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The Role of Multi-Actor Engagement for Women’s Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Kerala, India

Author

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  • Murale Venugopalan

    (Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi 682041, India)

  • Bettina Lynda Bastian

    (USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, 1200 Jounieh, Lebanon)

  • P. K. Viswanathan

    (Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi 682041, India)

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been increasingly promoted as a means to achieve women’s empowerment in the pursuit of gender equal societies by international development organizations, NGO’s as well as national and local governments across the world. Against this, the paper explores the role and influence of multi-actor engagement on successful empowerment of women based on a case study of Kudumbashree program in a regional context of Kerala, in South India. Our objective is to examine the women empowerment outcomes of the Kudumbashree initiatives, implemented within a multi-actor engagement framework supportive of women’s empowerment through capacity building and social inclusion programs. The case study demonstrates ‘how multiple-level engagements help enhance women’s development and support broad sustainable social change, in view of their sensitivity to the embeddedness of women’s agency under specific socio-political and cultural contexts’. We find that Kudumbashree programs, through its multi-actor engagement, strives for an equilibrium between social change through policy and regulatory change (top down) and social change via mobilizing the people (bottom-up). From a policy angle, the key learnings from the successful outcomes of Kudumbashree may be considered for designing rural and urban community development programs with a focus on the multidimensional empowerment as well as social and economic inclusion of women and other marginalized communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Murale Venugopalan & Bettina Lynda Bastian & P. K. Viswanathan, 2021. "The Role of Multi-Actor Engagement for Women’s Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Kerala, India," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:31-:d:519268
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Rajiv Nair & P.K Viswanathan & Bettina Lynda Bastian, 2021. "Reprioritising Sustainable Development Goals in the Post-COVID-19 Global Context: Will a Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility Regime Help?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, December.

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