Identifying factors governing attitude of rural women towards Self-Help Groups using principal component analysis

Abstract

Self-Help Groups-Bank Linkage Program (SHG-BLP) had expanded significantly and emerged as a dominant model of microfinance in India. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) had constituted the teams of acclaimed scientists, technocrats, and practitioners to evaluate the performance and impact of SHG-Bank Linkage Program. These researchers emphasised only physical aspects of the program, and specifically determined the impact of SHG microfinance on the socioeconomic aspect of the rural poor. In this context, the present study aimed at exploring the attitudinal aspect of rural women associated with SHGs. The study consists of a multistage random sample of ‘240’ women SHG members. A well-structured interview schedule, consisting of summated rating attitude scale was administered to the respondents. The findings illustrate that 43.34 percent of the rural women had ‘favourable’ and 26.66 percent had ‘strongly favourable’ attitude towards SHGs. The factor analysis using the principal component method brought forward ‘coping up ability’, ‘personality traits’, ‘resource utilisation and building’, ‘entrepreneurial attributes’, ‘organizational governance’, ‘financial inclusion’ and ‘economic upliftment’ are the precursors of attitude. These seven components could explain 76.02 percent of the total variance in the attitude. Further, study suggests that policy makers, financial institutions and technocrats may consider these seven factors while planning, promoting, implementing, and evaluating any microfinance programme, especially in developing countries. The study also provides a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the attitude of rural women towards SHGs. This Likert-type attitude scale could be widely used in future researches, especially by the scholars from low-income countries for achieving more accurate and reliable results.