CHAPTER:-1

INTRODUCTION

1
 Self help group or in-short HGS is now a well know concent. It is
now almost two decade old. It is reported that the SSGs have a role in
hasterning country’s economic development SHGs have evolved as
moment.

Mainly members of SHGs are women. Logically participation of

women in the country’s economic development is increasing they also
play an important role in increase the economic status of their families.

In the recent year emporment has been recognized as the central

issue in determining status of women. So women become more strong
source of development by empowering women not only make them to
share in the development progress but also bring out their cast
efficiency.

Empowerment of women is sim ovua mem to achieve the guals of

social development. It is necessary that women must be brought in the
main streem of national development programs by empowering them to
discharge all types of roles. Empowerment of women all cannot be
igoned while devising various polices for socio-economic development.
The economic status of women is now accepted as an indiator of an
economy’s level of development. This doesnot mean that economic
development necessarily result in improving the women who constitue
about 50 percent of the population.

2
 Formulation of SHGs with women has empowerd them larglly
SSGs are now gaining acceptance as an alleternative system credit
delivery for meeting the credit needs especially to the people who are
the poorest of poor generally compiling small/ marginal farm and
eandeess agri cueltance labors.

The origin of self heep group can be traced is from grameen bank
of Bangladesh which was founded by Mohamed Yunus. SHGs were
stated and formed in 1975 in india NABAD intitiated instituianal credits
aveulable in the rural area has led to establishment of SHGs. The
concept of self help groups has been consumption needs out of theirs
saving.

A self help group is a small economically homogenous affinity

group of the poor voluntarily coming to gather to save small amount
nighutanly which one deposited in common fund to meet member
emergency need and to provide collateral free loans decided by the
group.

The conept of shg was not new to maharastra. Beginning with a

tiny amount of only 25 paisa. The women of maharastra from amaravati
district had established on SHG long back in 1947.

Futher in 1988, chaitanya Gramin Mahila bal yubal sanstha started

promoting SHGs in pune district informally.
3
 In southern part of india ‘SADHAN’ ‘DHAN’ foundation and Asn
worked to promote SHGs, but their thrust was on economic aspect only
presently numerous NGOs and Govenmental institution promo SHGs on
large scale.

ROLE OF SHG's

Women empowerment is a global issue. The SHG Movement

worldwide aimed at systematically empowering marginalized grass root
level women by way of conscientization, income generation and
capacity building. In the words of Gandhiji “One step for women ten
steps for nation.” 1 The discussions on women’s political rights are the
forefront of many formal and informal campaigns. This concept appears
to be the outcome of several important critiques and debates. Its source
can be traced to the interaction between feminism and the concept of
popular education. The economic empowerment requires transferred of
skills of management and control of the economic activities, which
enable them to feel confident and being involved in the decision making
process. In real sense, empowerment would be attained when women are
actively involved in the larger struggle for social change. Education of
women will place them an equal footing with men in decision making.
Empowerment through education lead to their greater participation in
government and community institutions and better entrepreneurial

4
opportunities. Women literacy and education is prerequisite not only for
their equality and empowerment but also for the development of the
nation.

Through economic empowerment, one can be empowered socially,

physically, mentally and through all these she is sure to be empowered
politically. In this empowerment process, SHGs (Self-Help Groups) help
the women to empower economically. A SHG is a small economically
homogeneous affinity group of the rural poor who have volunteered to
organize themselves into a group for eradication of poverty of the
members. The members of the group were coming together to save a
small amount regularly, which are deposited in a common fund to meet
members emergency needs and to provide collateral free loans decided
by the group. SHGs have been recognized as a useful tool to help the
poor and work as an alternative mechanism to meet the urgent credit
needs of poor through thrift. SHG is a media for development of savings
habit among the women. It enhances the equality of women, as
participants, decision makers and beneficiaries in the democratic,
economic, social and cultural spheres of life. For this study 75
respondents were taken from 15 SHGs of Bargarh town of Odisha. By
Random selection method respondents were selected. Five members
were taken from each group for this study. For this research work the
Bargarh town is selected as the research area, which is situated in
5
western part of Odisha. It lies between 820 39’ to 83058’ east longitude
and between 20043’ to 21041’north latitude on the bank of River Jira. It
covers an area of 16,725 sq. kms., with a population of 63,678. Out of
which 33,115 are male and 30,563 are female. The literacy rate of the
town is 80.70%. Where male literacy rate is 88.27 % and female literacy
rate is 72.48%.2 The inhabitants of this town were mainly Odia speaking
people.

