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Are women with more of 'social capital' more empowered? A cross-sectional analysis from rural Wardha, Central India.
- Source :
-
Journal of Family Medicine & Primary Care . Feb2022, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p472-479. 8p. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: Despite international commitment and government policies and programmes, a vast majority of women of rural India are socially and economically deprived in the patriarchal sociocultural framework. Strategies to improve women empowerment need context-specific field-based evidence. Objectives: This study was undertaken to address the research question: "Are women with a higher level of social capital more empowered than their counterparts?" Methods: A community-based cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in the Wardha district of Maharashtra, where a two-stage cluster random sampling technique was used to select the 300 study subjects. The outcome variable, women empowerment was assessed using four domains: mobility, inter-spouse communication, household decision-making and asset ownership. The independent variables included social capital along with potential sociodemographic confounders. Multivariate linear regression was applied using the backward stepwise method. Results: The participants had better women empowerment percentage score in the "Household decision-making" domain compared to the other domains. The women empowerment score was found to be significantly higher in the participants with increasing age, higher education, those involved in business/service, above poverty line (ABL), nuclear family, married, and those having at least one living child. In the adjusted analysis, the social capital was found to be a significant determinant of women empowerment, along with age, education, religion, marital status and family type. Conclusion: The improvement of social capital in the form of community-based development projects through Self-Help Groups (SHG) and microfinance programmes need to be encouraged by the Government and NGOs, as this strategy has the potential to improve women empowerment through community-driven development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 22494863
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Family Medicine & Primary Care
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 155729862
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2495_20