Entrepreneurship development and where self help groups: An empirical investigation

Women represent half of the world‘s population as well as production and constitute a significant part in a household as well as in the economy. Traditionally, women are believed to be a ‗guarantor‘ of the household in times of economic crisis. However, despite their importance in the economy, women are disadvantaged, financially excluded and virtually marginalized vis-à-vis men in the society. Several studies conducted at national and international levels reveal that one of the good ways to empower women is to encourage them to develop the skills of entrepreneurship which may lead to financial inclusion and bring them to the mainstream of the society. Here again we find that the present world of entrepreneurs is dominated by men. In this context micro-finance through self help groups can work as a powerful tool to empower women by inculcating the entrepreneurial skill among women. Against this background the study is designed with the following objectives 1. To find out the importance of SHG‘s in women entrepreneurship; 2. To critically examine the problems faced by women entrepreneur; 3. To suggest suitable policy prescriptions. The study was conducted in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka State during 2011–2012. A sample of 240 female entrepreneurs of SHGs of three different promotes, i.e. NGO, Co-operative and Government were interviewed for collection of primary data. The major findings of the study are, Firstly, SHG‘s have made women economically independent and become effective approach of financial inclusion. Secondly, government and Cooperative promoted SHG members have not invested much micro credit on agriculture & related IGA‘s due to lack of land and support from their respective promoters. Thirdly, because of small sized group and better marketing strategy performance of NGO promoted groups are good compared to other groups. Fourthly, inadequate finance, lack of better marketing facilities, conflict among group members, lack of follow up and training by promoters are the major problems faced by the entrepreneurs.