Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper interrogates the causes and consequences of the proliferation of gender justice NGOs in India. Using empirical case studies of two grassroots NGOs, it argues for the need to reclaim grassroots agency and power, re-envisioning community participants and field staff as agents of change.

Paper long abstract

The 1970s-80s marked the proliferation of NGOs, particularly in the gender justice arena. In the Indian context, this was followed by the advent of neoliberal economic reforms. As governments began outsourcing several developmental functions to NGOs, the latter grew increasingly dependent on funding agencies to implement their grassroots interventions. Consequently, neoliberal forms of accountability influenced the functioning of grassroots organisations, signalling the shift to output and outcome-driven approaches.

This paper draws upon my fieldwork with two case study NGOs in New Delhi which have their origins in the contemporary Indian women's movement of the 1970s-80s. It delves deeper into the pull factors which encouraged movement activists to institutionalise their autonomous groups into NGOs. Further, interviews, focus groups and observational data suggested institutionalisation, donor dependency, and professionalisation as key consequences of NGO-isation. These were seen to have implications for empowerment of both communities and field staff. A service delivery model risks reduction of community participants to passive ‘beneficiaries’. Another finding concerned the disempowerment of field staff stemming from low status within the organisational hierarchy, the pressures resulting from donor demands, and lower levels of professional skills.

This paper argues for the need for grassroots NGOs to reclaim their transformatory potential. Promoting grassroots agency and power entails reimagining community participants as active agents of change, and field staff as leaders.

This paper aims a theoretical contribution to the literature on the development sector in India and the global South, and an empirical contribution to perspectives and practices of NGOs in civil society.