Self-Help Group and Asset Creation:A Case Study of Deharkuchi Gaon Panchayat of Nalbari District, Assam

Microfinance has emerged as an alternative to provide credit to the rural people to make them free from the money lenders who were mostly exploitative in nature; after the failure of the government subsidised credit programmes to achieve their goals (Dasgupta, 2001). Under this programme credit is not provided to any individual rather it is provided to members of some group, which are popularly known as Self Help Groups (SHGs) in India. The responsibility of repaying loan is endowed upon the group and if even one of them does not repay the loan, none of them will be able to get loan in future. So, there is a group pressure on the members to repay loan and this group pressure leads to high repayment of loan provided to the members. Thus, in the initial period SHGs acted only as saving and credit groups.