ABSTRACT
In India, since the 1990s, group-based microfi nance strategies have come up under both government and private agencies in rural areas with the multiple objectives of poverty alleviation, developing awareness towards health and education and livelihood generation. In the case of women groups, the additional objective is to empower them and bring about changes in their traditional subordinate position in the family as well as in society. However, these strategies target the poor rural women of developing countries as a homogeneous category belonging to a particular class without taking into account the socio-spatial specifi cities of individual locations. Moreover, globalising processes that include opening up of markets to the outside world sometimes guide the selection of non-farm activities without considering local market opportunities.