Socio economic background of the individual tends to influence

the empowerment of sample has been enquired into in terms of some
important variable such as age, caste, education, occupation and income.
The sample for this study has 75 respondents. The following study
reveals the socio-economic profile of the respondents.

This paper enquires into the level of income of women, on the

basis of average monthly income, approximately from all sources, the
respondents have been grouped under three income groups, such as the
high income group, the middle income group and the low income group.
Those with an average monthly income is less than Rs.1000/- have been
grouped under the low income group, those with an average monthly
income ranking between Rs.1001/- to Rs.3000/- have been grouped
under the middle income group and those with an average monthly
income of more than Rs.3000/- have been grouped under the high

6
income group. It is found that the high income group (Rs.3001/- and
above) constitutes 13.33%, the middle income group (Rs.1001/-to
3001/-) constitutes 57.33%, the low income group (less than Rs.1000/-)
constitutes 29.34%. Thus, the sample has been greatly dominated by the
respondents belonging to the middle income groups. The socio-
economic background of the respondents of the sample has, thus been
enquired in respect of the variables of age, caste, education, income and
occupation. It has been found that, the sample in terms of the variable of
age, has been dominated by the respondents belonging to the middle age
group and in terms of the variable of education, it has been dominated
by respondents belonging to the primary educated group. The sample is
also found to have been greatly dominated by the general caste and
business community.

OBJECT OF SHG's

The work participation of women are high but are subjected to low
valuation. They work the most compared to men folk but are least
accounted in the global earnings. They undertake a good deal of
responsibilities at home but are not dealt well and are disempowered and
hence remain at the lowest rung of the socio – economic ladder.
Therefore, until and unless women are given freedom and fearlessness to
face challenges of life, there would be no real development of the nation.

7
Keeping this in view a good deal of measures has been undertaken by
the government to steer and gear up women to go ahead with an
objective to strengthen them socially and economically. Formation and
functioning of women Self Help Group (WSHG) is one of the potent
measures to materialize the avowed objectives.

The main objectives of this survey are:

 To study the status of women SHGs in Balasore District and the

Sample Blocks.
 To discuss the impact of group participation on employment
generation for women.
 To highlight the contribution of participating women in income,
expenditure and savings of the households.

SCOPE OF SHG's
The scope of the study is limited to two blocks such as Khaira and
Oupada blocks of Balasore District. The sample respondents are subject
to random selection of 5 SHGs with 15 members per SHG in each block.
Taking both blocks into account there are 150 sample respondents. The
study is based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data are
collected through structured schedules and through direct personal
interviews. On the other hand the secondary data are collected from

8
DRDA and selected NGOs of Balasore district. The study is also
supplemented by different articles published in different journals,
magazines, news papers and books etc. The data so collected are
presented through classification, tabulation and analysis for analytical
purposes.
Section II analyses the status of SHGs in the sample blocks and the
district as well while section III deals with SHGs- bank linkages and
employment generation. Section IV examines the contribution of
participating women to the household economy and section V concludes
the paper.

LIMITATION OF SHG's

There are also sometimes significant disadvantages to. If help

approaches as well. You may lack the perspective to properly understand
the nature of your issues. Your ability to help yourself will only be as
good as your ability to be objective and clear about what the nature of
your issues is.

You may lack the knowledge of how to fix your issues. Even if

you are able to be objective and accurate about the nature of your issues,
you are still faced with the challenge of figuring out how to solve them.
Creating a useful self-help plan requires accurate knowledge: 1)

9
Knowledge of what is causing your problems, and 2) knowledge about
how those problems can be fixed. People aren't born knowing how to fix
problems. It takes access to resources and the willingness to read and
study those resources before you can determine the best methods for
helping yourself. Not everyone is able or willing to do this work.
You may lack the motivation or will-power to stick to a self-
help plan. There is a final issue as well. Even if you know what to do to
solve your problem, you aren't always able to stick to your plan and
follow through well enough to benefit from your plan. Creating and
maintaining the motivation necessary to stick to a self-help plan can be a
very difficult thing to accomplish. Not everyone is able to motivate and
discipline themselves sufficiently well, even when they are dealing with
painful problems they very much want to solve.

