Urban Poverty, Women’s Empowerment and the Local State The Case of Public-private Collaborated Community Development in Ahmedabad

Based on the data of my fieldwork in Ahmedabad, India, this paper attempts to examine the processes of women’s empowerment at the intersection of local community-based activities of women’s organisations and individual interests and needs. The case discussed in this paper is of poor women’s participation in community-based organisations (CBOs) under a local government-NGO collaborated slum improvement scheme: the Slum Networking Project (SNP). First, the paper gives a theoretical overview of the local state, and tries to apply the concept to the issues of gender and development, in the context of an increasing incorporation of NGOs into government development projects in urban India. Second, it deals with the issues of women’s empowerment in development in the Indian context. It further argues how NGOs as intermediaries are seen as vital for social transformation amongst poor women, yet increasingly appear vulnerable in their ideologies when it comes to the activities at local community level. Third, it analyses the data and examines whether the development discourse exerted by the concerned NGOs in the SNP fits into poor women’s interests in their view. Finally, the paper concludes that along with the institutionalisation of hitherto progressive NGOs, non-transformative organisations, often populist in nature, appear to have gained spaces in capturing vulnerable sections of society.