Voices Against Violence: Empowering Women to Access Informal Justice in Rural India

Abstract

This thesis explores the effectiveness of a community-led response to domestic violence in tribal communities within Udaipur district, Rajasthan, India. Situated within an Indian Non Government Organization's comprehensive women's empowerment program, this research shows that the Women's Resource Centers provide mediation to stop domestic violence and potentially prevent future violence through challenging cultural norms that perpetuate violence.

Using a program evaluation approach, I compare how the program is intended to operate to my observations and interviews with community implementers, primarily at one Women's Resource Center. This comparative lens serves to demonstrate the inevitable shifts and challenges that occur throughout implementation. I argue that development interventions addressing violence against women continually experiment with monitoring and evaluation tools, such as an outcome map, to capture their successes and setbacks to foster organizational learning and increase accountability to the intended beneficiaries of the program.