Thinking beyond empowerment understanding autonomy in the context of kudumbashree

Abstract

The concepts empowerment, agency and autonomy have gained a wider range of attention in newlinethe developmental research regimes. Amidst the conceptual drift these concepts are used newlineinterchangeably leading to uncertainty and proliferated meanings. The process of newlineempowerment may not always lead to autonomy. Through an ethnography of Kudumbashree, newlinean SHG in the South Indian state of Kerala, the current research focuses on how these women exercise agency to trouble the conventional boundaries between empowerment and autonomy. The transition of agency from the economic to the political domain is a subtle enterprise and is mediated by a number of factors including economic independence, decision making capability, mobility and political participation. Social - economic - political and cultural implications of women empowerment could be the first step in challenging and overcoming the relations of oppression in any society. The stereotypical assumptions can be negotiated by solely apportioning responsibilities and re-engaging with the system through everyday practices. The nuances of empowered women s re-engagement with local power regimes lead newlineto changes at the conceptual level that cuts beyond the individual and group level material transformations. The study figures how autonomy is a mediated process that is both agentic and subversive to the local patriarchal structures.