CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION
In the history of human race, women have contributed to
development as much as man. In fact, work performed by women
in society is in a way is more important than men. Without the
participation of women in national activities, the social,
economical or political progress of a country bound to stagnate
. Often the status of women in a society is the indicator of a
nations overall progress. However, in present times the economic
and social status of women in most of the nations is in pathetic
condition. Women constitute half of the humanity, even
contributing two-thirds of worlds work hours. But she earns only
one-third of the total income and owns less than one-tenth of the
worlds resources. Efforts have been made on a regular basis
across nations to address this issue and enhance the socioeconomic status of women .This as an agenda has been on top of
the lists of most government plans and programs as well. Thus
Womens Empowerment has been an issue of immense
discussions and contemplation over the last few decades worldwide. It got impetus from the current wave of globalization which
has left women disadvantaged in many areas of life, including
education, employment, health, and civil rights. To help remedy
the situation steady steps were taken on the international level.
The empowerment of women is located within the discourse and
agenda of gender equality and is increasingly being taken in the
agendas of international development organizations, perhaps
more as a means to achieve gender equality than as an end in
itself. The Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the
Advancement of Women in1985 started the process.At the Social
Summit in Copenhagen in 1993 and the International Conference
on Population and Development in Cairo 1994 Governments
committed themselves to the empowerment of women.TheFourth
World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, issued the
Beijing Platform for Action. It aimed to invigorate the worlds
commitment to women's empowerment. The UNMillennium
Development Goals prioritize gender equality and empowerment
of women. In particular, Millennium Development Goal Three
purports to promote gender inequality and empower
women.The women's empowerment has become the catchword
today. In India the concept of the empowerment of women as a
goal of development projects and programmes has been gaining
wider acceptance in the 1990s.The Indian Eighth Five Year Plan
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(1992-97) makes a shift from 'development' to 'empowerment' of

women[ Khan (2001) and Sinha (2002)].

Page - 2

Concept of Empowerment
The origins of the concept of empowerment go back to the civil
rights movement in the USA in the 1960. It has since then been
interpreted differently and used in such different sectors as
business, social work, development discourse and advocacies. It
is
filled with new meanings by advocates of very different
political agendas.
The different definitions of empowerment
range between defining it as a largely individual process of taking
control of and responsibility for ones life and situation, and
defining it as a political process of granting human rights and
social justice to disadvantaged groups of people. In line with most
theorists on empowerment the one has to view empowerment as
taking place on three different levels -- individual level, the group
and societal level. The different levels are seen as interconnected
and mutually reinforcing. Empowerment on individual level will
have effect on the group and societal level; and similarly the
group and societal empowerment.
Empowerment is generally treated as a multi-dimensional process
which helps people to gain control of their lives through raising
awareness, taking action and working in order to exercise greater
control. Empowerment is the feeling that activates the
psychological energy to accomplish ones goals (Indiresan, 1999).
It enables a powerless group, as of women, to realize their full
identity and power in all spheres of life (Surekharao and
Rajamanamma, 1999). It consists of greater access to knowledge
and resources, greater autonomy in decision making to enable
them to have greater ability to plan their lives, or to have greater
control over the circumstances that influence their lives and free
from shocks imposed on them by custom, belief and practice.
Empowerment is multidimensional: there are three dimensions of
empowerment, namely social, economic and political.
WOMENS EMPOWERMENT:
In context of women, the concept has been dynamic. The concept
of women's empowerment appears to be the outcome of several
important critiques and debates generated by the women's
movement throughout the world, and particularly by Third World
feminists. Its source can be traced to the interaction between
feminism and the concept of "popular education" developed in
Latin America in the 1970s. Empowerment demands come from
Womens groups who seek to empower themselves through
greater self-reliance. They demand right to determine their own
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choices in life. They also seek to gain control and access to

resources. Empowerment is treated as a process of developing a
sense of self respect, self confidence and self efficacy. Thus
empowerment essentially refers to a feeling of awareness of ones
own situation backed up with the knowledge, skills and
information which could enable women to gain higher self esteem
and facilitate their role as decision makers in the current
patriarchal society of general subordination of women.
Empowerment is considered as a multi-dimensional process,
which is to enable women to realise their full potential in all
spheres of life. The focus is on power which essentially means
control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology.
In the last three decades women-empowerment praxis world over,
according to Gutierrez, has stressed developing critical
awareness, increasing feelings of collective and self-efficacy, and
developing skills for personal, interpersonal and social change.
In short, (women) empowerment is a process of awareness and
capacity building leading to greater participation, to greater
decision making power and control, and to transformative
action(Sahay,1998,p.22 )
Different Levels of Empowerment
As one has to view empowerment as taking place on different
levels, change on all levels is necessary if the empowerment of
women is really to occur. We have to relate empowerment at
three levels: empowerment on the individual, group, and societal/
community- level and the interaction between these. The
individual level deals with individual womens abilities to take
control over their lives, their perceptions about their own value
and abilities, their abilities to identify a goal and work towards this
goal. The group level deals with the collective action and sense of
agency that woman experience together, in a group. The societal
level deals with the permissiveness of the political and social
climate, the societal norms and the public discourse on what is
possible and impossible for women to do, how women should
behave etc.
The different levels being interconnected and mutually
reinforcing, women who are empowered on an individual level will
most likely go on and affect the other levels. Empowerment on a
group level like women organizing around a particular need is
likely to have effect on the individual empowerment of the women
in the form of increased self esteem and sense of agency.
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Three Dimensions of Womens empowerment:

There are three dimensions of womens empowerment, namely
social, economic and political.
Social Empowerment
According to Sahay, social empowerment envisages access to
knowledge, information and a feeling of knowing from selfenquiry, strengthening her skills and capacities to mediate with
the external world on the part of a woman. It occurs at both
individual as well as collective levels. Mediation occurs relating
with the outside world, with the markets, with financial
institutions, with competitors, with suppliers, with policy-makers
like politicians, bureaucrats and officials, etc. This would enhance
their self-respect and self-esteem. From the social point of view it
looks at it from individual, group and community levels. At the
group level, social empowerment is assessed from opportunity to
participate in decision making at various forums and participation
in discussions and decision making within them. And at the
community level it refers to their involvement and participation in
common programmes organised by the local community and its
social action initiatives.
Economic Empowerment
Economic empowerment of women generally refers to economic
independence and freedom from poverty. It entails capacity to
overcome economic hardship.
Political Empowerment
Womens political empowerment is indicated in active
participation in formal discussions, democratic decision-making
process, and conflict management on various levels of political
process. Some of the indicators for the political empowerment
looked into were their membership in other organizations,
participation in Gram Sabha, contesting elections to Local Self
Governments and holding responsible positions in various
committees at the three-tier Panchayat system etc. Active
participation in formal discussions, democratic decision-making
process and conflict management within the SHG level, and the
efficient management of SHGs, etc also enhance their political
empowerment.
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SHGs as Tools for Women Empowerment:

Three experimental approaches to empowering women have been
undertaken in South Asia. They are integrated development,
economic empowerment and consciousness- raising(Sahay,
1998, p.50).With economic empowerment stressed as the key
strategyof womensempowerment in poor countries,Self Help
Groups have emerged as one of the major tools for womens
empowerment. Organising Self Help Groups (SHGs) for women
has been popular with the Non Governmental Organisations since
1980. As aptly defined by Katz and Bender (1976),"Self-Help
Groups are voluntary, small group structures for mutual aid and
accomplishment of a special purpose. They are usually formed by
peers, who have come together for mutual assistance in satisfying
a common need, overcoming a common handicap or lifedisrupting problem, and bringing about desired social, and/or
personal change.SHGs are small voluntary associations mainly
women who come together to solve their problems basedupon
mutual help and self help. They have emerged as a vital tool to
alleviate poverty and bring about empowerment of women.Taking
a look at the working and impact of SHGs across various countries
it can be held that SHG approach towards poverty alleviation and
women empowerment has been reasonably successful. The
grameengroups ofBangladesh have emerged as burning examples
of the success story of SHGs. They often provide material
assistance as well as emotional support. They have also injected
self confidence and security, economic development, group
solidarity and attitudinal change among the poor women ( Sahay,
1998, p. 82).
IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC
The Indian exploration of SHGs in assisting women financially and
empowering them especially economically began in 199192,when National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
(NABARD) launched 92 pilot projects on linking SHGs with Banks,
in various parts of the country. It aimed at providing credit to the
informal SHGs of rural poor, through the banking system, with
minimal documentation. In recent times SHGs have emerged as
one of the major instruments for womens empowerment.
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The study of empowerment of poor women assumes great

importance in the contemporary post globalisation period mainly
because of Indias worsening Gender Gap scenario. The sorry
state of the affairs can be known from the review of World
Economic Forum in 2009. While it has occupied 98 th position in
2006, India ranks 114 among 134 countries in the world, even
behind Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, according to World
Economic Forum ranking which released India Gender Gap Review
2009. It placed the country at the bottom of the table on health
and survival issues reflecting the huge gender gap. It made strong
remarks against the wide inequalities between health facilities
extended to males and females. According to World Economic
Forums The Global Gender Gap Index 2009, India ranks 114 while
last year it was 113 (Panda2010, pp.171-172).
Significance of SHGs in empowerment of poor women in Odisha
needs no great emphasis. Odisha stands at 32nd rank in Gender
Gap Index of India with only three of the BIMARU states below it.
Its gender gap score is 0.524 in the 2006 much below the national
score of 0.590. The global gender gap report is based on four
factors- economic participation and opportunity, political
empowerment and health and survival. Moreover, its maternal
mortality ratio is 235 for 1000 just above UP, MP, Bihar and Assam
and it is well above national ratio of 178. Its Female literacy rate
is 64%, below national rate of 64.60 %. It is one of the poorest
states of India with per capita income of25584 much below the
national per capita income of 39143(Government of Odisha,
2012). Post globalisation Odisha is facing almost stagnated
employment growth in industrial sector and declined employment
growth in agricultural sector. The service sector has increased its
share of employment marginally but not adequate to employ the
large percentage of unemployed and under-employed. On the
contrary, micro and small enterprises largely belonging to
unorganised sector have created the bulk of employment in
Odisha next to agriculture. The potential of MSEs under Self Help
Groups (SHGs) is immense. They are recognized as an important
constituent of the state economics, contributing significantly to
employment expansion and poverty alleviation.With its
phenomenal
poverty
and
gender
inequality,
womens
empowerment needs strong support from SHGs. In such a
scenario, the role of SHGs as a potent tool for over-all
empowerment for the rural poor women assumes critical
significance for a state like Odisha.
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SURVEY OF LITERATURE
The empowerment of women has become topical. There is vast
literature on it. In any such survey the work of Srilata
Batliwala(1974) stands out as a seminal one. She sidesteps
ideological debates to capture the essential meaning of womens
empowerment as the process of challenging existing power
relations for control over assets and resources. Her work
focussed on experiences of empowerment programs in South
Asia.
Eschewing
only
one
path
to
empowerment,
Batliwala(1994,p.7) holds that empowerment strategy need to be
devised within specific political, economic , social and cultural
contexts, regionally , nationally and locally.
Sushama Sahay(1998) is famous for her classic definition of
womens empowerment
as the process of awareness and
capacity building leading to greater participation, greater decision
making power and control and transformative action. Her work
discusses various approaches and strategies of womens
empowerment. Highlighting on approaches of integrated
development, economic empowerment and consciousness raising,
her study emphasises the role of Self Help Groups in womens
empowerment. But her work lacks empirical study of SHGs and
empowerment in the post-Globalisation period. Bipin Kumar
(2009) redresses the balance in his volume on globalisation and
the empowerment of women. Various pieces of the volume
particularly of Praveen Azad discuss impact of globalisation on
womens empowerment. Parmananda Singh delves in to its
impact on women workers, while Praveen Sharma focuses on its
effect on economic empowerment of women.
Aradhana Sharma (2008) not only describes the problems and
prospects of womens empowerment in the context of
globalisation, but also attempts an empirical study of
empowerment.
Sharma( 2008, p.xxv) focussed on an
institutional and rural level study of practices, micro- politics and
effects of the MS ( MahilaSamakhya) program in Uttar Pradesh,
besides some field studies in other sites of Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh and Assam. She (208, pp.195-197) finds that MS program
represents governmentalisation of empowerment. Still, it is
generative. It results in empowering processes which help
women formulate tactics for contesting locally entrenched power
equations. She concludes that even though governmentalised,
Page - 8

empowerment takes on a life of its own; it erupts, interrupts,

exceeds neoliberal, regulative logics.
Giriyappa (1997) analysed the women empowerment
effectiveness of decision-making by women in different
enterprises and concluded that informal empowerment was
spread through women earning members, their decisions
subjected to various degrees of discrimination by males.

with
rural
wide
were

Jyothi (1998) reported in her study on employment pattern and

empowerment of rural women in Kolar district that the distribution
of women according to the level of empowerment showed that
most of the women had medium level of empowerment.
Saradha (2001) reported that the product empowerment of
women in self-help groups was found to range from high and low
with 35.80 and 35.00 per cent, respectively. It indicated that even
though the women are psychologically empowered but their real
empowerment level was low. The possible reasons for this may be
the patriarchal society, low level resources and critical awareness
of rural women, the lack of general media exposure, low level of
education and lack of recognition
There have been several studies on the contribution of SHGs to
womens empowerment. The comparative study of Self Help
Groups (SHGs), organised and promoted by Non Governmental
Organizations and Kudumbasree in Kerala towards empowerment
of poor women, by Loyola College of Social Sciences,
Thiruvananthapuram stands out for its systematic and thorough
approach. Based on the analysis of empirical data, focussed group
discussions, case studies and personal observations, its study
obtained the following findings. For majority of the respondents
the motivating factor for joining the SHGs was economic factors,
which included inculcating savings-habit and getting easy loan at
a reduced rate of interest. The dependency on moneylenders has
come down. A very impressive increase in general skills was
noticed in majority of respondents except in the skill for
presenting cultural programmes in public meetings. In the light of
the study, in its report, in June 2004, few suggestions were given
for improving effective functioning of the SHG system in Kerala.
The volume edited by Ashutosh Pandey and GautamVir(2010)
contains some erudite pieces. Venkateswar Rao attempts an
empirical study of womens empowerment through Panchayati
Page - 9

Raj institutions in West Godavari district. He (2010, p.60) finds to

his surprise that vast majority of Sarpanches do not know their
duties and power. However, A. N. Panda fills gap regarding the
studies on womens empowerment in Odisha. Focussing on
grassroots
political
leadership
in
Rural
Odisha,
Panda(2010,pp.179-182) lists
the
impediments to womens
empowerment as lack of education , rather literacy, lack of
economic self-reliance, rise of money power in elections,
bureaucratic bossism, and apathy of high- level
leaders.
Describing
womens empowerment as a good beginning, he
stresses on strategies of education and self reliance for it. But
empirical studies of SHGs in relation to womens empowerment in
Odisha are almost missing.
Objective of the Study
This study makes a humble attempt in this respect. It is
undertaken with the specific objective to assess the impact of
SHGs upon women empowerment and determine the current
status of SHGs as far as their impact upon women empowerment
is concerned. It seeks to understand the concept of women
empowerment on a holistic basis and to critically examine the
efforts initiated towards empowering women by the Self Help
Groups (SHGs) based upon empirical work undertaken in the
Balasore Sadar Block of Balasore district.
PLAN OF RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
This research is a case study of SHGs in Balasore district of Odisha
state in India.The study focuses on the Balasore Sadar block of
the Balasore district with empirical datawhich critically explores
the impact of SHGs upon women empowerment. It further aims
to understand the linkages between SHGs and women
empowerment. Four numbers of Gram Panchayats were selected
from
theblock randomly. Then, from each Gram Panchayat,
onenumber of Self Help Group was chosen randomly. President,
Secretary,
and members from each SHG were selected
purposively. Efforts are made to collect opinions of all the social
groups among the members of SHGs. The opinions of the
members of SHGs so collected are processed and analysed.

