27-10-2016, 12:22 PM
1461665140-INTRDUCTION.docx (Size: 267.66 KB / Downloads: 7)
1 INTRODUCTION
In the early decades of planning problems of women were looked upon as problems of social welfare, rather than of development. The drawback of the welfare approach was that it did nothing to eliminate the social discrimination against and subordination of women. In almost all plans for poverty alleviation and social change, disadvantaged women because a ‘targeting development activities than a group to be co-operated as active participants (Beijing Conference,1996).Since 1970,policy maker and academicians started thinking as to how development programs could be linked to poor women.
Women issues are development issues and by-passing them in development programs means leaving almost half of human resources outside development intervention (CIRDAP Development Digits, 1998).Issues of poverty among women are quite distinct and complicated .Their general poverty conditions, morbidity, lack of food, drinking water, and sanitation facilities are some of the major issues that need attention. Female member of a poor household are often worse off than its male member because of gender discrimination in the distribution of food and other entitlements within the household. Increasingly poverty has a women’s face’ (Human Development Report, 1995).The human development report of UNDP from onwards at least to the face of growing feminization of poverty.
1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Women participating in entrepreneurial activities growing rapidly. In India women constitute nearly 50% of national population and a very important human resource for nation's development. According to survey report in India women constitute 47% of total urban population. In India according to census 2001 the female labor force participation rated in their total population is 25.7% but it is 31% in rural area and 11.6% in urban areas. They are engaged in different sectors. Over the last few decades women have come forward to establish their own enterprise. The development of women entrepreneurship political and social empowerment of women is essential for reducing unemployment in India.
In 1990’s saw a proliferation of women SHG across India mainly in south for helping them Micro credit institution have become increasingly popular providing loans .Small group are foamed and loans are allocated to member based on group instead of formal collateral. Micro Credit Schemes through SHG have been particularly targeted towards poor women, who are often discriminated against not only by institution but also with their own households.
This study is beneficial to a large number of rural people in Kerala. It also benefits government to increase the assistance to SHG in Kerala and it may lead development of Kerala.
1.3 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Economic development of a country means a process by which per capital income of that country moves upward over a period of time. Like any other countries of the world, India has been endowed with rich natural and human resources who need proper utilization by adopting modern technology for growth and development of the economy. Therefore, entrepreneurship is essential for proper use of renewable and non renewable natural recourses and to provide employment to the employed youth. The empowerment of women is crucial for the development of the country. In India, where population maintain equal ratio of males and females the emergence of women entrepreneurs have great relevance and importance otherwise it will be amounting to neglecting 50 percent of the entrepreneurial talent of the country. Creative entrepreneur is the backbone of a nation’s industrialization and economic development. Bringing women into the main stream of development is major concern for the government of India. Therefore the government of India launched a new programme known as SGSY for developing the women entrepreneurship and creating self employment opportunities. Kerala is a state where unemployment is very crucial. The implementation of these types self employment programmes assumes due relevance. This study titled role of self help group in women empowerment in Changanacherry Taluk, is trying to find out overall development of women entrepreneurs.
1.4 OBJECTIVES
• To analyze the impact and overall development of women through self-help groups.
• To examine the factors influencing women empowerment through self-help group.
• To assess the women empowerment through self- help groups.
• To identify the profile of SHG and its members.
• To examine the role of financial institution on promoting SHG.
• To analyze the savings pattern of women empowerment.
• To study the financial sustainability of women.
• To examine the profitability of micro enterprises run by women entrepreneurs.
• To study the improvement in standard of living.
• To know the problems faced by them.
• To identify the level of personal, social, economic and financial empowerment achieved by members of SHG.
1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN
The researcher was undertaken with the help of primary and secondary data.
Primary data
The interview schedule was used to collect primary data from respondents. A pilot study was carried out by us based on which an interview schedule was well framed and finally 60 respondents from 3 panchayaths of Changaacherry Taluk, which means 20 respondents from each panchayath were interviewed through a well designed schedule.
