Title: Evaluation of self reliance model on women's empowerment: a case of Chitrakoot

Authors: Neeraj Awasthy; Ranjana Agarwal

Addresses: Institute of Management Technology, Raj Nagar, Post Box No. 137, Ghaziabad-201001, India ' Institute of Management Technology, Raj Nagar, Post Box No. 137, Ghaziabad-201001, India

Abstract: This paper focuses on the study of impact of a self reliance model on women empowerment and its contribution towards improvement in the standard of living. Extensive secondary research was done to understand the self reliance model followed by field visits, primary data collection and qualitative analysis. A case of Chitrakoot has been taken to analyse how the self reliance model has been implemented and how it has gone a long way in empowering women in rural areas and developing society. The research suggested that women's confidence and decision making abilities have increased dramatically, the contribution of women in agriculture has increased substantially and output of agriculture has risen. Vocational training programmes conducted by institutions like Udyamita, has increased women's participation in activities like pickle making, marmalade, etc., which has made them self-reliant. This has indeed become a true model of rural development and has led to a substantial increase in women's participation in work leading to empowerment.

Keywords: self reliance; female empowerment; Deendayal Research Institute; DRI; Smaj Shilpi Dampati; empowerment of women; standards of living; rural areas; developing countries; India; agriculture; vocational training; female participation; preserves; rural development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIM.2013.057739

International Journal of Intercultural Information Management, 2013 Vol.3 No.3, pp.219 - 225

Received: 23 Oct 2012
Accepted: 29 May 2013
Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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