Department of Commerce, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Puducherry.
Online published on 10 January, 2012.
“There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women”.
—Kofi Annan
Over the past few years Micro-finance has been advocated internationally as the formal route to offering opportunities for livelihoods and pulling the poor out of poverty traps. Small sums of credit are made out to persons who are supposed to put the money to productive use, thereby guaranteeing repayment. Women are seen as more creditworthy than men and hence the bulk of micro finance is directed towards them. The empowerment of women through self help groups would lead to benefit not only in the individual women but also for the family community as a whole through collective action for development. The main objective of the paper is to study the overall socio-economic empowerment of women with special reference to Thiruvannamalai district of Tamilandu. The researcher has collected primary data through questionnaire cum interview schedule method and the sample of 60 members was selected on basis of convenience sampling method. The collected data are analyzed with the help of simple percentage analysis, weighted average score and Garrett ranking. The study can be concluded that the poorest women were able to empower their socio-economic conditions but most of them are doing their traditional business activities or income generating activities therefore, they are not able sustain in the competitive market. If the Government and Non-Government Organization come forward to provide various training to the members of self help groups and arranging them for marketing facility they can also able to empowered equal to other women.