10
 CHAPTER:-2
REVIEW OF SHG's

11
 Self Help Groups have emerged as one of the major Strategies for
women’s empowerment and various schemes of the Government of
India have shown that strong women’s group could contribute towards
development and services for women. A Self Help Group is a voluntary
association of persons with common interest formed and managed
democratically without any political affiliation. It provides an
appropriate platform for initiating and sustaining income generating
activities. To enable women to stand on their own legs, this Self Help
Group strategy is attempted. It is for building confidence and focusing
on development tasks. Different groups in various states all over the
Country have focusing on skill development for income Generation
activities among poor women. Therefore it is required to provide
exemplary strategies and tools to empower women in Self Help Groups.
Based on the review of related literature, Methodology for the present
study is being designed and the study was done according to the
objectives. Research in Common parlance refers to a search for
knowledge. It is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent
information on a specific topic. It is Important to plan how the
researcher. This chapter clearly explains the statement of the problem
the main objectives of the research, operational definition the research
design area of study with whom the study conducted sampling method,
tools for data collection limitations of the study and chapterization. Any

12
scientific study should be methodical and systematic. Such kind of
systematic way is dealt in this chapter. This chapter is also dealt with
research methods and techniques used in the study. It mainly describes
the procedure followed in the selection of the study area, and the
respondents. Besides description of the location, variables, data
collection procedure and statistical techniques used were also outlined
here. Statement of the problem: A sociological study on the
empowerment of women with special reference to Mahasemam Trust -
Madurai. Significance of the Study area: Mahasemam Mahasemam is a
Microfinance organization registered under the Indian Trust Act 1882.
The organization was registered at Nilakottai, Dindigul on July 12,1999.
The prime aim for establishing Mahasemam is to help eradicate poverty
and improve the social status and self esteem of poor women. The spirit
of the organization is aptly captured and signified by the Tamil word
“SEMAM” which means well–being. Mahasemam has trained its
members to marketed products like semam soap‚ semam
shampoo‚ semam oil‚ semam coffee powder‚ semam match box and
other products to the community. Mahasemam procures these quality
products from manufacturers‚ who produce it as per the given
specification‚ adhering to highest quality standards‚ which is then
market under the brand name “Semam”. The members earn a decent
profit from the sale of these products Mahasemam is the first MFI in

13
India to start with Bio diesel and Bio gas projects for generation of clean
eco friendly energy and well as employment generation. Members will
get an additional source of income by cultivation of Jatropha plant,
which would give the basic raw material for the bio diesel. Mahasemam
has a buy back arrangement with the members, which will ascertain a
steady income for the cultivators. The cultivation of Jatropha is well
suited to the climatic and soil conditions prevalent in Southern Tamil
Nadu, which has arid weather and low fertility soil. The Jatropha seeds
have 40% oil content. The oil content is 25-30% in the seed and 50-60%
in the kernel. Jatropha saplings start yielding the in the first year after
plantation .After the first five years, the typical annual yield of Jatropha
tree is 3.5 kgs: of Beans. The tree is productive for 30-40 years. 4 kgs: of
seed is required to produce one litre of Bio Diesel. As per realistic
estimates, one hectare of Jatropha plantation can yield up to 2.2 -2.7 tons
of oil. The pressed seed cake which is the by-product left after the oil is
pressed out from the seed, is very rich in nitrogen and thus very good
manure for agricultural fields. The remaining oil is used to make skin
friendly soap. Thus Jatropha not only meets the rural energy needs but
also protects the environment and generates gainful employment. There
will be four business opportunities for involvement of the interested
stakeholders: Plantation of Jatropha, Collection of oil bearing seeds,
Processing of seeds to produce oil and seed cake, processing of cake to

14
get Bio Gas and Bio Fertilizer, Manufacturing of Bio-diesel. The
Contribution of Mahasemam intends researcher to take up a research
study in Madurai.

Main Objectives of the study:

 To find out the Socio-Economic Profile of Women in Mahasemam
 To know the factors influencing the Participation of Women in
Mahasemam
 To elucidate the Social Status and Self Esteem of Women in
Mahasemam
 To trace out the Programmes on Capacity Building for Women in
Mahasemam
 To assess the Effect of Mahasemam on the Empowerment of
Women

