This book provides an approach to analyzing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and rural women by using specific criteria to compare the effectiveness, especially with women's development, of two NGOs in Karnataka, South India: India Development Service and Grama Vikas.

In recent years scholars have paid increasing attention to the role of women in development and to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as effective vehicles for change. Although there are a great many published studies dealing with each of these subjects separately there are few on NGOs and their work with women. Studies that combine a theoret