Self-help Group Participation & Women Artisans of Shantiniketan Leather Cluster, West Bengal: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Micro-finance refers to small savings, credit and insurance services. These services are extended to socially and economically disadvantaged segments of society. The women artisans from Shantiniketan leather cluster, who have a long tradition of manufacturing leather bags and other accessories, have changed their lives and their socio-living condition in many aspects, by adopting the ways of self-help group formation under different coordinating agencies (specially the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since 1992). These self-help groups have been extended soft loans of various natures; through the respective coordinating agencies. These initiatives have added different and new positive dimensions in respect to the lives of members of such groups. This structured and questionnaire based feedback empirical study, attempts to evaluate the level of positive changes that occurred in the lives of under-privileged rural women artisans, engaged in leather craftsmanship under several self-help groups, coordinated by different NGOs at the grass-root level.