes in Bangladesh led to more activism in community affairs, reduction in domestic violence and an overall sense of power (Kabeer, 2001: 81).

The basic theory is that microfinance empowers women by putting capital in their hands and allowing them to earn an inde-pendent income and contribute financially to their households and communities (Koenig et al., 2003). This economic empowerment is expected to generate increased self-esteem, respect and other forms of empowerment for women beneficiaries. Involvement in

successful income-generating activities should translate into greater control an empowerment (Johnson, 2000; Wright, 2003). Closer examination shows us, however, that this equation may not always hold true and that complacency in these assumptions can lead micro-finance institutions to overlook both opportunities to empower women more profoundly and failures in empowerment (Holvoet, 2005; Mayoux, 2001).

The ability of a woman to transform her life through access to financial services depends on many factors – some of them linked to her indi-vidual situation and abilities, and other depend-ent upon her environment and the status of women as a group. Control of capital is only one dimension of the complex and ever-changing process by which the cycles of poverty and powerlessness replicate themselves. Women also face disadvantages in accessing informa-tion, social networks and other resources they need to succeed in business and in life (Gaiha et al., 2001; Khandker, 1998).

Microfinance has built a significant part of its reputation on the assertion that small loans empower women. The assumption that every human being has entrepreneurship potential, but only lacks access to credit, underlies this ‘social business’ intervention.

According to Karim (2011), the gap between lenders’ perception of women’s autonomy and women’s actual lack of autonomy is caused by micro-finance institutions’ ignorance of the complex sets of obligations placed on women. According to the author, women are effectively subjected to two sources of authority in the microcredit relationship: the social authority of the borrower group, and the patriarchal authority of the household.

These borrowers are not isolated and auton-omous subjects; rather, they are relational subjects who live in extended families in villages. Within these living arrangements, kinship ties control subordinated individuals, particularly women within the family […] The woman as the loan-taking subject is now accountable to two forms of authority,





her husband/family and the NGO/group borrowers who are jointly responsible for the timely repayment of her loan. Thus, if she fails to meet her debt obligations, it results in a breach of trust that extends to the kin group and the wider community. This is a very significant point in understanding how microfinance adversely affects the lives of women borrowers. (ibid.: 37)

III Contextual framesThe past few years have seen a rising number of women’s income generation programmes and projects in many countries (Della Giusta and Phillips, 2006).

Government schemes to alleviate poverty in independent India have tried to empower women primarily through a broadening of economic opportunities. Though such initiatives have a long history, it was the variety of pressures on the government of India and state governments during the 1980s and 1990s, especially from international bodies and from affirmative action groups within, that gender issues began to be taken seriously in policy planning (Minniti et al., 2005). Since 1953, the Indian state has adopted a range of token schemes, but the 1974 report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, stressed that none of these measures had any remarkable success in empowering rural women. These efforts reveal an increasing appreciation that, in dealing with rural women’s issues, the basic needs approach does not really take into consideration the institutional, legal and political aspects of inequality (Menon-Sen and Prabhu, 2001). Women in general continue to be identified primarily as mothers and, consequently, investing in building their individual capacities – as workers, farmers and professionals – has been low on the list of priorities of the Indian state.

One major contributing factor is the system of patriarchy in society that places male and females in different and unequal positions. The gender system is reinforced through different aspects of life, such as interpersonal behaviour, law and politics.

Indeed, Amartya Sen (1999: 101) feels that the empowerment of women is one of the main issues in the process of development and more importantly, that ‘the factors involved include women’s education, their ownership pattern, their employment opportunities and the working of the labor market’.

Maria Mies (1982) highlights that if there is not a transformation in the current production and reproduction relations of women’s policy guided employment, then the policies may lead to the impoverishment of the women, and a polarization not only between classes but also between men and women as well. The nature of women’s work is often labelled as part of the ‘informal sector’ or as that which makes up the ‘shadow economy’. Prugl and Tinker (1997) show how home-based workers are not easily identified as either self-employed or dependent workers because these categories of employment status fail to capture gender subordination which is particularly salient in the case of home-based work.

