The Impact of SHG Bank Linkage Programme on the Members of Self Help Groups: An Empirical Investigation in the State of Himachal Pradesh

Impact analysis of microfinance programmes becomes necessary for evaluating the performance of these programmes. SHG Bank Linkage Programme has played an effective role in improving the lives of the members of such programmes in India. The purpose of the present study is to find out the impact of the SHG Bank Linkage Programme on its participants in the state of Himachal Pradesh. For the purpose of analysis the treatment group i.e. participants and control group i.e. non-participants are compared to each other on the basis of different variables like income, family income, consumption, savings, agricultural and non agricultural assets. Mann Whitney U test is used to find out whether there is any significant difference between the means scores of participants and non-participants