Economic Empowerment of Women through Self-Help Groups under the National Rural Livelihood Mission: Evidence from India
Main Article Content
Abstract
The economic empowerment of women plays a vital role in poverty alleviation, gender equality, inclusive growth
and sustainable rural development. Rural women's unequal access to formal finance, productive assets,
employment, markets, technology, and decision-making within households persist in India. Self-Help Groups
(SHGs) have come as an institutional solution to these constraints through the amalgamation of savings, internal
lending, linkage with banks, social mobilization and support, livelihood promotion and collective action. The
institutionalization was expanded by implementing the National Rural Livelihood Mission, which later became
the Deendayal Antyoday Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission. This study uses secondary data to examine
the relationship between Self-Help Group participation and women's economic empowerment in India.
Quantitative evidence reported in existing empirical studies and institutional datasets is examined alongside
relevant secondary evidence. The results suggest that the greatest impact of SHGs has been realized on savings
behavior, access to formal finance, social capital, collective voice, and a few aspects of women's agency. Evidence
on the profitability of an enterprise, on ownership of assets, income control, digital autonomy, and on changing
gender norms is less balanced. Variations exist between programmes in terms of length of programme, length of
credits, state capacity, quality of the federations, access to the market, caste and class relations, digital
infrastructure, household support, and local livelihood conditions. The study calls for a new perspective on
financial access, as it should not be confused with economic empowerment. Empowerment needs to have women's
ownership of resources, decision-making power, productive opportunities and resilient livelihoods. The paper
calls for DAY-NRLM to go beyond group formation and credit delivery, towards facilitation approaches that are
gender transformative, support enterprise development, foster accountable federations, ensure responsible digital
finance, integrate into the markets, and create climate resilient livelihood systems
Article Details
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