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Empowerment through Technology: Gender Dimensions of Social Capital Build-Up in Maharashtra, India

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/5270/
 
Title Empowerment through Technology: Gender Dimensions of Social Capital Build-Up in Maharashtra, India
 
Creator Padmaja, R
Bantilan, M C S
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description This paper explores how and to what extent women and men have benefited from
the build-up of social capital in technology uptake, and the role of women in this process.
Using a case study on Groundnut Production Technology (GPT) in Maharashtra, India, a
systematic documentation of the process by which farmers – both men and women - as
well as the whole community became empowered through the build-up of social capital is
presented. The focus of the paper is on collective action as a mechanism to stimulate
gender-equitable change processes.
Our evidence suggests that the technology uptake process was enhanced with the
build up of social capital, whereby men and women from all class and caste groups came
together for improving their livelihoods. Collective action was enhanced with the
increased involvement and participation of women. Strong kinship ties were developed
among diverse classes all over the village including landless tribal women, who formed
the major labor force for this technology.
The paper concludes that social networks played a crucial mediating role in the
process of technology uptake. The build-up of social capital played an important role in
influencing impacts from the technology because of the ways in which social networks
and social relationships facilitated technology dissemination. Gender relations played a
significant role in mediating the translation of economic benefits into well being of the
individual, the family and community. Finally, it is suggested that further insights into the
role of social networks and power relations in the village may be examined in greater
detail by establishing the village network architecture, especially marginalized groups.
 
Publisher International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
 
Date 2007
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/5270/1/3.%20Padmaja-Bantilan-capriwp63.pdf
Padmaja, R and Bantilan, M C S (2007) Empowerment through Technology: Gender Dimensions of Social Capital Build-Up in Maharashtra, India. In: International Research Workshop on ‘Gender and Collective Action’, 17-21 Oct 2005, Chiang Mai, Thailand.