This phenomena is labelled by Mies as the ‘housewifization’ of labour, which allows for women’s labour to be viewed as subsistence work (i.e. natural) and not considered in the production of capital. A plethora of ‘Women in Development’ literature in the tradition of Maria Mies’s (1982) Lace Makers of Narsapur argued also that capitalism and mechanization, fused with patriarchy and caste hierarchy, have actually decreased the status of women in India. One of the major findings to emerge from these papers is that in recent decades there has been a strengthening of male-biased (‘patriarchal’) norms and values across all castes and classes in India, simultaneously with increasing economic development (Basu and Banerjee, 2006; Kabeer, 2001).

In the male-dominated societies of South Asia, poor women’s collective ownership of assets is an important first step towards independent ownership. Additionally, because such efforts are small and decentralized, they can develop at each group’s own pace and be responsive to individual experiences, affording





women the opportunity to grow into their new roles and realities. Collectively, many such small organizing efforts can make economically weak women powerful. The populous Indian sub-continent offers numerous additional possibilities for such initiatives. The success of well-known organizations of humble beginnings such as the Grameen Bank, SEWA, Proshika, WWF, BRAC and AWARE with poor, previously disenfranchised women in both urban and rural environments in South Asia provides a major impetus for more organizing efforts in the region.

Participation in collective forms of entre-preneurship, such as rural cooperatives is often seen as an instrument for the empowerment of women, opening new opportunities to master financial skills and create economic enter-prises (Donahoe, 1999). Yet, statistics from South Asia over show that the participation rate of women in cooperatives is lower than for men, especially in rural farming or credit, which tend to be synonymous with men’s activities. Examples of recent geographic and ethnographic research on the formation and survival of collective forms of entrepreneur-ship are common (Mutersbaugh, 2002). Some recent research on micro-credit in South Asia has shown that the availability of credit can increase women’s work burdens, and that men often control the income generated by the credit that women receive (Kabeer, 2001). The self-help groups are indeed communities of purpose, but fail to take into consideration the plurality of issues within the category of ‘women’ (Gutmann, 1985). In declaring the group approach as the principal mode of poverty alleviation and empowerment, a similar discourse has been entrenched in GAD schemes in rural India. This discourse neg-lects to analyze the gender relations in which women are subordinated, which, according to Kabeer (2003), must inform any effort to empower women (Moser, 1989).

The fact that women pursue their economic activities in a wide and disparate range of trades, occupations, environments, work

locations and employment relationships comprises a major barrier to effective organizing. The absence of a fixed employer, or the difficulty of identifying one due to elaborate chains of subcontracting, is a common characteristic of this sector and one that ensures that workers remain in precarious casual, contractual, migrant or home-based work environments.

Organizing women into collectives not only increases their economic clout and bargaining power but also opens up other opportunities for change. Frequently, women’s organizations have enabled women to gain increased access to new markets or to negotiate better terms in old arrangements. Handicraft and clothing co-operatives organized by Banaskantha in Gujarat, India, helped women organize to bypass exploitative middlemen and to access urban garment markets, thereby increasing their earnings by over 300 per cent (Chen et al., 1996). Similarly, potato-farmer groups in remote parts of northern Pakistan and basket weavers in Sri Lanka were able to access export markets through their involvement with the Aga Khan Rural Support Program and the Women’s Development Federation respectively (Carr et al., 1996).

Despite these positive outcomes of pro-ducers’ groups and collectives, one drawback which has been often emphasized by numerous scholars is the difficulty of these commercial initiatives to be really inclusive for its members. Criteria that successfully identify the poor do not ensure for instance equality of access to microcredit opportunities. Indeed, there is increasing anecdotal evidence that the poorest 20 per cent of the population are effectively excluded from microcredit programmes (Kabeer, 2005; Mayoux, 2006).