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CHAPTER HEADINGS
1. Introduction: The nature and importance of womens
empowerment and its relation with Self Help Groups; survey of
relevant literature; and plan of research and methodology.
2. Womens empowerment and SHGs in India: Meaning and nature
of womens empowerment; nature and function of SHGs involved
in womens empowerment; and womens empowerment and SHG
in India.
3. Womens empowerment and SHGs in Odisha and in Balasore
district and analysis of opinions.
4. Conclusion.

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CHAPTER -II
Womens empowerment and SHGs in India
India is one of the worlds most ancient civilisations and fastest
growing economies. It is a transitional society with ageold
traditions and vast social diversities. The story of empowerment
of women in India is to be located in a complex set of caste, class,
religious and ethnic identities, and ethos and ideologies of this
ancient society.In its patriarchal social order women continue to
enjoy low social status, marginalized in the household and the
larger community. Their economic opportunities remain restricted
by social, cultural, and religious barriers, most notably inheritance
laws embedded in Hindu andShariat civil codes. Reformation
movements during the British rule and legalrefoms by the
Britishers brought about some changes for improving the
condition of women. After independence Constitution of India
guarantees equality to women. Various steps were undertaken by
the Government for Women Empowerment. Feminist activism
picked up momentum in India during later 1970s. Later on many
groups and NGOs have been working for the Empowerment of
women. But the real change came from the Fifth Five Year Plan
(1974-78) whichmarked ashift in the approach to womens issues
from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment
of women has been recognized as the central issue. The
grassrootslevel womens collectives, better known as SHGs,
emerged in1990s in India as the empowerment wing of the
womens movement. However, as The National Policy for the
Empowerment of Women (2001)recognises , there still exists a
wide gap between the goals enunciated in the Constitution,
legislation, policies, plans, programmes, and related mechanisms
on the one hand and the situational reality of the status of women
in India, on the other.(
)Now there is a need for strong
movement to fight for the rights of women and to ensure that
they get all the rights which men have or in other words a
movement for the Empowerment of Women. Experience shows
that the key to success lies in ensuring full cooperation and
participation of people at the grassroots level. Under various
poverty alleviation/eradication efforts, these days, both by the
Governments as well as NGOs, several types of community based
organizational structures or SHGs have come up throughout the
country enabling the poorwomen to get out of their exploitation,
particularly by money lenders.
Page - 12

Historical Background of Women Empowerment in India

The status of Women in India has been subject to many great
changes over the past fewmillenniums. In the ancient Indian
tradition women were glorified as embodiments of Shakti - -the
cosmic energy or power. In early Vedic period women enjoyed
equal status with men. The Rigved and theUpnishads mention
several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi
andMaitrey who excelled in learnig and other fields. However
later,approximately from 500 B.C, the status of womenbegan to
deteriorate; the situation worsened with foreign invasions. For
centuries women were subjected to subordination and
dependency. They were treated as abalaasthe weaklings. Not
treated equal to men in many ways, they were not allowed to own
property; they did not have a share in the property of their
parents; they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so
on. Some reformatory movements by Guru Nanak, Jainism,
RajaRammohan Rai, IshwarchandraVidyaSagar, Pandita Rama Bai
and others brought about social changes for womens uplift. The
British rulers did seek legal reforms for improving the condition of
women. Some laws were enacted such an Abolition of practice of
Sati, Widow Remarriage Act 1
Steps Undertaken in India for Women Empowerment
After independence, several steps were taken in the direction of
empowerment of women. The Framers of the Indian Constitution
were very much conscious of the problems of women. They
ensured that the Principle of Gender Equality is enshrined in the
Constitution- - in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles. The Constitution of India guarantees right to equality to
women under Article 14. There are other articles too which ensure
rights of women e.g. no discrimination by the state [Article15 (1)],
equality of opportunity (Article16) etc. Moreover the Constitution
also empowers the states to adopt measures of positive
discrimination in favour of women [Article15 (1)].Under the
Directive Principles, men and women equally are given right
to adequate means of livelihood and right to equal pay for equal
work[ Art 39] and just and human conditions of work , and
maternity relief [ Art 39 Art42 ]. Women in India got voting rights
much before USA and some other European countries.
The real momentum for this empowering the women was gained
when a scheme known as Indira MahilaYojana was launchedwhen
under the Prime Minister ship of Mrs. Indira Gandhi; and UNDP in
Page - 13

India also incorporated issues of women s uplift as its primary

objective. Various Schemes were later on launched for the
empowerment of women such as RashtriyaMahilaKosh,
MahilaSamridhiYojana, Self help groups at Panchayat level and
etc. The establishment of National Womens Commission and
State Womens Commissions were important milestones in the
direction of Women Empowerment in India.The National
Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in
1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women.
The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of
India provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of
Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong
foundation for their participation in decision making at the local
levels.India has also ratified various international conventions and
human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of
women. Key among them is the ratification of the Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) in 1993. The Indian Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97)
made a shift from 'development' to 'empowerment' of women
[ Khan (2001) and Sinha (2002)].
Following the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing
in 1995, the UN Millennium Development Goals for gender
equality and empowerment of women and the Indian declaration
of the womens year in 2001, India adopted the National Policy for
the Empowerment of Women in 2001. It was an important step
taken by the Indian Government for accelerating the pace of
women empowerment. The policy was aimed at ensuring women
empowerment through positive economic and social policies for
the full development of women so that they could realize their full
potential. The policy assured equal access to women to health
care, quality education, participation and decision making in
Social, Political and Economical life of the nation. The National
Policy also aims at strengthening legal system for eliminating
discrimination against Women.
Meaning and Nature of Empowerment
The National Policy
laid bare the meaning and thrust of
womens empowerment in the context of India. In view of gender
disparity manifest in various forms, especially in continuously
declining female ratio, social stereotyping and violence at the
domestic and societal levels and rampant discrimination against
girl children, adolescent girls and women it sought redefine
Page - 14

empowerment. Focussing on the underlying causes of gender

inequality lying in social and economic structure and practices, it
acknowledged that the access of women, particularly those
belonging to weaker sections to education, health and productive
resources, among others, is inadequate. Goals and Objectives
of development and empowerment of women are envisaged as
(I) Full development of women to enable them to realize their
full potential,
(II) Real enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental
freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres
political, economic, social, cultural and civil,
(III) Equal access to participation and decision making of
women in social, political and economic life of the nation,
(IV) Equal access to women to healthcare, qualityeducation at
all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment,
equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social
security and public office etc.
(V) Elimination of all forms of discriminationagainst women,
(VI) Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence
against women and the girl child,
(VII) Building and strengthening partnerships with civil society,
particularly womens organizations,
(VIII) Changing societal attitudes and community practices to
this end, and
(IX) Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development
process.
The National Policy not only thus captured the three levels of the
empowerment - individual, group and community levels, but also
focussed on its three dimensions -social, political and economic.
The Social empowerment of women was conceived
to include
on priority basisequal access to education for women and girls
with special measures to eliminate discrimination, and to health
services and nutrition with special attention to the needs of
women and the girl at all stages of the life cycle ; the reduction of
infant mortality and maternal mortality; providing housing and
accommodation for women; special assistance to Women in
Difficult Circumstances; and prevention of all forms of violence
against women, physical and mental, whether at domestic or
societal levels.