Secondary data
In this study internet has served an efficient source of secondary data. And also various types of magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, journals, books e.c.t… for this purpose.
1.6 SAMPLE DESIGN
We use a multi stage random sampling technique to select the sample respondents. The sample frame is as follows;
Changanacherry Taluk in Kottayam district was selected purposively for study, because a large number of women SHG were functioning in that area. From Changanacherry Taluk 3 panchayaths namely, Kurichy, Vazhapally and Thrikodithanam were selected as sample for data collection. 20 groups were selected randomly from each panchayath. This made a total sample of 60 SHGs and from each SHG the respondents were either president or secretary.
1.7 PERIOD OF STUDY
This field study was conducted for a period of 1 month.
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
The study is subject to following limitations;
1. Some of respondents are from rural area and backward areas, due to their illiteracy and sensitive nature; it was difficult for us to get answer for sensitive questions.
2. Another barrior, while conducting interview and while answering some questions to answers they will became emotional.
3. This study does not cover NGOs and government officials for data collection.
4. This study only assessed the internal factors which enhance economic empowerment and exclude external factors.
5. This study was limited only one division.
6. In this study some of respondents suffered recall bias.
1.9 CHAPTERISATION
This thesis is organized into 6 chapters;
1. The first chapter deals with introduction, significance, statement of problem, objectives, research design, sample design, period of study, limitations of study and chaptorisation.
2. The second chapter gives a review on the study.
3. The third chapter concentrate a profile of self help groups for women empowerment, such as; kudumbasree, SHGs e.c.t… and a overall view on its development.
4. The fourth chapter deals with data analysis and interpretation.
5. The fifth chapter presents a detailed view on summary of findings, suggestions and conclusions.
INTRODUCTION
The review of literature is a text of a scholarly paper which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical methodological contribution to a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources, and do not report new or original experimental work. Most often associated with academic oriented literature, such reviews are find in academic journals, and are not to be confused with book reviews that may also appear in the same publication. Review of literature is a basic for research in nearly every academic field. A brief review of literature on self help groups for women empowerment, presented below facilitate the streamlining of methodology of study.
2.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
K.G. Karmakar (1999) in his study "Rural credit and self help Groups: Microfinance heeds and concepts in India", examines the existing credit delivery system in India with special reference to the credit needs of the rural poor. He studies the importance of the micro-credit needs for tribal women in rural areas and the microenterprises in the non-farm sector in Orissa. The study focuses on the availability, credit requirements and the problem faced by the tribal people in availing of it. It is felt that the setting up of micro-enterprises particularly in the non-farm sector would go a long way in reducing poverty in rural areas. According to him, the micro-credit approach through self help group would be the only best mechanism to deliver credit to the rural poor.
K.R. Lakshmikandan (2000), in his study titled "Self help groups in the life of Rural poor - A Philibhit case study", stated that most of the membership of the self help groups consisted of small landholders and agricultural laborers out of the 74 self help studied, 57 were women groups and 17 were men groups. The strength varied from ten to twenty and weighed heavily towards the larger figure. The SRESOC organized self-help groups in that district. Among all the self help groups, only 11 were sanctioned loans successfully from the lead bank of the district, Bank of Baroda and the amount varied from Rs. 20,000/-
J. Venkatesh and K. Kala (2000) in his work self help groups: A Tool to boost up women Empowerment - The self help group model has been identified as a potential pathway to alleviating poverty. The number of poor women and men who are enrolling in SHGs all over rural India has been increasing remarkably. They are not only active in thrift and credit management but are also taking up their activities, such as natural resource management and development, literacy, knowledge management, nutritional security etc. SHGs lay the foundation for self reliance through building up of institutions, which have the capacity to generate employment opportunities for the rural poor and the poorest and lead to job led economic growth
Laxmi Kulshrestha (2000), in his paper Microfinance: The New Development Paradigm for poor rural women, points out that the lack of capital is a serious constraint to the development of rural women. Often, the barriers like legal provisions, loan policies and procedures make credit inaccessible to women. Studies have shown that credit can help women to take up farm-allied activities and the income generated from credit given to women can be expected to be spent for well being of the household. This novel innovative approach of microfinance emphasizes financial intermediation with self- sustainability of institutions.