Land is usually the crucial factor, where the landless are automatically excluded from any successful agricultural production venture – for example, the sugar cooperatives analyzed by Attwood (1988), or the Anand dairy cooperatives of India (Attwood and Baviskar, 1988). In fact, the intersections of class, caste, ethnic and other social differences





that run deep in some societies, make the likelihood of any easy ‘blueprint’ for successful women’s micro-enterprise development extremely slim. Consequently, access to small-scale entrepreneurship becomes much more difficult for poor women than for poor men. Even within the same industries and markets, women are generally considerably disadvantaged relative to men and have lower incomes. This is particularly the case with female-headed households (Della Giusta and Phillips, 2006).

The initiative of Gram Mooligai Limited presents an interesting example of producers’ groups especially designed to empower the women in social and economic terms and to enhance their capacity to negotiate with the final market. The GMCL is also the very first community-based enterprise active in the herbal sector which actively involves women belonging to scheduled tribes.1

GMCL creates a link between the supply side and the demand side, being the supply side represented by the producers (Sanghas members) and the demand side by the consumers (pharmaceutical enterprises, physicians, medical shops, villagers). The intervention of GMCL has allowed the creation of direct linkages between the producers and the industry and the reduction of the economic monopoly of middlemen. The market of medicinal herbs is imperfect in terms of price-setting because of the restricted flow of information. Studies that document these price differences, usually posit the view that the middleman exploits the lack of market information to obtain a cheap price (Kala et al., 2004: 456). Few specialized wholesalers are engaged in this business. Small-scale traders and agents of the larger drug manufacturers transport the plants from the collection areas to the processors operating in the urban areas. These may be small or medium scale local operators or large scale Ayurvedic and allopathic drug manufacturers (Samant et al., 2007: 250). There is no correlation between the payment given to these collectors and

the market price of the commodities. The rates paid to the collectors of the herbs are extremely low, often just a fraction of the price paid by the final consumer (World Bank, 2001: 38).

IV The case study Among the four southern states, Tamil Nadu is one of the most densely populated, with a population of over 55 million. Tamil Nadu, with a GSDP of about US$38 billion, has emerged as the fifth largest state economy in India. The state is also one of the most urbanized in the country with over 40 per cent of its population living in towns and cities. This southern state has also achieved commendable development outcomes, with higher economic growth (6.6 per cent) and faster poverty reduction than a national average in the 1990s (World Bank, 2001). Tamil Nadu, with the third highest Human Development Index among Indian states, is well on track to achieve the major Millennium Development Goals: the state’s above-average performance in increasing female literacy and female life expectancy, and reducing female infant mortality and lowering the fertility rate have given Tamil Nadu a Gender Development Index of 0.654 (in 2001) as against the all-India average of 0.560.

V Presentation of Gram Mooligai Limited Company (GMCL) Active since 2000, GMCL supplies medicinal herbs to Indian pharmaceutical enterprises (such as Himalaya Drug Company, Natural Remedies, Ompharma, etc.) playing an intermediary role between these companies and the local farmers. It also commercialises ayurvedic medicines produced by local communities under the brand of ‘Village Herbs’. Although GMCL has only been operational for a short time, its turnover jumped from $140,000 in 2005–06 up to $180,000 in 2008, contributing an average of $90 annually to the livelihoods of some 1,300 families in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.





GMCL was established by a network of Indian NGOs, particularly FRLHT (Foun- dation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions) and CCD (Covenant Centre for Development), as an attempt at developing participatory management for poor women. The shareholding of the company is repre-sented by female cultivators and gatherers of medicinal plants organised into 72 local groups called Sanghas,2 distributed in 80 vil-lages in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. GMCL presents a formally established and agreed decision-making structure where all problems connected with the running of the enterprise (for example raw material supplies and prices, technical and managerial problems, wage levels) are discussed at regular meetings of an elected board of directors composed of both managers and representatives of Sanghas. These latter are elected among the members of the Sanghas. GMCL plays the role of a marketing/commercial entity. Its main func-tions are liaising, selling the raw material and negotiating the commercial conditions with the pharmaceutical sector and expanding the market share for the final product. CCD ensures the liaison between GMCL and the local communities, thus acting as a facilita-tor and action catalyst. Its role involves an organizational dimension (facilitating the con-stitution of Sanghas and their coordination), a communication dimension (facilitating the flux of information between the different levels of the organization) and a capacity building dimen-sion (facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and know-how and the spread of information inside the Sanghas). The next section sets out the methodology of the case study, followed by an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Sanghas and their socio-economic impact on women’s confidence, assertiveness and motivation to eliminate exploitive structures.

