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Impact Assessment of a Rural Women’s Micro Entrepreneurship Project using Path Analysis Models

Volume 20, Number 2 Article by M J Xavier, J Raja and Usha Nandhini S June, 2008

Impact Assessment of a Rural Women’s Micro Entrepreneurship Project using Path Analysis Models :

Development of micro entrepreneurs has been seen as a means of aiding the welfare and progress of communities in the lower economic strata by micro finance organisations, NGOs and other welfare agencies. Of late, corporations have entered the field. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), the Indian subsidiary of Unilever, is one such corporation to have developed micro entrepreneurs through its Project Shakti by engaging women in rural areas to act as direct-to-home sales distributors of the company’s products. Through Project Shakti, HUL links up with members of self help groups formed for microfinance activities by local NGOs to access BOP markets in the rural areas. The project has scaled up rapidly, operating among 500 million people in 500,000 villages in India.

M J Xavier, J Raja and Usha Nandhini S undertook a research project to understand Project Shakti and assess its impact on the women involved. The study was carried out in the state of Tamil Nadu in two distinct phases. In the first phase, the researchers used narrative analysis and developed themes from the constructs elicited from the narrations. The three themes that emerged were entrepreneurial development, economic empowerment and social empowerment. In the second phase, a questionnaire was designed on the basis of the themes developed and path analysis was used to quantitatively assess the impact of Project Shakti. The research findings revealed that involvement in Project Shakti led to entrepreneurial development resulting in economic empowerment, which in turn led to social empowerment, the dimension from which the women derived the greatest satisfaction. HUL has blended sales objectives with societal objectives which has resulted in the women entrepreneurs getting recognised in their local communities as opinion leaders.

Reprint No 08206d