Page - 15

Similarly political empowerment is envisioned asWomens

equality in power sharing and active participation in decision
making, including decision making in political process at all
levels. It is to guarantee women equal access to and full
participation in decision making bodies at every level, including
the legislative, executive, judicial, corporate, statutory bodies, as
well as the advisory Commissions, Committees, Boards, Trusts etc
along with affirmative action such as reservations/quotas in
higher legislative bodies.
Economic Empowerment of women is given a new orientation to
enhance their capabilities, and access to credit for a proper role of
women in the economy, particularly in agriculture and Industry
and to encourage women to participate effectively in the
developmental process in view of the harsh realities of intrahousehold and social discrimination. Since women comprise the
majority of the population below the poverty line and are very
often in situations of extreme poverty, the economic
empowerment of women focuses on poverty eradication by
mobilization of poor women and convergence of services, with
necessary support measures to enhance their capabilities; and
easy access to credit for consumption and production by the
establishment of new, and strengthening of existing micro-credit
mechanisms. Economic Empowerment of women is also to ensure
that benefits of training for the critical role of women in the
agriculture and Industry, and to encourage women to participate
effectively in the developmental process. Womens perspectives
will be included in designing and implementing macro-economic
and social policies.
Operational Strategies & Action Plans:
The National Policy also sought to draw up Operational Strategies
and Action Plans for effective empowerment of women. This was
toinvolve a review of all existing laws including personal,
customary and tribal laws; Gender Sensitizationby proper training
of personnel of executive, legislative and judicial wings of the
State, promoting societal awareness to gender issues and
womens human rights, and review of educational curriculum. It
sought forAction Plan of measurable goals to be achieved by
2010.

Page - 16

Institutional Mechanisms
Institutional mechanisms, to promote the advancement of
women, which exist at the Central and State levels, are be
strengthened with the National Council, headed by the Prime
Minister, and the State Councils by the Chief Ministers to oversee
the operationalisation of the Policy on a regular basis. It also
visualizes
strengthening
partnership
with
Civil
Society,
particularly Womens organizations .With institutions at the
district level, at the grass-roots, women will be helped by
Government through its programmes to organize and strengthen
into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) at the Anganwadi/Village/Town level.
The womens groups are to be helped to institutionalize
themselves into registered societies and to federate at the
Panchyat/Municipal level.States have also taken various measures
for empowerment of women.
Self Help Groups (SHGs) in India
Self-help group is a method of organising the poor people and the
marginalized to come together to solve their individual problem.
The SHG method is used by the government, NGOs and others
worldwide. While the term self-help group or SHG can be used to
describe a wide range of financial and non-financial associations,
in India it has come to refer to a form of Accumulating Saving and
Credit Association (ASCA) promoted by government agencies
[planning commision.p10]. A SHGthus generally refers to a
village-based financial intermediary committee usually composed
of 1020 local women or men. It typically comprises a group
of micro entrepreneurs having homogeneous social and economic
backgrounds, all voluntarily coming together to save regular small
sums of money, mutually agreeing to contribute to a common
fund and to meet their emergency needs on the basis of mutual
help. This is a system of solidarity lending. The poor collect their
savings and save it in banks. In return they receive easy access to
loans with a small rate of interest to start their micro unit
enterprise. Many self-help groups, especially in India,
under NABARD's 'SHG Bank Linkage' program, borrow from banks
once they have accumulated a base of their own capital and have
established a track record of regular repayments; and the SHGBLP has so far been the most preferred and viable model for
financial inclusion of the hitherto unreached poor.
Page - 17

Financial intermediation is generally seen more as an entry point

to these other goals, rather than as a primary objective. Self-help
groups are seen as instruments for goals including empowering
women, developing leadership abilities among poor people,
increasing school enrolments, and improving nutrition and the use
of birth control. Self-help groups are started by non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) that generally have broad anti-poverty
agendas.
A self-help group may be registered or unregistered. Although
their number is thus difficult to be ascertained, according to
NABARD there are more than 74 lakh SHGs covering over 10 crore
households. They have become the mainstay of the Indian
microFinance scene.
When a new restructured self-employment programme, known as
Swarnjayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY), was launched in
April 1999, by doing away with the anomalies in the multiplicity of
earlier programmes, success of the concept of SHG had gained
wide currency. In the light of the above, SGSY,was linked up with
SHGs. It was made obligatory that the objective of the SGSY will
be achieved, interalia, by organizing the rural poor into Self-Help
Groups (SHGs) through a process of social mobilization, enabling
them to build their own organizations in which they could
participate fully and directly and take decisions on all the issues
concerning
eradication
of
their
poverty[planning
commission2008 ,p14]
Some of the characteristic features of SHGs are given below:
An SHG is generally an economically homogeneous group
formed through a process of self-selection based upon the
affinity of its members.
Most SHGs are womens groups with membership ranging
between 10 and 20.
SHGs have well-defined rules and by-laws, hold regular
meetings and maintain records and savings and credit
discipline.
SHGs are self-managed institutions characterized by
participatory and collective decision making.
NGO-promoted SHGs were often nested in sanghas or village
development groups undertaking integrated development
activities. As they have developed, SHGs or sanghas have been

Page - 18

grouped into larger clusters and multi-village federations for

financial and nonfinancial activities [planning commission, p11]
The Emergence of SHGs in India
The grassroots level womens collectives, better known these
days as the women SHGs, are the products of the womens
movement in India. Feminist activism has picked up momentum in
India during later 1970s. Later on many groups and NGOs have
been working for the empowerment of women. The SHGs became
the primary unit, common to most of the NGOs in terms
theempowerment wing of the womens movement. In order to
make women partners in the development process of the country,
and to be self-reliant and empowered, NGOs started orgaizing
them into community based organizations known under different
names, like credit unions, MahilaMandals, MahilaSamajams etc.
However, the emergence of the concept of Self Help Groups
(SHGs), as we know it today in India, is an outcome of the
MYRADA
experiments, particularly bythe Savings and Credit
Management Groups (SCMG), sponsored by Mysore Resettlement
and Development Agency (MYRADA). After experimentation with
the cooperatives insome projects, MYRADA tried with an
alternative credit system for thepoor to make the existing delivery
system, not only more appropriate and effective but also willing to
accept alternative system with its own rules and management. In
1986-87, NABARD supported and funded an action-research
project on SCMG of MYRADA, for assessing its adequacy as an
instrument to help the target groups. During 1991-92, NABARD
launched 92 pilot projects on linking SHGs with Banks, in various
parts of the country. . The NABARD guidelines to banks for
implementation of the pilot project allowed ample flexibility to the
participating banks to innovative responses and observed
variations in thegrassroots level situations. It aimed at providing
credit to the informal SHGs of rural poor, through the banking
system, with minimal documentation In July 1991; RBI advised the
banks to participate in the pilot project and to extend finance to
SHGs as per the norms and guidelines of NABARD. In February
1992 detailed guidelines were issued to thecommercial banks by
it.The number and categories of SHGs and their savings are
reflected in following statement of NABARD [2014, p43]

Page - 19

Progress under Microfinance - Savings of Agency-wise

position as on 31 March 2
(Amount in lakh)
Total
Savings of
SHGs with
Banks as
on31March
2014

Sl.
No

1
2

Out of Total
UnderOutof
TotalNRLM/
SGSY
& other Govt.
Sponsored
program
Name of No. Savin No.
Saving
the
of
g
of
Amount
Agency
SHG Amou SHG
s
nt
s
Commerc 402 66314 1233 1
ial Banks 281 5.63
087
58449.12
0
Regionl
211 19598 8285 7
Rural
176 5.73
67
1423.39
Banks
0
Cooperati 129 13061 2004 17885.5
veBanks
493 0.18
71
8
0
Total
742 9897 226 247758.
950 41.54 212 09
0
5

Exclusive
Women SHGs

No. of Saving
SHGs
Amount

348321
2

565641.83

175338
7

13 9081.96

101507
9

96565.15

625167
8

801288.94
.