VI Research methodologyThe field study took place in Tamil Nadu, in the districts of Dindugal, Virudhanagar Ramanad and was carried out between June and

August 2009. Data came from individual and group interviews as well as from participative observation. A sample of 22 households of Sanghas farmers and of sales representatives was selected on the base of parameters such as age, marital status and economic conditions; this last element being measured on the basis of the average budget available at household level. A total of 42 women aged 21 to 55 years were interviewed. These women were interviewed at home and on one-to-one basis. All belonged to the scheduled tribes as this enterprise aims to work with the most vulnerable sections of the village society. Scheduled Tribes generally consist of tribal groups. The present population is 7 per cent of the total population of India, that is, around 70 million. The caste divisions are based on occupational differentiation. The occupations being related to the caste structure (and thereby to the religious system), the system tends to reduce occupational mobility and innovation. The Scheduled Tribes, as people outside the caste system, had the lowest social status and often work in what are seen as unhealthy, unpleasant or polluting jobs. Even today, the Scheduled Tribes in India suffer from social segregation and restrictions, in addition to extreme poverty (Lerche, 1993).

The interviews (45 minutes to one hour each) consisted of structured and semi-structured components. On the one hand, structured questions aimed to collect quantitative data, such as income generation, household budgets and sparing capacity. On the other hand, semi-structured questions aimed to assess the point of view and the evaluation of the interviewees about the process of empowerment and capacity building. The data obtained from the interviews have been complemented and validity has been checked by group interviews. These latter consisted of 10 participants each, selected among the Sanghas’ members not previously interviewed.

In an attempt to compensate for the lack of cultural and linguistic background that





can only come from long-term engagement with a particular community, we hired four local translators belonging to the same caste of the interviewees. Two of them, recruited with the support of CCD, were field workers with previous professional experience among Tamil speaking villagers. Aware of the fact that translation from different backgrounds may help facilitate access to different social groups, we also recruited two English speaking villagers. To avoid the gender difficulties that may arise when a male interpreter approaches women, both of these translators were female. Moreover, to protect the privacy of the respondents, we ensured that interpreters who assist with translation lived in different villages of those of the interviewees. All the interviews were recorded and transcripted in Tamil language. These scripts were subsequently translated in English and the two versions were compared in order to triangulate the data.

1 Data collectionThree methods of data collection were used, each of which views the interaction from differing perspectives and requires different sampling strategies. The first method comprised the use of key informant interviews held with GMCL, FRLHT and CCD members, as well as with local leaders of Sanghas. The second method involved participant observation at the different levels of GMCL structure (Sanghas, Sales Groups, Federation…).The third method consisted of in-depth interviews with a selected number of villagers recruited through the snow-ball technique. To reduce the risk of producing a biased sample, we have matched it with a sample of randomly selected households in the villages. Participants in the research process were made aware of the purposes of the research and how the information provided by the participant was to be used by the researchers. Any participant was free to withdraw from the research at any time. In order to assure data confidentiality, we omitted the names of the interviewees.

2 The Sanghas: A singular form of women’s entrepreneurship at the grass-root levelThe Sanghas are village organizations com-posed of maximum 20 members. The GMCL case study also shows that empowerment processes in gender entrepreneurial activities is facilitated by a mode of conceiving the economic activity close to the women’s everyday experiences. In the GMCL approach, there is a clear focus upon knowing the experiences of the women in their everyday life; there is an equally strong focus on making those experiences collective through taking part in the same economic activities.

