The movement for the empowerment of women is a major part of human civilization. It has been of the significant social and political development of the closing decades of the 20th century. Women constitute almost half of the population have subjected to the tyranny and oppression of a particular order for centuries and in fact even today. Today among various issues, gender has gained primacy in recent discourses on social analysis because of its spread and effect. Gender inequality is pervasive in various layers of social existence as its tentacles are spread across various segments of society. It is recognized that the poor people are bankable and that they themselves are likely to have a better appreciation of their socio-economic situation. The concept of women's empowerment, throughout the world, has its roots in women's movement. It is since the mid 1980s that this term became popular in the field of development, especially in reference to women. In India, it is the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980–85) which can be taken as a landmark for the cause of women. It is here that the concept of women and development was introduced for the first time.
The paper analyzes the empowerment of women through SHGs. The study uses primary. Pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect primary data. Multi-stage random sampling method is used for the present study to collect primary data. Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh is randomly chosen for the present study. In the second stage, four mandals are selected from Guntur district. In the third stage, four villages are selected from each selected mandal. Thus a sample of sixteen villages is selected for the purpose of the study. In the final stage, a sample of 40 respondents was selected randomly from each village. Thus a sample of 640 households was selected for the study. Primary data was collected from these 640 sample respondents using pre-tested Schedule.
Women empowerment, confidence building, self esteem, decision making
