Community-Based Social Work Interventions for Women’s Empowerment in Rural India

Papanna

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.86337

Community-Based Social Work Interventions for Women’s Empowerment in Rural India

Author(s)	Papanna
Country	India
Abstract	Constraints faced by women in India's rural areas include household bargaining power, gender norms, caste class inequalities, access to assets, and access to public services, along with violence and limited mobility, all of which influence women's empowerment. The community-based social work response is unique in that it is a mix of individual support and group building, institutional linkage, rights-based advocacy, and collective action. This paper brings together pertinent conceptual and empirical literature on women empowerment and community interventions in rural India, especially on the areas of self-help groups, livelihood, financial inclusion, legal literacy and gender-based violence support services, health and education, digital inclusion and women involvement in local governance. Informed by Kabeer's resource-agency-achievements framework and capability-oriented approaches, the paper proposes that credit interventions need to be broadened to include strategies that increase women's resources, social networks, voice, safety, and influence over community institutions. While the experiences of Indian SHG programmes provide mixed evidence on the impact of participation on social capital, collective action, and some aspects of agency, there is evidence that it can facilitate these in some cases. It is important to note that effects vary in strength and depend on several factors, including the quality of the group, its duration, its access to markets, household relationships, and institutional support. The Model for Social Work Practice in Communities is presented in the paper, in which community organization, case management, capacity building, referral, and policy advocacy are integrated. It concludes that sustainable empowerment is possible only in long term, intersectional and locally accountable practice; in which rural women, not just beneficiaries, are seen as rights-bearing actors and co-producers of development.
Keywords	community based social work, women empowerment, rural India, self-help groups, collective action, gender, social development.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-21
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.86337

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Community-Based Social Work Interventions for Women’s Empowerment in Rural India

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