The benefits of being a member of the Sangha consist in the pursuit of group enterprise activities, namely collection, harvesting, cleaning, drying, weighting of the raw herbs and also the mobilisation of savings.

Another important objective of the Sanghas is to build the self-help capabilities of the rural poor. Income generating activities are promoted either as a group or as individuals by providing microcredit and giving technical guidance. The interviews and field observations have shown that the joint liability not only improves group members’ coordination and productivity, but also creates mechanisms of cooperation and reinforcement of community ownership, which is a prerequisite of GMCL. Some of the basic characteristics of Sanghas, such as small size of membership and homogeneity of composition, bring about cohesiveness and effective participation of members in the functioning of the group (Nussbaum, 2000).

The major source of income of the GMCL members comes from the work of the male members, husband, father or others. The interviews show that the majority of the members’ spouses were working as labourers either in agriculture or in construction work.

The socio-demographic profile of the Sanghas reveals that 90 per cent of their members belong to the age group of 30–45 years and have a family size ranging from 3 to 5 members. The quantity produced or collected





by every member is decided on collective base inside the Sangha.

When GMCL gets an order from a buyer, it offers to buy the specified medicinal herbs from the members of the group at 70 per cent of the negotiated price value of the buyer industry at a predetermined price. This aspect is particularly significant as the market of herbal sector is characterized by price fluctuations and instability, due to the seasonality of the supply. The Sanghas send the samples of the materials to be collected to the buyer through the GMCL. When the buyer accepts the sample, GMCL places orders to the Sanghas specifying quantity, quality, packing style required and transportation modalities. Initial training and guidance is given to the villagers in reference to the operational, administrative and legal procedures involved with the formation and functioning of the Sangha.

The organizational structure of GMCL is unique in many ways. Methods of work are rather diverse and flexible and each group is encouraged to find its own solutions to man-agement problems. According to the prefer-ence of its members, in some groups medicinal plants are cultivated collectively, in others this is done individually. The CCD field coordinator is expected to submit a monthly report of all the Sanghas to the President of CCD, who in turn presents it to the management of GMCL for monitoring and evaluation.

VII Women’s empowerment in SanghasWith reference to the results, in the GMCL approach, women’s development through income generation is seen as a process whereby they can attain gradual control over resources and production processes. Recognizing the multi-dimensionality of poverty (Amin et al., 2003; Dessy and Ewoudou, 2006; Mayoux, 2006), the GMCL approach stresses holistic strategies. There is a greater emphasis on structural inequality rather than individual behaviour as factors influencing incomes. The task is therefore seen not so much as one of addressing low incomes at the individual level,

but the formation of groups and associations of poor women for mutual support in production and to pressure for change in wider inequalities.

Consistent with Kabeer’s definition of empowerment (2001), Sanghas encompass the idea of process, or change from a condition of disempowerment, allowing its members to make choices from the vantage point of real economic alternatives, without ‘punishingly high costs’.

1 Economic empowermentThe status of women is intimately connected with their economic position, which in turn depends on opportunities for women for participating in productive activities (Gerin, 2004; Liedholm, 2002; Servet, 2006). In our sample, 26 out of 42 villagers (that is, 56 per cent) emphasized an increase of revenue as the major outcome of the GMCL activity. This aspect in particular was highlighted by two-thirds of the women who were married and in their thirties. These women underlined how the presence of several children in their households made their economic conditions particularly delicate. All the gatherers inter-viewed stressed how the association with GMCL has allowed them to get better prices from those offered previously by local traders. A 38-year-old woman from the village of Palavanatham recalls the past:

Before becoming a member of GMCL, I had to trudge to the towns of Madurai to sell the herbs that I had collected. It was quite a long journey, around 50 Km from my village and I had to go by bus. This was quite expensive but I had to feed my children. The traders were never satisfied with the quality of my product and used to pay me very little…