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Review of literature is one of the most vital statuses in any
research. This presentation attempts to throw some light on the process
and important aspects of literature. It is a focused reading with a specific
purpose.
Mahasemam: Mahasemam provides the potential of empowering
women in several different ways; by equipping them with the awareness
15
and the knowledge required to make beneficial life choices by increasing
their ability to access resource and services, by including a feeling of
self worth by increasing their ability to challenge and make accountable
those who hold power and authority among other things.
Awareness: Conscious level upbringing the mind and body
together to motivate towards a particular direction for achieving a goal.
Motivation: Motivation may be regarded as something which
Prompts, Compels and energizes an individual to act or behave in a
particular fashion at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or
purpose.
Usury: Usury is defined either as the practice of making loans with
excessive or abusive interest rates or simply the practice of loaning
money.
Empowerment: Empowerment is the process of awareness and
capacity building leading to greater participation to greater decision
making power and control and to transformative action.
Networking: Maintaining the contacts with the similar nature of
groups in order to have exposure, knowledge, ideas and other
developments of the particular area networking depends on the old
saying of “it is not what you know, it tells the women’s ability to
succeed in the relationship.

16
 Income Generation Activities: Income generation activities are
considered as those initiatives that affect the economic aspects of
people’s lives through the use of economic tools such as credit. It is
being increasingly realized that women’s income in a family is very
important in relation to the nutritional, economic and educational
upliftment of the family.
Poverty Alleviation: Poverty alleviation as the overarching goal for
developmental assistance for the poor. It aims to reduce the negative
impact of poverty on the lives of the poor people, but in a more
sustained and permanent way than Poverty relief programs. It includes
the states – Social grand programs which alleviate the impact of poverty
for many people.

17
 CHAPTER:-3
METHODOLOGY
(DATA COLLECTION)

 PRIMARY DATA
 SECONDARY DATA

18
PRIMARY DATA

1. Primary Data:
 These are the data which are collected from some primary sources
i.e., a source of origin where the data generate.
 These are collected for the first time by an investigator or an
agency for any statistical analysis.
 “Data which are gathered originally for a certain purpose are
known as primary data.” — Horace Secrist

Merits:
1. It has high degree of accuracy.

2. For some enquiries, secondary data is not available.

3. These are more reliable.

4. It needs no extra precautions.

Demerits:
1. It requires lot of time.

2. It needs much money.

3. These data can be obtained though skilled persons only.

19
 4. Sometimes, these data are not available altogether.

SECONDARY DATA:
These are the data which are collected from some secondary source
i.e. the source of reservation storage where the data is collected by one
person and used by other agency. These are collected as primary data
and used by other as secondary data.

“The data which are used in an investigation, but which have been
gathered originally by someone else for some other purpose are known
as secondary data.” — Blair

Merits:
1. It is easy to collect.

2. Time and money is saved.

3. Sometimes primary data cannot be obtained.

4. Some data are more reliable than primary.

Demerits:
1. These are not reliable as primary data.

2. Extra caution is needed to use these data.

20
 3. All types of data are not available.

4. Purpose of original collection may have been different.

India is a country with vast population having persisting unemployment

problem. In rural areas, the poor are dependent on money-lenders for
their financial needs, either for marriage, illness, or any other emergency
need in the family. Moneylenders always exploit the situation. The
formal credit system of banks by and large is beyond the reach of the
poor, so rural employment generation is the greatest challenge for our
country. Government has to make the rural people to realize that Self
Help Groups (SHGs) are the main medium for rural employment
generation. Encouragement and support by the government will solve
the problem of rural unemployment, which can be achieved by realizing
the need for rural employment through SHGs. The information to access
of credit, resources, skills and technology base of poor are very weak
and the scales of their operation small. Their credit needs arise due to
growing family size and societal obligations such as expenses on
marriage, deaths, medical treatment and also due to market and climate
uncertainties. The need to expand or diversify operation places
tremendous strain on the existing family income, which is hardly
adequate to meet routine production and consumption requirements. In
such emergencies, there are no credit institution to fall back upon and

21
hence they are forced to take credit supplied by bigger landlords, traders
and moneylenders at a quite high rate of interest, withstanding the treat
of losing their means of production, indebtedness and sometime even
bondedness.

The financial institutions have not entered this credit market in a

big way due to certain reasons. Importantly, a poor person tends to be
rather tentative, uncertain in his behaviour but group membership
smoothens the rough edges of his behaviour pattern, making him more
reliable as a borrower. A poor person feels exposed to all kings of
hazards; he requires guidance and advice from people he knows and can
trust. Membership in a group would ensure the best participation of the
poor in a credit programme. The SHGs serve the purpose of savings,
credit, linkages with banks, market, production, employment etc.