Key activities
The predominant activities vary from state to state. Dairy is found
as one of the most popular activity among the group swarozgaris
tied to SHGs, as pointed out by the Planning Commission in its
study. The key activities in the study regionare given in the
following table by the Planning Commission[2008 Pp 47-48].

Page - 20

STATE

Activities.
Toys, Fashion technology Sarees, Pickles, Powder
&Papads, Food items,Handicrafts, Fabrics
Andhra
&Readymades,Beauty Parlour, MassageCenter,
Pradesh HandloomsEmbroidarySaree,Jewellary, Leather
work, Jute, Fabrics & ReadyMadesAgarbatti, Tie &
Die Saree,
Small Irrigation, Diary, Rural Artizen, Food
Processing,Paltry Farm, Bee keeping ,Diary, Small
Irrigation,
Paltry
farm,
Bihar
Aggarbatti,VegetablesMithila
Painting,
Diary,
Fisheries,.
Chattisga Bomboo work, Carpet workSmall Business,
rh
Fisheries, Bomboo work, Goathusbandary.
Meenakari&Oxodise
work
Diary,
Handicraft,
Canteen,
Silk Saree, Patola, Stitching Work,
Gujrat
Pulse Mill, Tent house, Centering work, Auto
Garage, Fabrication.
Bomboo work, Tent house, Dari&Kalin Work, Hand
Pump Boaring, Walker Sheet, Diary, Stitching,
Uttar
Furniture work, Bed Sheet, Different work,
Pradesh
Handicraft. Hand pump, Boaring, RessaRussi,
Kalin& Dari, Paltry farm, Diary.
Conclusion -Impact of SHGs
Besides the regional differences in activities, the impact
of SGSYand thus SHGs has been varied across the states.
[Planning Commision2008:87 ] The penetration of SHGs in
Southern
BPL
population
is
well
above
the
rest,
[NABARD2014:p37]. There is a clear indication of rural women
being on the path of social empowerment [Planning
Com2008:p51]. There is no doubt that the SGSY has generated
substantial increase in the incomes of swarozgaris in the sample
states. Maximum increase was found in Andhra Pradesh[ Planning
Com.2008:p88]
However, the women joining the SHGs had
increased their workload. This was mainly because joining the
SHGs had provided them with some supplementary work, but the
new activities could not generate enough income for them to give
Page - 21

up any of their earlier tasks.[Planning Com.2008: p91 ] Like

every struggle, womens empowerment has its own paradoxes
and struggles. The SHGs are MS (Mahila Sanghas) of Rajasthan,
UP and other states in the entrepreneurial form. As pointed out by
Aradhana Sharma(2008, p191), it provides experiences with
self- and social empowerment transferrable to other areas. They
have thus the transformative possibilities of releasing Shakti
which stands for symbol of womens empowerment (Sharma
2008, pp192-97).This is also true of SHGs in India.

Page - 22

CHAPTER III
Womens empowerment &SHGs in Odisha
Womens empowerment and SHGs in Odisha get their colour and
content from the socio-economic and political conditions of the
state.Odisha is the first province of India (after Sindh now in
Pakistan) to be founded on the basis of language.It is one of the
maritime provinces situated on the east coast of the country,
located between 17-48 and 22-34.North latitude and 81-27and
87-29 east longitude. It has an area of 1, 55,707 sq.km with
about 480k.m. of coast line. It is the 9th largest state in the
country in terms of area. The population of Odisha according to
the 2011 census stands at about 41 million, making it the 11 th
most populated state in India. The state makes up about 3.4% of
the countrys population. It continued to be a separate state of
India union after independence with only 6 districts. Following
reorganization of the administrative districts after the merger of
the feudatory states in 1949, Odisha comprised 13 districts and
was restructured into 30 districts in 1992.
With the per capita income of 14263 in2001 much below the
national per capita income of 20362, Odisha is one of the poorest
states of India. According to Government of India estimates in
1996 its Human Development Index score was 0.461, Gender
Development Index score 0.445 and GEM score 0.329. Placed
among the lowest category ivstates,its HDI rank in 1996 was 30,
GDI rank 30 and GEM rank 26 out of 35 states and union
territories.The government of Odisha inaugurated MAHILA
SASAKTIKARANA BARSHA 2000 MISSION.
The empowerment of women was considered to come from their
economic empowerment. Thus helping women to achieve
economic independence by enabling them to have independent
employment and income was accorded the highest priority. It has
also been recognized that women will be better-placed to
overcome the negativesocial pressures and gender biases

operating against them and to unshackle themselves through

identity and activity [Post Evaluation Study of the scheme of
Micro-Credit Help to WSHGs in KBK Districtsp12]. Promotion
of Womens Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) has therefore been
adopted as akey strategy in Orissa for achieving womens
empowerment. A Mission approach has beenadopted by the
Government to facilitate this and a Mission for womens
empowerment throughthe promotion of Womens Self-Help
Groups called Mission Shakti launched in March2001.
The holy aim of this mission is to engage village women in SHG
group during coming 4 years. The main motto of this mission is
(1)
(2)

The qualitative development of SHG group.

To enhance the qualitative grade of SHG group.
THE AIM OF THE MISSION
(1) In between 2001-2005 they are to create small consumer
organisations.
(2) To divide the SHG registered groups into c,b,a classes.
(3) To create an environment to engage 80% women in SHG
groups in between 2005.
The Mission had an objective of helping formation of 1,00,000
Womens Self-HelpGroups by 2005, increasing the groups by
25,000 annually. As 36,000 WSHGs werealready existing in the
State prior to the launching of the Missiona, the new Groups were
to beformed to take up income-generating and remunerative
economic activities by providing themthe necessary technical
support, market linkages and credit linkages, where necessary.
Another more important objective of the Mission is to help
capacity-building of the existing WSHGs.The progress under
Microfinance - Savings of SHGs with Banks in Odisha up to 2014
has been shown in the following NABARD [2014, p.45] statement.
STATEMENT-II
Progress under Microfinance - Savings of SHGs with Banks Statewise/ Agency-wise position as on 31 March 2014.
Sr. no

State

Commercial Banks
No. of SHGs

Odisha

178
354

ORGANISATION OF THE GROUP

For disciplined management the SHG capacity should not be
above 20 person. Each SHG consists of members who are poor,
having low savings capacity and generally depending on
moneylenders or private sources for meeting their consumption
and emergent needs. A typical Self Help Group will comprise likeminded individuals who volunteer to save small amounts of
money in a common pool, out of which, need based loans are
given to members for meeting their emergent credit requirements
based on the priorities decided by the group. The group members
take collective decisions on all matters including those relating to
terms of credit, viz. purpose, size interest rate and repayment
period. They exercise close supervision on utilisation of loans and
exert peer and moral pressure on the members to continue
savings and repay loans promptly on time.
Broad Objectives of the Women Self-help Groups
The broad Objectives of forming SHGs have been promotion of
human and social development and empowerment of the poor.
Thus, besides the short-term pecuniary gains, some of the critical
long-term goals of SHG include:

Sustainable access to financial services

Strong livelihood support systems
Enhancement of collective bargaining power
Self reliance and sense of dignity
Improvement in overall standard of living and empowerment

With these long term goals in mind, the objectives of WSHGs have
been set as follows:
To inculcate a habit of thrift among the women community and
to encourage small saving habit among them,
To enhance the socio-economic condition of women through
different income
generating activities,

