Self Help Groups and Empowerment of women a study in Chitoor Disrict

Experience in many countries demonstrates that poor women make investments wisely and earn returns (Human Resource Development, 1995). However, the flow of financial assistance to them is too marginal to enable them to cross the poverty line. The need to create a grass root organizational base to enable women to come together, to analyze their issues and problems themselves, and to fulfill their needs was strongly advocated. In fact, experience shows that some of the successful ‘group-based participatory programmes’ have made significant improvement in the living conditions of poor women. The concept of Self-Help Groups gained significance, especially after 1976 when Prof. Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh began experimenting with micro-credit and women SHGs. The strategy made a quiet revolution in Bangladesh in poverty eradication ‘by empowering the poor women’. SHGs are small informal associations created for the purpose of enabling members to reap economic benefit out of mutual help, solidarity, and joint responsibility. The benefits include mobilization of savings and credit facilities and pursuit of group enterprise activities.