Classification according to their Gender

22
 Gender, age, educational qualification, economic status and
occupation, etc are some of the important variables that affect the
empowerment and development.
Formation of SHG is taking place for their empowerment in each
and every village minimum number of SHG’s was reported to be of
female category and least SHG’s were reported to male category. The
above table shows that the total female respondent and total male
respondent are 382 (95.5%) and 18 (4.5%) respectively.

Distribution according to their age

23
Classification according to their Educational Qualification

Crosstab of education qualification of SHGs

Classification according to their Educational Qualification

24
25
 CHAPTER:-4
DATA ANALYSIS & FINDING

The summary of findings of the analysis relating to the Self

Help Group members taken up Income Generating Activity is presented

26
in this chapter. In addition, suggestions by the researcher in response to
the findings are also presented. This chapter ends with the concluding
remarks and the scope for further research in this area. Micro-enterprise
through microfinance has become a modern economic weapon for the
poor to fight against poverty and unemployment. The present study aims
to analyse the Self Help Groups that lead the society by undertaking
Income Generating Activity (IGA) to strengthen the standard of living of
people living in rural areas which is a rarely explored area in research.
Hence, an attempt has been made to evaluate the investment, loan and
savings pattern, impact of micro credit among respondents and the
constraints faced by them due to their association with Self Help Groups
with the following objectives:

• To study the evolution, growth and development of microfinance

movement in India.

• To study the socio-economic pattern of the respondents in the study

area.

• To analyse the investment, loan availed and savings pattern involving

micro credit among the respondents due to their association with Self
Help Groups.

27
• To measure the impact of micro-credit on the development of the
respondents on various dimensions. • To assess the constraints faced by
the respondents due to their association with Self Help Groups.

Using multi-stage random sampling technique, Karamadai

Block with highest number of Self Help Groups was selected in
Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 525 Women Self Help
Group members of Karamadai Block covering 17 villages, carrying out
Income Generating Activity were identified and selected for the study.

The present study is an empirical investigation based on both

primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using a well
structured and pre-tested interview schedule by visiting all the
respondents personally, keeping the objectives of the study in mind. The
secondary data were collected from published and unpublished sources
like books, magazines, journals, evaluation reports and thesis.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

 Chapter I of the study has dealt with the introduction and design of
the study.
 Chapter II of the study has dealt with the review of literature which
has been undertaken to establish the validity of the research topic –
Impact of Microcredit as a Change Catalyst to Self Help Group

28
 Members –An Empirical Study. In order to understand the concept
of self help groups and also to identify the areas already
investigated, some of the important studies already undertaken and
related to the objectives of the present study have been reviewed
for a span of more than two decades.
 Chapter III. India is brimming with Self Help Groups which are
part of a bank linkage programme supported by the National Bank
for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) as a cost
effective mechanism for providing financial services to the
“Unreached Poor” which has been successful not only in meeting
financial needs of the rural poor women but also in strengthening
collective self help capacities of the poor, leading to their
empowerment. Rapid progress in SHG formation has now turned
into an entrepreneurial movement among women across the
country. Beginning with a modest number of 255 Self Help Groups
in 1992-93, a total of 12,19,821 Self Help Groups were credit
linked with banks in 2012-13. The cumulative disbursement of
bank loan was Rs.0.29 crore in 1992-93, which increased to
Rs.20,585.36 crore in 2012-13. Total refinance increased from
Rs.0.27 crores in 1992-93 to Rs.22,396.24 crore in the year 2012-
13. The progress is notable in case of granting bank loan to the

29
 beneficiaries, refinance programmed and then the number of
groups linked.
 Chapter IV has analyzed the performance of the groups in terms of
their entrepreneurial activities, investment, loan, savings and asset
creation. The findings have been:

30
CHAPTER:-5

SUGGESTIONS

31
 Microcredit and micro-enterprises have been recognized as
factors that contribute to the economic development of a nation. The
non-availability of the required funds is one of the main constraints that
entrepreneurs face in establishing micro-enterprises. Micro-enterprises
act as important social platform for women to interact with market and
other social institutions outside the household, enabling them to gain
useful knowledge and social capital. If the goods produced by the rural
poor are sold at the right time with profitable price, then the poor will be
able to improve their savings potential, credit handling capacity and
access to financial institutions, inculcate entrepreneurial skill, develop
an urge for investment and also risk taking attitude through Self Help
Groups. Micro financing can do wonders to the rural poor living in
improving their economic condition and protecting them from the
clutches of the village money-lenders. All eligible poor rural households
in the country are to be covered through Self Help Group –Bank
Linkage Programme. Emphasis should be given to resource poor
States/Districts/Blocks for promoting Self Help Group Bank Linkage
Programme.