 To mobilize the women groups for other developmental work of

the community,
To empower the women groups to take decision for their
income utilization,
To train women groups for maintaining their own account,
records, saving
registers and proper utilisation of generated fund for profit
making activities,
To train women for participation in development of micro plan
of villages,
To capacitate the WSHG for immediate recovery after any
natural calamity,
To federate the WSHGs for SwarnShahayak Bank, and
To mobilize the women groups for other development activities
i.e. girl child enrolment, health and sanitation problems and
other social issues.[IIT, KANPUR , UTTAR PRADESH. 2007,
Binayak Rath. Post Evaluation Study of the scheme of MicroCredit Help to WSHGs in KBK Districts,pp13-14]
Training
Training is given to group members/group leaders for improving
the quality and sustainability of groups. It aims at improving the
knowledge of their members, especially in terms of financial and
communication skills. It also grooms the members by improving
their awareness of human resource development and
management , and their technical knowhow in respect of new
income generating activities as well as the all important
marketing skill.
Social Role of the SHGs
Other than financial transactions, SHGs are expected to play a
strategic role in social intermediation at the grassroots level.
Government
and
other
development
organizations
are
contemplating inclusion of SHGs as an organized entity at the
grassroots level in various development related activities.
Key Activities in Odisha:
The WSHGs are engaged in extending credit among the group
members at a concessional rate of interest to carry out petty
business activities like vending, opening up of small shops, to run
tea stalls, to procure rice etc to sale in retail markets, dal
processing, trading of onion & pulses, rice processing, mobile

shop, pottery, dairy, goatary and poultry and vegetable

cultivation. A few of the active groups have graduated to the
stage of micro enterprises by undertaking schemes like MDM
programme, mushroom cultivation, leave plates and bowls
making i.e., Khali-Thola making , minor construction of roads
under PMGSY.
Federation Building :
The effort was made by Mission Shakti to encourage federation
building as one of its objectives following the footsteps of the
experiences gathered from Ganjam. The federation building was
conceptualized in 2001 with the inception of Mission Shakti for the
growth and sustainability of the SHGs. The federation building
process was initiated in the year 2003 in a few districts. However,
the process accelerated only in the recent past. Looking at the
limited capacity of the ICDS functionaries to manage the
federation and the requirement of high level skill in financial
management for federations involved in financial intermediation,
Mission Shakti has planned to promote block level federations
focus in non financial services to its clients, though it has not
closed the door for financial services. There is a three-tier
structure, ie, SHGs at village level, primary level federations at
the GP level and secondary federation at the Block Level.

Box- 4 : SHG Federations in Orissa as on March 31st, 2009

No.
Of No. Of
No.
Of
Promoting
Primary
Tertiary
India/Ori
Seconda
ssa
Federation ry
Federation Total
Institution s
federati s
ons
103,1
INDIA
99,918
3,150
52
48
CYSD
39
39
Mission
shakti
6573
314
17
6904
TRIPTI
1020
38
10
1068
PREM
0
Fellowship 30
30
PRADAN
90
4
94
7
ORISSA Awareness 7
BISWA
238
238
CENDERET 22
22
Others
(Swayanshr
ee,
25
25
Gramodhav,
FARR)
Sub-total Orissa
8044
356
27
8427
Source : Microfinance India, State of the Sector Report
2009
The district level federations are also mooted to play the role of
catalyst to bring about social change. Necessary support may be
provided to the district level federations to focus on strengthening
the GPLF and SHGs. This would help the social agenda not getting
mixed with the financial activity of the block level federations.
Assessment
Various studies acknowledged that there has been rise in income,
consumption level and material wealth of the households joining
the WSHG. In addition there have been many social benefits
which are vital for socio-economic uplift of the women
communities even in the tribal dominated areas like KBK. Those
benefits are economic empowerment of the members and their
exposure to new kinds of activity and knowledge has provided
boost to the confidence level of the women memberswhich in turn
has gradually led to a social empowerment process.[IIT 2007:P45]

Keeping all this in view, the present study ventures for an

empirical study of the contribution of womens Self Help Groups
towards the empowerment of women in Balasore, particularly of
Balasore Sadr block. Balasore District stands in the middle of
development scale. This is well brought out in the profile of the
district.Etymologically Balasore means the city on sea derived
from the Persian phrase Balo-e-sore which finds its mention in
Ain-e-Akbari of AbulFazal the celebrated Mughal historian. As
described by L.L.S.O masseyModox report 1899 it became a
Marthattachakla (unit of kingdom) in 18 th century. During the
British rule it was a sub-unit of Cuttack district from 1821-27 but
acquired status as a separate district in 1827. The erstwhile
princely state of Nilgiri merged with it after independence to
become its third subdivision. In 1994 Bhadrak one of its
subdivisions was curved out into a separated district.
The district covers an area of 3834sq.kms-2.44% of the state
territory. As per 2011 census the population of the district is about
2,317,419(male-1,184,317&Female-1,133,048) and thus shares
5.5%of state population. Its decadal growth is 14.47% sex ratio is
957.4(Female per 100 male). Child population between 0 to 6
years is 274,432 and child sex ratio is 941. The density of
population of the district is 609 per square k.m. as against 269
persons per square k.m. of the state. It has 2952 villages
including 365 uninhabited villages and 2587 inhabited villages
covering 12 blocks 12 tahasils and two subdivisions. It has one
municipality, 3 NACS, 289 GPS, 23 police stations.
Administrative setup:
The district is divided into 2 sub divisions- Balasore subdivison
and ilgirisubdivison and12 CD blocks . Balasore subdivison
hasBahanaga, Balasore, Baliapal, Basta, Bhograi, Jaleswar, Khaira,
Remuna, Simulia, Soro blocks under it. Nilgirisubdivison
hasNilgiri and Oupada blocks. These villages are under the
jurisdiction of 289 Gram Panchayats.

The socio-economic profile of

following NABARD[20] Table:

the district is depicted in the

Indicator
Human Development Index (HDI)
value 2004
HDI Rank in the State 2004
Gender Development Index (GDI)
value 2001
GDI Rank in the State 2001
Reproductive Health Index (RHI)
1998-99
RHI Rank in the state 1998-99
Education
Indicators
Literacy

Literacy

Literacy

Male
rate (Total) (2001 Census) Female
Total
Male
rate (Rural) (2001 Census) Female
Total
Male
rate (Urban) (2001 Census) Female
Total
rate in SC Population (2001

Balaso
re
Orissa
0.559
18

0.579
-

0.519
14

0.546
-

0.497
25

0.549
-

81.69
58.90
70.56
81.16
57.40
69.52
85.77
71.20
78.80

73.35
50.51
63.08
72.93
46.66
59.84
87.93
72.87
80.84

Literacy
Census)
59.41
55.53
Literacy rate in ST Population (2001
Census)
31.88
37.37
Overall Literacy Index (2001)
0.709
0.636
Combined Gross Enrolment Ratio (614 years) 2003-04
89.16
89.58
Combined Gross Enrolment Ratio Index (614 years) 2003-04
0.892
0.896
Education
Index 2004
0.770
0.723
Education Index Rank in the State
2001
10
Balasore sadar block under Balasore Balasore sub division
consists of 27 Gram Panchayats around Balasore town under
Balasore municipality. The Gram Panchayats uder Balasore

sadar block are Nagram, Ranasahi, Buanl , J.Kasaba, Gudu

,Bahabalapur, Padmapur,Hidigan, Patrapada, Odangai, Kasafal
,Chhanua, Gopinathpur, Sasanga, Parikhi, Genguti , Sartha ,
Kasipada, Rasalpur , Srikona, Sindhia, Srirampur, Saragan,
O.Saragan , Haladipada, Kuradiha.

