WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH MICROFINANCE AND SELF-HELP GROUP: REACHING OUT TO THE BOTTOM OF PYRAMID IN INDIA
Keywords:
Self Help Group,, Women empowerment,, MicrofinanceAbstract
According United Nation Population Fund, “women empowerment can be achieved through autonomy of women in the decision making and simultaneously, improvement in the political, social, economic, and health conditions. Education turns out to be a vital way of empowering women with the required knowledge, skills and attitude that are mandatory in their development process. In the recent times, microfinance expansion has rapidly grown in India into various operating networks and to a varying degree of success and one such form is the development of Self-Help Group. The introduction of SHGs and formalized SHG Federations coupled now with SHG Bank Linkage turned this into a dominant form of microfinance in addition to Microfinance Institutions (MFI). The SHGs are established and shaped usually by NGOs, Government agencies and sometimes directly by banks. The approach facilitates access to low-cost financial services with a process of self-development for the women who join as members of an SHG.
This paper identifies the various sources, factors of microfinance such as social mobilization, financial inclusion, skill enhancement etc. that help women to become self-reliant and gets empowered in all spheres of life through SHG movement. In addition, this paper also explains how SHG based microfinance programs help in improving the social and economic situation of women and facilitates them the autonomy in decision making in
her society.
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