N. Manimekalai and G. Rajeswari (2000) in their study " Empower of women through self help groups", analyzed the women self help group formed by the non-Governmental organizations in the rural area of Tiruchirappali District for the purpose of promoting rural women through self-employment. The Non-Government Organization namely, Society for Education and Village Action and Empowerment (SEVAE) has been working in 362 villages and helping a total of one lakh women beneficiaries consisting of different avenues of self employment like, petty businesses, processing, production and service units.
Sundari and N. Geetha (2000) in his study "poverty credit and microenterprises", examine the gender disparity in access to institutional credit. In their opinion, the disparity is gradually narrowing down over a period of time. Hence empowerment of poor rural women will be possible only if they are trained and imparted skills for a certain employment. According to them, skill training includes enterprise development, increased access to credit, new approach to markets and social economic and political strategies and the like.
A.P. Sebastian Titus (2000) in his study, "Promotion of women empowerment through self help groups", examine the promotion of women entrepreneurs through self help groups. According to him, the women entrepreneurs who have started small enterprises expand them into large scale units. Self help groups have made readymade garments and export them. A women self help group in Dindigal district run a unit providing agro services with a total turnover of Rs. 12 lakhs or more per annum. But most of the other self help groups are not able to reach up to the expectations. Some of the reasons cited were non availability of funds for investment, dearth of technical and managerial skills, inability to manage the labour force, dual role burde.
K. Ritu, R.K. Kushwaha and A.K. Srivastava (2003), in the study "Social Economic Impact through self help groups", examined the functioning of self help groups in Kanpur Dehat District, Twenty five women from self help Groups were selected as sample for the study. Ten women members from each self help groups and ten non members from the same village were selected as respondents, to study the impact of the self help groups on their socio-economic status. The results show that there is relationship between the self help groups and the socio-economic status of women’s, back of professionalism, gender bias and the like
Venkatachalan and A. Jeya Prakash (2004) in their work, "Self help groups in Dindigul District" found that the total savings of the SHGs members in Dindigul District amount Rs. 622.99 lakhs. The Sangha Loan Sanctioned to its members is in tune of 4.3 times of savings. In words, the total amount of Sangha loan sanctioned is Rs. 27.20 lakhs. The SHGs in Dindigul District have made a silent revolution for the economic empowerment of poor rural women
Archana Sinha (2004) in her article, "micro finance for women’s' Empowerment: A perspective", puts forward a debate on microcredit for discerning policy makers researchers and development practioners. She says that understanding the viability of microfinance requires a comprehensive analysis from the right perspective. Micro finance can contribute to solving the problem of inadequate housing and urban services as an integral part of poverty alleviation programmes. The challenge lies in finding the level of flexibility in the credit instrument that could make it match the multiple credit requirements of the low income borrowers without imposing unbearably high cost of monitoring its end use upon the lenders. According to her a promising solution is to provide multiple purpose loans or composite credit for income generation, housing improvement and consumption support.
K. Manoharan Nair and Girija (2005) in their article, "Microfinance - The New Development paradigm for poverty eradication and women empowerment", state that experience has shown that many of poverty alleviation programmes through organized credit channels have not achieved the required success. Hence to bridge the gap between the demand & supply of funds in the lower rungs of rural economy, the microfinance schemes of NABARD have a made a smooth foray into the role played by microfinance in eradicating poverty and empowering women to manage the enterprises.