The Demographic Characteristics of Balasore sadar block is given

below:
Block
Male
Female
Total
Sex
Ratio
Balasore
113068
104920
21798 928
Sadar
8
Balasore district has 17517 SHGs; all are Women SHGs. Similarly
there are 2437 SHGs in Balasore Sadar Block. All of them are
Women SHGs.
For the purpose of an empirical study of the
working of the SHGs in Balasore, three SHGs are taken up for
investigation. Inetrview and focussed Group Discussions with the
members, Presidents, Secretaries were done. The profile of the
SHGs is as follows:

Sl Name Date of
By
Villag Gram Objecti Key Achiev
N of SHG Establis Whom
e Panch
ve
Activiti ement
O
hment formed
ayat
es
1 Meeraba 22
NGO
Padad Kasipa Economi Terracot Increase
i
Decemb
hia
da
c
a,
in
er 2007
Develop poultry income ,
ment of farm,
material
the
sal leaf assets,
member thali
self
s
making, confiden
doll,
ce,
sabai
respect
work,
of
&stichin others,
g
&
authorit
y
in family
matters
2 Maa
12
Self
Kasap Kasap Economi
Increase
Agricult in
Tarini
July2008
hal
hal
c
Develop ure
income ,
&Piscicu material
ment
lture
assets,
self
Confide
nce,
respect
of
others.
3 Akhand 24
Banke Padam Economi Flour
Increase
eswar April201 Govern swar pur
c
Mill&Ba in
ment
2
Develop di
income ,
Agency
ment
making material
assets.

4 Maa
15
Self
Bhabani Novemb
er 2008.

Arad

Nagra Economi Mushro Increase

m
c
om&
in
Develop paddy income ,
ment
cultivati material
on,
assets,
Dairy
self
farm
confiden
ce,
respect
of
others,
&
authorit
y
in family
matters

The narrative of Maa Bhabani SHG group more or less gives the
picture of the working of the SHGs. The women of Arad of Phuladi
village in Balasore joined SHG group contributing 60 rupees
towards member fee from their own pocket to meet their basic
needs and named SHG group as Maa Bhabani SHG. They
deposited the collected amount in the bank and get 1 st loan of
rupees 35000, 2nd loan of rupees 65000, 3rd loan of rupees
1lakh, 4th loan of rupees 1 lakh from the bank. After getting loan
from the co-operative Bank, they started to cultivate mushroom
and individually grow paddy from their own land and also brought
up cows.
After doing this cultivation now they are able to earn Rs 3000
per month individually. By this way they fulfilled their basic needs.
In this way they can earn 30-40,000 per year. They have their own
house with electric connection. Their children are reading in odia
medium school. The MBK (Master book keeper)is an educated
women. She helps them to lift the loan from the bank and
deposited the required amount in the bank and also sometimes
she teaches SHG women to learn read and write, who are
illiterate.
Their GPLF (Grama panchayat level federation) is linked to
Canada bank .By the commencing of Trupti scheme in 2010 the
SHG group has developed more. GPLF give them loan in 12%
interest. Now as per the banks new scheme ,if any SHG group
cleared up loan in due time, bank reduces their interest from 12%
to 7% and returns the excess amount.
By joining SHG group the women of Maa Bhabani SHG group are
getting individually loan from the bankeasily. So they are not
mortgaging their ornaments before the village landlord. They also
use their deposited amount in the time of need. Maa Bhabani SHG
group works as per 5 laws, such as
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

regular weekly meeting

regular saving
regular internal loan payment
loan payment

(5)

regular checking of register of SHG group

Due to the above action

(1)
(2)
(3)

They can discuss their own problems and they become punctual.
By way of saving they secure themselves for the future.
By maintaining and always checking of records of SHG group, the
fund of the group increasing and also groups transparency
increases. According to the members, they have become more
skilful; their confidence has grown; their faith in their president
and secretary gradually increases.
The working of these four SHGs may be expressed in the
following table:
S
l
N
o

Name of
the
SHGs

Regula
Meeraba r
i
Regula
Maa
r
Tarini

Regula
rity in
attendi
ng
meetin
gs

Regul
arity
in
record
maint
enance
Regul
ar

Regula
rity in
loan
repay
ment

CPLF

GPLF

Block
Other
Cluster Social
Functi
ons

Regula
r

Omkar

Meerabai

BiswaS Nil
akhi

Regul
ar

Regula
r

Baba
Bakres
war

Baba
Bhusand
eswar

no

Nil

Banke
swar

Sachitan
anda

no

Nil

no

Nil

Akhand
eswar

Regula
r

Regul
ar

Regula
r

Maa
Bhabani

Regula
r

Regul
ar

Regula
r

The regularity of women SHGs reflects certain commitments on

part of the women to their uplift. But their failure to join Block
Level Federation (BLF) seems to indicate their lack of aptitude and
capacity for organisational work. It also shows the attitude of the
larger society towards womens cause.
CONCLUSION

It seems inescapable to conclude that women are serious and

sincere
towards
their
self-advancement
and
economic
development. By joining SHGs they have brought about increase
in their income and material prosperity of their families. Thereby,
they have earned the respect in their families to an extent and
some say in family decision making in matters like school of their
childrens study. By their experience and exposure, they have
developed self confidence and some amount of economic
independence. After long time they get a role in family decision
making. Thus this SHG route to womens empowerment has
affected incremental rise in economic and social empowerment.
But these SHGs and their members has little involvement outside
social activities. Their empowerment appears to remain, to borrow
the words of Sharma [2008:p199], entrepreneurial strategy for
development and self-improvement. The political dimension,
particularly of real grass root mobilisation is left largely neglected.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Empowerment of women in general and poor women in particular,
is the thrust area of development initiatives in India today. It is
also high on the international agenda .Since 1989 the World Bank
has accorded priorities to women and children issues, reduction of
gender inequality in terms of economic and political opportunities
has been the goal of our plans. The concept of the empowerment
of women as a goal of development projects and programmes has
been gaining wider acceptance in the 1990s. Women's
participation in grassroots organizations is increasingly recognized
as crucial to their empowerment and as a way for them to help
shape development policies. Meanwhile, gender empowerment
measure (GEM) has been introduced as a measure of human
development
index.
UNDP
Report2003
puts
womens
development as the third goal of the eight Millennium
development goals. Our priorities towards women problems and
the issues have undergone significant changes, particularly with
the National Policy for the Empowerment of women in 2001.
When Globalization has presented new challenges of the
feminization of poverty, and increased gender inequality, the
success story of the Grameen Bank from our neighbouring
country Bangaladesh in uplifting the conditions of the poor and
particularly the improvement in the conditions ofwomen provided
a lot of impetus to our Government for this sort of financial
intermediaries.Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as
Voluntary Associations (VAs) were also actively involved in the
formation and promotion of collectives of poor women known as
Self Help Groups (SHGs).
They are aimed at sustainable
development and the empowerment of poor women, helping
them to organise themselves, and to be self-reliant and
empowered. Combining of these two approaches led to adoption
ofthis SOG route to womens empowerment in India. This is one of
the Indian strategies of womens empowerment. It has proved a
partial success.
The larger Indian strategy treats the womens empowerment
holistically and contextualises it. The contested concept has been
adapted to the Indian ground realities and operationalised
accordingly. Empowerment deals with power. Power has many
connotations. On the whole it involves effective use of knowledge,
wealth, confidence and unity. It means many things to many

people. So is womens empowerment.

