Abstract:

This research, Transforming Journey: Documenting Women Empowerment in the Desert Communities of Western Rajasthan, explores the evolving gender dynamics within climatically arid and culturally orthodox regions—specifically Barmer, Jaisalmer, and Bikaner. Utilising a transdisciplinary mixed-method approach—stratified surveys, ethnographic immersion, key informant interviews, and embedded case studies—the study investigates how empowerment is articulated and enacted among subaltern women.

Grounded in intersectional feminism, postcolonial rurality, and critical development praxis, empowerment is examined as a multidimensional construct encompassing cognitive autonomy, economic participation, sociopolitical mobility, and bodily integrity. Analysis combines NVivo-assisted thematic coding with multivariate regression modelling to ensure both interpretive depth and statistical rigor.

Findings highlight an emergent yet uneven reconfiguration of agency, enabled by Panchayati Raj institutions, women's self-help networks, and targeted state and non-state interventions. However, this transformation is constrained by patriarchal norms, institutional inertia, infrastructural gaps, and uneven policy implementation.

The study reconceptualises empowerment as a non-linear, contested, and spatially contingent process, offering context-sensitive, structurally embedded policy recommendations to strengthen rural women’s agency in India’s desert peripheries.

Keywords:

Women’s Empowerment, Desert Communities, Intersectional Feminism, Rural Development, Gendered Agency, Sociocultural Transformation, Policy Implementation Gaps

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