Impact of SHG on Socio-economic Development of Their Members

Women are a vital part of the Indian economy, both at the national and household level. Though, our constitution has provided the equal rights and opportunities to both men and women in the political, economic and social spheres and it also prohibits any kind of discrimination against women, the women resource particularly rural is not actively engaged in the development process. The SHGs are the most powerful tool of socio-economic development of the poor women in rural areas. In India, SHGs are organized especially for microfinance and micro enterprise development. With a view to help in understanding the internal structure, nature, resources and their functioning, the present study was undertaken. The impact of self-help group was studied on seven dimensions i.e. change in income, change in occupation, change in thrift habit, change in social participation, change in expenditure, change in decision making and change in confidence level, which show the significant changes with personal and socio-economic characteristics of members. The study delineates that there was a medium impact on the majority of the SHG members (55.33 per cent) followed by low and high impact on the 25.33 per cent and 19.33 per cent members respectively.