Economic empowerment of women through self help groups: an empirical study from tiruvallur district

Abstract

The growing commercialisation of rural economy, increasing dependence of agriculture on external inputs, mobilizations of savings towards construction and the growing education have opened up new vistas for the micro-enterprise development in India. Self Help Groups (SHGs) have speeded up the process through credit availability and training. Many successful stories created demonstration effect among the participants. Improved fund availability and savings encouraged women micro entrepreneurs to take up new projects and to create more employment opportunities in rural areas. The SHG approach has considered to be one of the successful approach not only for economic empowerment but also social and political empowerment among rural women in India. Regular intervention by the promoters enhanced the skill formation and awareness among the participants. Economic empowerment involves access to resource, decision making and asset creation among beneficiary and community. Women being important labour force in agriculture, created ample opportunities to access rural resources and enhance the economic status of rural women. But effective resource mobilization and utilization with appropriate skill formation will be the challenge for rural women. Social and political hindrances managed by the peer learning and training among women. Though majority of research findings reveals positive impact of SHGs on rural women entrepreneurship, development of appropriate indicators for impact evaluation will be the concern. There are several quantitative and qualitative tools are developed to analyse the impact evaluation of women empowerment through micro finance. Present study will focus on measurement of financial intervention by the micro finance institution on rural women.