Kalavat Kamble and Gangadhar B. Sonar (2006) in his work, "The Role of SHGs in Women Empowerment study on selected SHGs promoted by voluntary organization in Gulbarga District of Karnataka" studies that the role of socio-economic empowerment of women. The socio-economic conditions of the SHG women are increasing to a significant level irrespective of different backgrounds. Earlier they used to be home and not exposed to the society and were part of the system. Now they can come out and approach the government machinery, conduct meeting, to signature & more importantly have a good amount of money in their hand. SHGs are mostly focused from financial aspects rather social one this trend is more in the SHGs promoted under government programme. The fact that self-help groups, are increasingly attracting younger generation, this generation not only needs social and economic empowerment but also assertive capacity, freedom from atrocities and a new self image to clai
Divy, Ninad Koul and Giresh Moha (2009) in his paper, "Women's self help groups and microfinance", studied that the formed SHG helped the rural womenfolk in improving their socio-economic status as well as status of their awareness and self dependency. It was more crucial for women of tribal communities for sustenance of their family. The biggest concern was that the groups are more of credit management (CMG) nature and the meetings were mostly limited to collection of monthly saving and discussion of loans. It is essentials to guide the other family members of the women members about importance of SHG and microfinance so that they support the group. Excess dependency on office bearers or NGO worker needs to be curbed and every member should be made about their responsibilities and duties within the group. Absence in meetings and delay in submission of monthly savings and repayment of loan can be best tacked by building suitable peer and group pressure if bank loan is provided at right time. Other activities done at right time and ensuring that the women members become more self dependent leads to sustainability of the groups and can ensure the alleviation of rural poverty in the longer run.
Rao, Jitendra Ahir (2009) in his article - "Rural women empowerment through microfinance", concluded that small loans can make good business sense among the women. It has been noticed that women in particular stand to gain a lot from microfinance because it gives them on independent means of generating wealth and becoming self reliant in a society that does not offer them much scope for entrepreneurship.
M.A. Lokhande (2009) in his paper, "Microfinance Initiatives in India", microfinance programme has a significant role to play in Indian economy for boosting micro entrepreneurial activities for creating productions assets coupled with employment generation. So, in order to cover all the poor households, particularly BPL households there is need for providing full support the government financial institutions and NGOs SHGs programme. So for the SHGs bank linkage programme has been much successful achieving quantitative targets. The need of the hour is to match the programme more qualitative that is enriching to lives of poorest of the poor in the context of globalized socio-economic environment. Political interference the functioning of self help group should be avoided. Around 90% of the aggregate groups are women self help groups. These groups have to face problems such as indifferent attitude of bank officers, exploitation, promoting NGOs, lack of marketing facilities product/services. This bottleneck should be root out on priority basis. Women groups should be give responsibility of running Anganwadi, fair price shop so that they become permanent entities. The banks and the respective NGO should nourish and develop the SHGs by providing financial assistance, organizing skill based training programmes in rural.
E. Palani and V.M. Selvaraj (2009) in their studies - "Impact of micro credit scheme on women's empowerment", concludes that micro credit has provided the rural poor access to finance without the burden of collateral through SHGs. It has empowered the women folk economically and socially. Though the credit provided is micro in nature. It has produced macro changes in the lives of women who received it.
IIPO Economic Intelligence Unit (2010) in its studied "self help group (SHG}: means of women empowerment", conclude that growth of SHGs are essential for the member as they ensure better standards of living and their by the individual; family and social empowerment. Hence the social empowerment by the SHG members is moderate family empowerment achieved by the members in the family are moderate. Empowering women is pre-requite for creating a good nation- whom are empowered, society with stability assumed. Empowering of women is essential as their thoughts and their value system lead the development of a good family and good society and ultimately a good nation. In spite of various constitutional safeguards and legislative measures as well as numbers of programmes and policies initiated by the government for the betterment of women, no significant development took place in the socio economic empowerment of women.
V.J.R. Emerlson Moses (2011) in his research paper of economics reported that Jawaharlal Nehru said "you can tell the condition of the nation by looking at the status of women", empowerment of women has emerged as a important issues in our country. In India the further reported that nearly half of the population consists of women. In India their work participation rate is less than half that of men. The role of women in the development of nation is very important nowadays. SHG helps the women in uplifting their living conditions and also encompass the social, economic, educational level to improve their empowerment level. The component of empowerment of women level. The component of empowerment of women are access to economic resources, participation in economic decision making, opportunities for self development, participation in socio-political decision making, scope for skill development.