Women Self Help Groups – A Case Study of Kannad Block, Aurangabad District

Abstract

Self-help Group is a small economically homogeneous and affinity group of rural poor which is voluntarily ready to contribute to a common fund to be lent to its members as per group decision, which works for group's solidarity, self group, awareness, social and economic empowerment through democratic functioning. The Self-help Group movement became a silent revolution within a short span in the rural credit delivery system in many parts of the world. Lokhande, M. A. (2009) explained that Micro finance program has a significant role to play in Indian economy for boosting micro entrepreneurial activities for creating productive assets coupled with employment generation. The present research paper is an attempt to probe into the research questions such as, what is the participation level of married women in SHG activities? Does the SHG association of the members contribute to the Socioeconomic Development? The researcher selected a sample of 115 women group members on the basis of simple random sampling. The major conclusion of the study is that women groups are successful in conducting group activities and they were found satisfied with their socioeconomic empowerment.

Keywords: Women Self-Help Group, Micro Finance, Entrepreneurial Activities

JEL Classification: I38, G21, L26