Effectiveness of financial empowerment through self help groups

In Kerala Self Help Group program me was started in 1992. The funding of SHG's in rural area mainly through SGSY (Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana) Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) is an initiative launched by the Government of India to provide sustainable income to poor people living in rural areas of the country. The scheme was launched on April 1, 1999. The SGSY aims at providing self-employment to villagers through the establishment of groups. Though SHG play a major role in the development of villagers the level of financial empowerment to the members are not well understand. The study tries to understand the effectiveness of financial empowerment through self help group. The objectives of the study is to assess the role of SHG in improving the standard of living of people among the area and analyze the financial gains derived from after joining SHG. Through this study it is identified that the self help group help to improve the standard of living and help the members to become self sufficient. Majority of the members satisfied with the working of self help group. The paper has been prepared with help of primary and secondary data. The primary data collected from 30 self help groups in Calicut city through a structured questionnaire.