Women Empowerment through Self Help Groups in Keonjhar District

Abstract

In the last decades, the concept of women empowerment has changed from welfare to equity approach by which the present-day women are participating in decision making process in all aspects of society and developing internal qualities such as self-awareness and self-confidence. In this way, women’s empowerment has become a pre- requisite for the socio-economic development of any community in the process of change. In India, poor rural people face with illiteracy, lack of skills, health care, etc. These are problems that cannot be tackled individually and can be solved through group efforts. Today this collective action is known as Self-Help Group (SHG), considered the vehicle of change for the poor, mostly for marginalized women. The initial idea with the creation of the SHGs was to empower women economically and socially. So, they can become more confident, more assertive, and more likely to participate in family and community decisions. Women empowerment is the word comes to the mind when we talk about Self-Help Groups. The present paper aimed to explore the impact and role of SHGs on rural women. Descriptive- exploratory design was used in the present study. Interview schedule was used for data collection. The study revealed that the women were joined SHG for the attainment, economic independence, to get recognition from society and to develop their self-confidence. Majority of women (90%) opined that they are able to increase their income and 76% women are learning new skills. Further 60% of women opined that they are buying their own stuff without depending their family members. It also reveals that 88%, 80% and 66% of women developed their self- confidence, social status and participating in decision making process with husbands for their family respectively. Through the different kind of activities women are able to earn something on their own without any male assistance and are now able to contribute to their family income.