An observational study looking at the inclusionary or exclusionary effects of the infrastructure development of a solar park in India which specifically aims to work towards micro-scale equality through regional upliftment.
The project included a training and temporary employment to local unskilled/semi-skilled labor.
It finds that the development instead impacted equality negatively, creating socio-economic exclusion and disproportionately negatively affected women of lower castes.
While acquiring basic additional skills, none of the women participating in training remained connected to the operators of the solar park and none were hired.
An insignificant amount of women from local villages were working at the solar park, of which most belonged to the the dominant caste, and the redistributive potential was stymied through capture by village female elites.
The author suggests this is an example of institutional design neglecting individual agency and structural power relations, especially intersectional inequalities between gender and caste.
The study is limited in explanatory power through its observational design, not being able to make causal inferences.
