Between Liberation and Discipline: Microfinance Experiences of Kudumbasree Beneficiaries in Kerala

This qualitative study investigates the economic empowerment experiences of Kudumbasree microfinance beneficiaries in Kerala through in-depth interviews with nine respondents drawn from Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) in Kollam district. Using nine structured interview questions designed to elicit both affirmative and critical responses, the study surfaces a complex and often contradictory landscape of microfinance outcomes. Thematically, the findings reveal that microfinance access has meaningfully enhanced financial literacy, income diversification, and women’s self-perception among several beneficiaries; yet the same institutional structure has simultaneously produced debt stress, intra-household conflict, and a re-entrenchment of gendered labour burdens for others. Philosophically, the article situates these lived experiences within the frameworks of Sen’s capability approach, Freire’s conscientisation theory, de Beauvoir’s concept of situated freedom, and Foucault’s analytics of disciplinary power, arguing that the Kudumbasree model is best understood not as a linear empowerment intervention but as a contested site of simultaneous liberation and discipline. The study concludes that sustainable economic empowerment through microfinance requires institutional redesign that acknowledges the interior complexity of women’s lives, moving beyond credit disbursal metrics toward genuine expansion of substantive freedoms.