Role of SHGs in the Empowerment of Women

Abstract

The word ‘Empowerment’ has entered into the vocabulary of development agencies, including international organisations and the United Nations and, as a goal of development projects and programmes, has begun to gain wider acceptance since the 1990s. In India too empowerment of women in general and poor women in particular is the thrust area of development today. Empowerment can be defined as a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation, to greater decision-making power and control, and to transform ative action. The work of Am artya Sen (1998) has also been influential in broadening the understanding of empowerment and deprivation. lie argued that poverty led to denial of rights and opportunities to the poor for full participation in society. The concept of women empowerment appears to be the outcome of several important critiques and debates generated by the women’s movement throughout the world, and particularly by the Third World feminists. Its source can be traced to the interaction between feminism and the concept of “popular education” developed in Latin America in the 1970s (Walters 1991:17).