Including the excluded: women's empowerment through self help groups: A case study

Poverty and Gender discrimination are the major problems of underdeveloped countries, like India. In its strategy for poverty alleviation and women empowerment programmes, the Government of India has provided considerable space for Women's Self Help Groups (SHGs). This paper attempts to explain the process of women empowerment and find out the changes of the income, expenditure, and savings of the members before and after joining SHGs. The present study trying to explore that the participation in micro-credit programmes can increase an individual's ability, economic sustainability, strengthens women's control over household resources and so on. The present study covers the hill area of Darjeeling District in the state of West Bengal.