Special schemes can be devised to revive dormant SHGs

through effective capacity building and handholding support by rating
the performance of Self Help Groups. Economic assistance can be made
more flexible and be made easily accessible to the SHGs even at an early
32
stage of micro activity, to provide a flexible ground to improve the scope
and the functioning of the bigger activities. „Branding‟, as a tool for
marketing, has been considered as the basic requirement of today‟s
market, as the micro activities have been far left behind due to the
traditional methods adopted and the lack of updated technology followed
by these micro units. The micro enterprises can move towards
technology based activities and organic farming, thereby paving a way
towards transforming micro activities into major activities. Efforts
should be taken to inject a positive attitude among the SHGs and their
members, to create a standing for the introduction of their brands into
the market, with a positive attitude to establish their market share. They
can also be streamlined to go global with their products and services to
create a virtual market. The need based training programmes are to be
made compulsory for all the Self Help Group members taking up
Income Generating Activity to produce quality and demand products. It
also helps them to overcome technical constraints. Relevant measures
can be devised to evaluate the effective utilization of loan for the
purpose for which they have been obtained rather than being misused.

33
CONCLUSION

Micro-enterprises through microfinance is presumed to be the

most innovative strategy to fight against poverty and unemployment by
offering small, collateral free loans which otherwise would not have
access to the required capital to start Income Generating Activities. It
plays a vital role in providing the much needed funds to rural women
which are able to generate good return on investment. They have
become economically self-reliant and contribute to the well-being of
their families by providing them funds made from their business activity.
Micro-credit has enabled the poor rural women to become economic
agents of change. The impact of micro-credit to Self Help Group
members in the study area is appreciable in building confidence,
courage, skill development and self-worthiness. It has contributed to
changes in the self-development, family level, economic conditions,
social status, and encourages women in outdoor activities after joining
the self help groups. It not only changes the outlook of a community or
society towards women, but also the social institutions as well as ideas
of the people. It applies to change the material aspects of life as well as
the ideas, values and attitudes of the people. Self help group members
have faced lot of constraints and tried to find out a proper solution for it
in running their Income Generating Activities. The extent of constraints
encountered by the members can be reduced in due course by
34
experience, need-based training and also with the required support from
government and NGOs. It is concluded that micro-credit act as a vehicle
for rural self help group members leading the march of India‟s
emergence as a super economic power in future. A number of countries,
especially the developing countries and international agencies are
turning to India to learn from its experiments with microfinance and to
explore possibilities of replication of the model in other parts of the
globe. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, “To awaken the people, it is
women who must be awakened; once she is on the move, the family
moves, the village moves and nation moves.” Now the women are
awakened by the self help groups.

35
 CHAPTER:-6

LIMITATIONS OF SHG's (OVER ROLE)

36
 The SHGs have made a lasting impact on the lives of the
women particularly in the rural areas of India. Their quality of life has
improved a lot, as: 1) they could develop their skills and abilities in
various productive activities. 2) There is an increase in their income,
savings and consumption. 3) Increased self-reliance and self confidence
have improved the ability of women to mobilize various public services
for their benefit. 4) They have become bold and can speak freely in front
of a big crowd. 5) They can carry out any type of official work without
any fear. 6) The social horizons of the members have also widened.
They have made many friends and feel that now they are more popular
and socially active. 7) The illiterate and semi-literate women have got a
sense of satisfaction and wish fulfillment. Now they have become
productive and the important members of the family. 8) They got high
self esteem which enhances their capacity to work. 9) With
improvements in women’s economic opportunities and their ability to
take collective action, there has been a significant decline in gender
based problems such as domestic violence, dowry, polygamy etc.
Interestingly, some of them are motivating other women to form SHGs
so that they also can reap the benefits. Thus the SHGs have achieved
success in bringing women to the mainstream of decision making.

37
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1]. Ariz Ahamed M.(1999). Women empowerment: self help Groups.
Kurukshetra 47(4),20.
[2]. Banerjee (Chatterjee), T.(2009)-“Economic Impact of Self Help
Groups – a case study”. Journal of Rural Development, 20(4), 451-467.
[3]. Desai Raj M. and Joshi S.(2013)-“can the poor be organized ?
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