Role Performance and Associated Problems of SHG Leaders

The present study was undertaken in Punjab state comprising of 17 districts and 140 blocks. The study focused on the role performance and associated problems of SHG Leaders. Seventy four blocks were selected randomly and three credit linked SHGs from each block were selected at random. Thus, numbers of SHGs selected were 222. Further, a leader from each SHG was selected as a sample for the study. The study revealed that majority of the SHG leaders belonged to general caste and had studied up to matriculation level. The role of “ensuring regularity in holding meeting was performed best by leaders of NGO promoted self help groups with a mean score of 1.86. However, Government organization promoted SHGs obtained highest mean score i.e. 1.90, 1.85 and 1.80 in performing the roles of “ensuring regularity in collecting contribution towards group saving, helping members to resolve group conflicts and disseminating information to members about govt. programmes and welfare scheme, respectively. Bank promoted SHGs performed better over other groups in disseminating information received during training to other members of the group and helping the needy in the village. Data further indicated that problem of lack of incentive for carrying out additional work was experienced by majority of leaders followed by the problem of “collecting money by door to door contact”. It can be concluded that non availability of incentive for group leaders had a demotivating effect which may lead to gradual decline in the efficient functioning of SHGs. So, the provision of some monetary incentive is essential to promote work efficiency of group leaders.