A Study on Economical Empowerment of Women through Selfhelp Group and Comparison of Utilization of Loan in Marathwada Region

Self-help Groups (SHGs) are playing a major role in rural India today. The group-based model of self-help is widely practised for rural development, poverty alleviation and empowerment of women. SHG banking, or linking banks and self-help groups, in India is the largest and fastest-growing microfinance programme in the developing world. This paper contributes by arguing that women empowerment takes place when women challenge the existing social norms and culture, to effectively improve their well being. It empirically validates this hypothesis by using quasi-experimental household sample data collected for eight districts in Marathwada region of Maharashtra State in India for 2007 and 2010. The results of the study strongly demonstrated that, there was significant improvement in utilization of loan barrowed from SHG for productive purpose. It was observed that the new members (less than three years) of SHG utilized loan for nonproductive purpose and matured member (more than five year) utilized loan for productive purpose.