Currently, all of the farmers interviewed through the intermediation of GMCL are able to gain higher margins from their sales and to reduce the transaction costs involved in the presence of middlemen. Every one of the interviewees affirmed that the increase of selling price for the gatherers was on average around 30 per cent. In tourist places such





as B.R. Hills or in rural towns such as Sante Marally, the sales amount to an average of `2,000 to `3,000 (US$40 to US$60) per month. The quantum of sales decreases proportionally in the smaller villagers where it amounts to approximately `1,000 to `1,500 (US$20 to US$30) per month. The income obtained through GMCL activity was invested by 82 per cent of the interviewees in buying agricultural materials (fertilizers, seeds, etc.) or livestock. Nineteen out of forty-two of the women interviewed (that is, 45 per cent) were able to acquire goats and poultry. In particular, the poorer women who were married with several children emphasized how the income generated by taking part in the GMCL activity allowed them to invest in livestock. In order to examine the economic impact of GMCL, the income generated from taking part in GMCL activity was collated with the total monthly family income. The contribution of GMCL income to total family income is found to be significant. Thirty-three out of the forty-two women interviewed (that is, 78 per cent) stated that they have generated a monthly income ranging from ̀ 1,500 to ̀ 2,000 (US$30 to US$40).

After the intervention of GMCL, 20 out of 42 women interviewed (that is, 47 per cent), especially those who were poorer and with a numerous household, affirmed that they were able to increase their savings as a consequence of the reduction of expenditures for medicines. In seven cases, depending on the willingness of women to be involved in the community enterprise activity and investing some initial money in the purchase of medicines, GMCL has been able to enhance local entrepreneurship and employment. A leader from Umlalli explains: ‘Our venture helps create job opportunities for women. We do not involve doctors because then our venture will become centralized and money will get distributed. We want to ensure that the local profit is used locally.’

One third of the women interviewed (that is, 14), especially the young ones, have

expressed their interest in opening their own medical shop in the future. However the increase in the sale of the medicines could be hindered by the lower social status of sales representatives: the villagers belonging to higher castes are in some cases unwilling to purchase medicines or interact with them due to their inferior status. This can vary from one village to another, based on the differences in social structure that characterize the village communities.

A sensitive issue is represented by the link between economic income, participation and sustainability of GMCL activity in the long term. Women’s participation in GMCL activities tends to involve work done outside the home in a collective work-shed. As noted above, more than two thirds of the women (that is, 30), especially the poorer ones, declared that they felt less restricted in their mobility outside the home because of the necessity to work, and they had generally built up considerable support networks. However, working outside the home in collective sheds often involves further expenditure in time and/or transport and may prevent them from engaging in other forms of simultaneous economic production (for example, looking after livestock in the compound) as well as reproductive activities like child-care. This aspect was emphasized by 28 out of 42 women interviewed (that is, 66 per cent). Regular work outside the home may therefore be possible only where the income gains are sufficient to cover these losses. On this respect, a 29 years old woman from Umlalli affirms:

I took part into the GMCL activities but I had to give up…Every day I have to start on daily basis before the sun rises… my work load with the husbandry and the goats is very heavy and I hardly have a moment of rest. I also have three children and I cannot leave them alone...every time I used to come home late because of the work with GMCL my husband used to beat me up because he said I was not taking good care of the family.





Another young woman in her early twenties affirms how she was actively taking part in the Sangha as a treasurer before gett-ing married but had to resign after getting married and mother of two children:

I really much enjoyed being a member of the Sangha but I had to give up after my marriage…I tried to persuade my husband to let me go to the meetings but he got very cross with me and he ordered me to remain at home and look after the housework, instead of going out and meeting the other women…My mother-in-law also accused me of neglecting the children to attend the meetings.

Despite these positive economic outcomes for the women involved in the Sanghas, it needs to be emphasized that the sector of herbal medicine remains quite unstable as it is subject to market and price fluctuations. The works by Vanessa Pupavac (2005) in Bosnia and Lesley Gill (2000) in Bolivia, both challenge women’s empowerment through small projects tapping into unstable and ultimately limited and erratic forms of demand.

