Self-Help Group: A boon for women’s socio-economic empowerment and transfer of technology

Abstract

Women constitute a significant section of society and have proven their talents in every field of life but still they are not getting equal treatment compared to their male counterparts. Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have proved to be a boon for their social, 
economic and political environment. The genesis of SHG in India can be traced back to formation of Self-Employed women’s Association (SEWA) in the year 1970. After that, the SHG Bank Linkage Project launched by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural 
Development in the year 1992 further blossomed this World’s largest micro-finance project. The SHG functions on Panchsutra i.e., five principles viz. regular meeting, regular saving, regular inter-lending, regular repayment and regular maintenance of books/records. 
Presently there are three types of models of SHGs in India. In Model-I, SHGs are formed and financed by the banks, in Model-II, SHGs are formed by the Non-Government Organizations (NGO) and formal agencies but financed indirectly by the banks where as in 
Model-III, SHGs are financed by the banks using NGO’s as financial intermediaries. There are four types of Self-Help Groups namely Women Self-Help Group, Youth Self Help Group, Disabled Self-Help Group and Tribal Self-Help Group with respective age 
limit of their members as 18-60, 18-35, up to 60 and 18-60 years. Five main stages are involved in the development of SHGs namely, pre-formation (1-2 months), formation (3-6 months), stabilization phase-i (7-12 months), stabilization phase-ii (13-18 months) and 
finally growth and expansion stage (19 months and above). Self-Help Group gives the members a platform where they can freely exchange their ideas, thoughts and social or economic problems, makes them self-reliant/self-dependent and improves the socio
economic status of the group members. Various public and private institutions/organizations such as Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, Working Women Association, Bhartiya Mahila Bank etc. are engaged in further promoting and strengthening Self-Help Groups in the country. These SHGs are playing a pivotal role not only in the rural women’s empowerment but also in transfer of technologies particularly to the vulnerable and down trodden section of our society.