Credit Utilization Pattern of Members of Women SHGs and their Involvement in Decision Making in Udaipur, Rajasthan

Women are vital part of the Indian Economy, constituting one-third of the national labour force and a major contributor to the survival of the family, especially in rural areas. Despite progress in several key indicators, women generally have no control over land and other productive assets, which largely excludes them from access to institutional credit and renders them dependent on high-cost informal sources of credit to secure capital for consumption and/or production purpose. To address to this pressing problem, the concept of Self Help Groups (SHG) gained momentum in the last few decades and many SHGs have emerged in India. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the involvement of women members on these aspects. The study was conducted in the villages of Udaipur district of Rajasthan with one government and one non-government organization having maximum number of SHGs formed under them. Total 20 SHGs (10 from each type of organisation) were studied. The results highlighted that majority of the respondents from both GO and NGO (91.11 and 87.77%, respectively) availed credit from the groups for purchase of agricultural inputs, entrepreneurial activities, purchase of household items and animals and very few respondents (8.88 and 12.22 per cent) from GO and NGO, respectively did not avail credit from the group as they were satisfied by monthly savings and did not feel the need to take credit. Cent per cent members from both GO and NGO had involvement ‘to a great extent’ in decisions related to credit requirement. The utilization of credit for entrepreneurial activity was low. Thus, there is an urgent need to ponder on these aspects so that the credit could be utilized to increase the participation of women into productive ventures, thereby increasing their sources of income and making women economically self dependent.