Empowering the dividual

Abstract

The utility of the term ‘dividual’ in the evaluation of a microenterprise project mounted by a major transnational corporation in Madhya Pradesh, India, is considered. Aimed at the empowerment of poor rural women and deployed across India as well as in several other countries, the project itself challenges the constraints of poverty and traditionalism on women's agency, particularly within the husband/wife relationship. Melanesian and Indian versions of the concept of the ‘dividual’, as formulated by anthropologists working in the two areas, are tested against a current formulation in South Asian development literature of women's empowerment through participation in local self-help groups. It is found that although the Melanesian version of the ‘dividual’ allows for transformation through the creation of a new reference point for innovative agency, it fails to take into account hierarchy in the form of the public/private divide typical of state societies and necessary to the formulation of empowerment strategies.