Paradox of Women in Development: INGOs and Women’s (Dis)Empowerment in Singh’s samānāntarākaś

Abstract

This article examines empowering as well as disempowering impacts of INGOs on the middle-class women working for them by analyzing Padmavati Singh’s novel samānāntar ākaś [The Parallel Sky]. Following her divorce, Susmita—a middle class educated woman from Kathmandu—works for an INGO dedicated to women empowerment. Despite her engagement with the working-class women from villages, Susmita eventually focuses on her individual liberty and empowerment, thereby ignoring opportunities to fight for women in general and resorting to middle class privileges like devoting herself to religious cult figures like Sai Baba and a dream of getting reunited with her US based boyfriend. Under a broad theoretical framework of modernity, this qualitative article derives insights on modernity from Frederic Jameson, middle-class modernity from Mark Liechty, relation between development and modernity in the context of Nepal from Stacey Pigg, relation between INGOs and the Nepali women from Siera Tamang, and relation between the structural dividend and the structural insensitivity from Sanjeev Uprety. Whereas the INGO helps the middle-class Nepali women retain their middle-class privileges, it limits their agency by orienting them to the income generating activities of the target women rather than changing the existing social structure. Moreover, these women’s middle-class privileges equally play a vital role in getting them depoliticized. This article expects to shed light on the Nepali women’s experience with modernity in terms of their association with the burgeoning INGOs across Nepal.