From the point of view of profitability of the business, the restructuring of the value chain needs attention and should be a matter of primary concern. If the local gatherers are to secure a fair price from their work and par-ticipate willingly in sustainable harvesting and local cultivation, new models of trade and new partnerships with manufacturing enterprises are called for which will shorten the supply chain. Despite this, the link between local gatherers and pharmaceutical enterprises might offer new possibilities as well as new risks due to the weak negotiation power that the local farmers have vis-à-vis the final market.

The issue of ‘elite capture’ regarding conservation and development projects is well-documented (Agrawal, 1999). It is not the primary objective of this article to examine the possible monopolization of the herbal market by outsiders, such as local traders, and this issue would deserve further investigation.

2 Social empowermentAt first glance, GMCL has also been successful in producing an enhanced social empowerment process for women involved in the activity. Such process has contributed to increase their access to power and resources at both community and household levels through Sanghas and other informal meeting groups. This aspect has been emphasized by 26 women out of 42 (that is, 61 per cent). Social recognition has gradually given way to respect in most villages and the changes most visible in the public domain. This issue of respect and recognition by the village community is a very critical marker of change for the women and has been emphasized by two-thirds of the interviewees. A 24-year-old sales representative called Rajeshvari affirms:

I was earlier working in a dairy, then in a shop and finally have joined this enterprise. I have become so much self-reliant that I can go to the city alone and sell my wares. Further, earlier I was just some person. But now, people recognize me as Rajeshvari who can treat diseases. I have also improved my knowledge regarding diseases because I have to educate the public.

For a young member of a Sangha in Sante Marally, her knowledge of herbal medicine has changed her relationship with the landlord: ‘I could not enter the landlord’s house by the front door, but now that I have learnt to use herbs, he calls me “doctor”, and begs me to come to his house.’

A sale representative from the village of Ramanand affirms:

Many women feel more comfortable talking about their health problems with me then with a doctor. Sometimes women have also gynecological problems such a white dis-charges and they ask my advice. I give them a medicine which is targeted for that. There are several women that told me they didn’t dare asking for an advice to the doctor as they feel intimidated by him but with me it is different. The women also cannot go alone to the clinic but they have to be accompanied by their husband or a male member of the fam-ily. Therefore, because of these difficulties,





these women postpone their cure and are not healed. But since I have started selling the medicines, they can come to visit me and I can help them.

Taking part in the GMCL activity has also had positive effects on the family and the children, especially in terms of access to basic health services. This aspect has been highlighted by more than one-third of the women (that is, 16). A women from a Sangha in Dindugul affirms:

I use these products to cure my children too. I use the products to cure the cough and fever. It is very important to use these products as they have no side effects, so it is safer for my children. As these medicines are cheaper than the allopathic medicines, I can cure my children better as I can give them more often, when they need them. Before I had to think before buying the allopathic medicines as they are more expensive.

Paradoxically, the same ability to treat dis-eases becomes a stigma in the context of herb gathering because ‘gathering’ is associated with a low caste and tribal background. Five of the women interviewed (that is, 11 per cent), espe-cially the poorer ones, have emphasized how low caste and social status may inhibit entry into entrepreneurial occupations, reducing the range of activities open to poor women and limiting their economic activities. This socio-cultural constraint prevents an increase in the participation of the women in GMCL activity, and limits their empowerment.

In this context it is important to underline all the complexity of intersectionality of gender oppression (Spivak, 1988;Writers and Nagar, 2006), in order to better understand the multiple ways in which various socially and culturally constructed categories interact on multiple levels to manifest themselves as inequality in women’s condition. We do agree with authors such as Collins (2000) and Mann and Huffman (2005) who highlight how models of inequality within society, such as those based on ethnicity, gender, caste and class do not act independently of one another; instead, these

forms of oppression interrelate and determine occupational hierarchies, thus heavily affecting the ‘empowering’ potential of workforce participation.

