Measurement of Attitudes of Rural Poor Towards SHG's: An Empirical Investigation

Higher unemployment and low income in the rural areas result in low purchasing power of the rural area, ultimately affecting the quality of life. The government has launched several schemes to generate employment, especially in rural areas. Since 1999 the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) has been implemented as the largest program for self employment of rural poor with a focused objective to bring the assisted BPL families [SWAROZGORIES] above the poverty line by providing them income-generating assets through provision of bank credit and government subsidy. SHG's through Swarojgaries aimed to mobilize rural poor through placement linked skill development and innovative project. This paper tries to measure attitude of rural poor towards SHG's. The study was done in Maynaguri Block of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal. A Likert type scale consisting of 26 items was developed to measure the attitude construct. The survey instrument consists of five sections namely: Socio economic well being, education and training, Entrepreneurship and marketing quality, technology adoption and Banking/Credit facility. The empirical study marked that most SHG members had favorable attitudes towards SGH activities .While unemployment and poverty continues to plague the Indian economy, SHG's supplements and broadens rural economic choices; development of activity clusters to ensure backward and forward linkages; revolving fund assistance; provision of credit linked subsidy, marketing support with focus on market research ,provision of capacity building of SHG's; prioritizing vulnerable groups of women, SC/ST ,minorities and disabled; nurturing and quality of SHG's need to be emphasized resulting in an impact on rural employment generation.