Empowerment of Women in Rural India through SHGs — A Step towards Financial Inclusion

Abstract

Empowerment is a powerful word and should hold the weight it carries. When we talk about 'women empowerment', it seems to lose half of its weight as against powerful lobby of men who are responsible to encourage it. The Self help group or SHGs and the credit linkage scheme for it, started as a pilot programme in 1992. In the last 23 years it has not shown the results envisioned by the proposers. The intention is good but the tool needs more sharpening. Merely economic support is not enough to sustain such a model. For women empowerment education is a prerequisite to the success of this model. By education, we mean knowledge enhancement through school education, occupational and management skills. Women by nature have managerial skills which need to be harnessed. They have patience, vision and a planning instinct better than men. Through this study we discuss, a statistical understanding of women empowerment in India and the Self Help Group (SHG) credit and savings programme, being enforced to achieve it. As a result, the need is felt for more Financial Institutions to join in such initiatives. Index Terms-Financial inclusion, SHG, SHG credit bank linkage programme, women empowerment.