These cases show how taking part into GMCL activities allowed to partially overcome the social taboos linked to young age of the women and to overcome, in some aspects, the dominant position of the elders. Several groups have become centres for initiating social action against the dowry system, alcoholism, illiteracy and divorce. In spite of several drawbacks, members unanimously expressed the view that some improvement in their livelihood had taken place as a result of their increased confidence and ability to cope with difficulties. However, the extent of empowerment varied with each aspect examined. For example, one third of the women interviewed (that is, 14), in particular the young ones, felt that their self-confidence had increased considerably. These women strongly agree that they can now participate in non-family meetings, interact effectively in the public sphere and enjoy better mobility.

The GMCL study case confirms that participation should not be considered an indicator of success of gender enterprises in achieving women’s empowerment. The reasons for women’s high and increasing levels of participation in GMCL are diverse. Twenty-seven out of 42 of the women interviewed have emphasized the need to increase their family revenue. Decreasing opportunities for men to earn a ‘family wage’ mean that many households are now no longer able to meet their needs from male wages alone. In many cases male expectations that women will contribute to the family income pool have increased. This aspect has been emphasized by sixteen women (that is, 38 per cent of the interviewees). These women are being pushed into whatever market economic activity they can take up. The seasonality of raw herbs harvesting activities allows these women to balance them with their other agricultural occupations. Ten out of 42 of the women explained that their motivation in





taking part in GMCL activities was to have access to an independent income as a means of resisting gender and ethnic subordination. This minority of women were quite willing to challenge the gender norms in the interests of a higher income and to improve their social position. Thus changing the attitudinal barriers, which still persist among rural women, may take a long time. Considering the fact that the Sanghas have been functioning only for a short time, we feel that the ‘take off stage’ has been successful. A gradual shift in women’s perception about the roles of their daughters is a clear indication of their changing attitude. However, the groups have a long way to go before becoming strong enough to change the power equations in the family and the society.

VIII ConclusionThe numbers of organizations working on market strategies to promote women’s enter-prises in South Asia have grown significantly in recent years. While some have been success-ful, many others have highlighted numerous challenges in terms of equity, participation, women’s outreach and effective results in terms of gender empowerment.

The GMCL case study shows that enhanced levels of returns to vulnerable groups such as women belonging to the scheduled tribes can derive from the herbal sector that is currently characterized by a lopsided sharing of income in the medicinal plant sector which is designed mostly in favour of contractors and traders. In the segment of the final product, GMCL represents a pioneer example of how the local communities can become actively involved in the production and the commercialization of herbal medicines. GMCL is thus a good example of a gender collective enterprise which focuses primarily on bringing women into the economic mainstream and social enhancement by broadening their options and thereby increasing their likelihood of success and reducing their dependence on outside sources of support.

In relation to local development, GMCL represents an innovative move to by-pass inequalities in the market system which is focused on setting up alternative community organizations. The problems of poverty are seen in the GMCL approach as multi-dimensional and qualitative rather than only economic and quantitative. This produces positive result both in terms of livelihoods and social empowerment.Although the innovative strategies and tools utilized to serve their constituencies better and to reach the real poor, GMCL points all the complexity of tackling with the interconnectivity of gender inequality within Indian society, such as those based on a multiplicity of factors such as caste, class, age and socio-economic background which determine division of labour and occupational hierarchies. In accordance with other case studies already explored in the literature, GMCL shows that without appropriate measures to address gender inequality, such as capacity building initiatives, enterprise development is likely to increase women’s workload and responsibilities without increasing their effective empowerment.

Notes1. The Scheduled Tribes are population groupings that

are explicitly recognized by the Constitution of India, previously called the ‘depressed classes’ by the British, and otherwise known as untouchables. Today they represent over 8 per cent of the total population (Indian Census, 2001).

2. ‘Sangha’ is a Sanskrit word that can be translated roughly as ‘association’ or ‘assembly’, ‘company’ or community’ with common goal, vision or purpose.

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