To some it involves
economic opportunity, property rights, political representation,
social equality and personal rights. To some others it refers
towomens self-respect, self-dignity; overcoming their fears, and
feelings of inferiority and inadequacy; controlling their own bodies
and life, resources like land and property, etc.
At times it is
conceived to
include creating and strengthening womens
groups and organisations. It has mainly three levels individual,
group and community levels. While
group level focuses on
womens organisation, on community level it pines for womens
liberation. It is considered as the initial phase of liberation,
freedom, equality and equity. It has three dimensionssocial,
economic and political.The essentials for individual social
empowerment includeaccess to knowledge, information and a
feeling ofknowing from self-enquiry, strengthening their skills and
capacities to mediate with the external world. Economic
empowerment primarily means women being economically
independent and self-reliant. Political empowerment envisages
promoting participation and leadership of women in governance
at various levels.
This conception of womens empowerment has been
adapted to the Indian tradition and its social, economic and
political conditions. In the ancient Indian tradition with the ideal of
gender equality, women were equated with Shakti- -the
embodiment of cosmic energy and strength. However, later on
they have been treated as abalaasweaklings. In the patriarchal
society with its personal laws they were accorded subordinate
status. Giventhe low status of women in our society in almost all
areas, be it education, health, employment and in decision
making positions, most women are also not confident enough to
participate in the social process on their own. Poverty among
women needs no mention. As analyzed extensively in the Report
of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, "Towards
Equality", 1974 and acknowledged by the National Policy for the
Empowerment of women (2001) there still exists a wide gap
between the goals enunciated in the Constitution, legislation,
policies, plans, programmes, and related mechanisms on the one
hand and the situational reality of the status of women in India,
on the other. Moreover, Globalization has presented new
challenges of the feminization of poverty, increased gender

inequality. In this context Womens empowerment is redefined to

focus on their equality in power sharing and active participation in
decision making, including decision making in political process at
all levels. It called for economic measures for Womens Poverty
Eradication by mobilization of poor women and convergence of
services, with necessary support measures to enhance their
capabilities and easy access to credit for consumption and
production. Social Empowerment of Women is envisaged to
include equal access to education, nutrition and health services
for women and girls with special measures to eliminate
discrimination and violence against women, and with special
attention to the needs of women and the girls, and of women in
difficult circumstances.
Strategy for empowerment is accordingly calibrated. The
womens empowerment is programmed to be achieved through
their economic empowerment. Helping women to achieve
economic independence by enabling them to have independent
employment and income is being accorded the highest priority. It
has also been recognized that women will be better-placed to
overcome the negative social pressures and gender biases
operating against them and to unshackle themselves through
group identity and activity. TheSHG route is found suitable as
NGOs have started organizing them into community based
organizations known under different names, like credit unions,
Mahila Mandals, MahilaSamajams etc. During 1991-92, NABARD
launched 92 pilot projects on linking SHGs with Banks, in various
parts of the country. In July 1991, RBI advised the banks to
participate in the pilot project. Self-help group is a method of
organising the poor people and the marginalized to come
together to solve their individual problem. The SHG method is
used by the government, NGOs and others worldwide. In India
they generally refer to financial intermediaries. The poor collect
their savings and save it in banks. In return they receive easy
access to loans with a small rate of interest to start their micro
unit enterprise.SHG is thus a development group for the poor and
marginalized, set up to build the functional capacity of the poor

and the marginalized in the field of employment and income

generating activities. They are based on the philosophy that
people are responsible for their own future. They are to help
themselves by organizing themselves into SHGs. While the term
self-help group or SHG can be used to describe a wide range of
financial and non-financial associations, in India it has come to
refer to a form of Accumulating Saving and Credit Association
(ASCA) promoted by government agencies, NGOs or banks. Most
SHGs are womens groups with membership ranging between 10
and 20. They are self-managed institutions characterized by
participatory and collective decision making.
Given the diversity of womens economic opportunities between
states due to the cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity of each
state, and unequal penetration of the SHGs in different states,
Odisha adopted its own suitable way. A Mission approach has
been adopted by the Government to facilitate this and a Mission
for womens empowerment through the promotion of Womens
Self-Help Groups called Mission Shakti was launched in March
2001. The Mission had an objective of helping formation of 1,
00,000 Womens Self-Help Groups by 2005, increasing the groups
by 25,000 annually. As 36,000 WSHGs have already existed in the
State prior to the launching of Mission Shakti, the objectives of
the Mission are to help capacity-building of the existingWSHGs
and to form new WSHGs to take up income-generating and
remunerative economic activities by providing them the
necessary technical support, market linkages and credit linkages,
where necessary.NGO-promoted SHGs were often nested in
sanghas or village development groups undertaking integrated
development activities. As they develop, SHGs or sanghas are
grouped into larger clusters and multi-village federations like
Cluster Level Federations (CLF), Grama Panchayat Level
Federations (GPLF) and Block Level Federations (BLF) for financial
and nonfinancial activities.Conceived as a holistic programme of
self-employment, the SHG method covers all the aspects of self
employment of the rural poor, viz. organizing them in SHGs.

The contribution of SHGs in these fifteen years has been

commendable. After becoming members of the SHGs the women
have been able to earn up to Rs 3000.oo per month as in case of
the SHGs in Balasore. They can also get easy loans to meet the
emergency needs even of their families. They have thus attained
economic independence to a large extent. Their independent
employment and income has led them on the path of economic
empowerment, no doubt.
Economic empowerment of the members and their exposure
to new kinds ofactivity has provided boost to the confidence level
of the women members and thushas gradually led to a social
empowerment process. It has revolutionalised the attitude and
behaviour of the members to outside persons, whom they were
generally avoiding earlier and of the males of the society at large.
The level of awareness among the women has certainly gone up.
Due to the economic independence, group affiliation, exposure
owing to their dealing with outside people, etc, they have become
more assertive in demanding their rights. This has brought about
a change in the role of women, transformation in the social status
of women and change in the attitude of males towards them.
The change in the role of women, change in attitude of the male
members of the family and society towards the women has been
attested in various other studies on Odisha. Initially, the male
members of the family controlled the family income, but now,
women of the family are now able to offer financial help to make
investments in agriculture by taking loans from the SHGs. Due to
this qualitative change in the contribution of women to the family,
the acceptability of women by the male members of the village in
terms of the formers freedom. They are of the view that women
also should be allowed to speak as everybody has the right to do
so. The women have got their rightto speak
SHGs are also coming to their rescue in matters of family
violence, as reported in another study. As it was reported, Wife
battering is no more taking place. The unity and the rejuvenated
confidence of women have helped put a stop to this menace in

their village. When asked if any womans husbands come drunk

and beat them what would they do? In a single voice all the
women of the SHGs said that they would deal with the offender
summarily and effectively.
The equation between male and female is also getting redefined.
As pointed out in another study, It is now a cooperative
relationship instead of one dominating the other. This is
conspicuous as the male members are also invited to the SHGs
meetings and the females given the scope to sit-in at village
meetings. During the selling of agricultural products by the SHGs
to traders the male members often help to ensure that traders do
not cheat the SHGs.
Political empowerment of women has been found largely
wanting.
SHGs have a long way to go as far as social
development activities areconcerned. Lacking in federation
building in Odisha in general and Balasore in particular, the SHGs
have not involved themselves in outside social development
activities, It is reported from certain quarters that the male
members of the villages have accepted the womens freedom to
sit with them in village meetings (which was absent before) ;and
women now have a role in the decision making on issues within
and outside the family. But this study has found that this mostly
depends onthe age of the SHG. Only when a SHG continues to
function effectively for a long period of time its leaders have got
some role in the decision-making on village issues or larger
issues.
However, major role played by the governmental agencies and
their NGOs in promoting these SHGs has exposed them
toGovernmentalisation of empowerment. The emphasis on
financial intermediation by these SHGs andon earning of women
has left womens empowerment mostly entrepreneurial strategy
for development and self-improvement. Its political dimension,
particularly of real grass root mobilisation is left largely neglected.
There have also been doubts about the real impact of the
empowerment. The SHGs have been widely reported to have only
marginal effect on the womens empowerment process.

Still, the SHG strategy for womens empowerment

seems to be generative. It results in empowering processes
which help women formulate tactics for contesting locally
entrenched power equations.
The empowerment process
appears to take on a life of its own; it erupts, interrupts, exceeds
neoliberal, regulative logics.It provides experiences with selfand social empowerment transferrable to other areas. They have
thus the transformative possibilities ofreleasing Shakti which
stands for symbol of womens empowerment. However, they have
a long way to make womens empowerment a reality. Only
sustained efforts for a long period of time by the self-sustaining
SHGs can transform the situational reality of the status of women
in India.

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