Socio-Economic Impacts of JEEViKA: A Large-Scale Self-Help Group Project in Bihar, India.

Summary Policymakers have invested billions of dollars over the past two decades on projects which target poverty reduction by institutional mobilization of the poor. Unfortunately, evidence on the efficacy of such projects is few and far between; this is an outcome of the complexity of these projects. We consider results from JEEViKA, a large-scale rural livelihoods program in Bihar, India. We use a retrospective survey instrument, coupled with PSM techniques to find that JEEViKA has engendered some significant results in restructuring the debt portfolio of these households; additionally, there is evidence on women’s empowerment, as measured by various dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]