Institutional Activism and Girls' Education in Rural India
How do state agencies realize social reforms for marginalized populations, especially in settings of inequality? Through an ethnographic study of Mahila Samakhya, a government program for women’s empowerment in Uttar Pradesh, India, this article finds that reform implementation is driven by the institutional norms and practices of frontline workers. The author’s village-level field research reveals that frontline workers challenged patriarchy and caste exclusion while mobilizing village women’s groups for girls’ education, a process that was ridden with social conflict. By negotiating everyday conflicts with target households, the program effectively integrated disadvantaged girls into the education system. The author, Akshay Mangla, will be in conversation with Professor Barbara Harriss-White, to reflect on the study and the challenge of sustaining frontline commitment to girls’ education in India.
Date: 3 December 2021, 17:30
Venue: Margaret Thatcher Centre
Venue Details: Somerville College
Speakers: Prof Akshay Mangla (University of Oxford), Professor Barbara Harriss-White ((Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Oxford))
Organisers: Prof Akshay Mangla (University of Oxford), Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development
Organiser contact email address: oicsd@some.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Gender and Development seminar series
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://forms.office.com/r/36zyZSz7fE
Audience: Public
Editor: Vinita Govindarajan