Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

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Exploring Linkages between Citizenship,
Livelihood Security and Gender Equality
Planned Interventions and Outcomes
in Rajasthan
Shobhita Rajagopal
INTRODUCTION
The emerging focus on citizenship within development can be traced to
several parallel shifts in the development discourse during the 1990s. The
emphasis on participatory development, long rooted in the concern with
participation, began to turn towards political participation and increasing
poor and marginalised people’s influence over the wider decision-making
processes that affect their lives. The rise of the ‘good governance’ agenda,
and its concerns with increasing the responsiveness of governments to
citizen’s voices, also added to the debate (Gaventa 2002).
Citizenship has been defined in myriad ways. Conventionally, the concept
of citizenship has been traced to the rise of the nation-state, and taken
to refer to membership of a nation-state and the formal rights and duties
which this membership carries (Kabeer 2002). Various concepts of citizenship
have incorporated ideas of universal citizenship and equal rights for
all members. However, the notion of universal citizenship has been challenged
on a number of grounds. Feminists, among others, have asserted
that such an understanding hides the reality of unequal power on the
basis of race, class, ethnicity and gender, which can render women subject
to double discrimination (Meer and Sever 2004). It is also criticised for
effectively occluding diversity in experiences, identities and welfare needs.