Volume 4 Issue 1 July 2016 ISSN: 2321 – 788X

A STUDY ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH SELF- HELP GROUPS WITH

SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MADURAI DISTRICT IN TAMIL NADU

Dr. S. Palani1 and Dr. K. Balamurugan2

1
Associate Professor and Head, Department of Economics, M.T.N College, Pasumalai, Madurai
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, M.T.N College, Pasumalai, Madurai-4

Abstract
Women empowerment is a process in which women challenge the existing norms and culture,
to effectively promote their well being. The participation of women in Self Help Groups (SHGs)
made a significant impact on their empowerment both in social and economical aspects. This study
addresses women empowerment through self help groups in Madurai district of Tamilnadu.
The information required for the study has been collected from both the primary and secondary
sources A multistage proportionate random sampling method has been followed. Average and
percentage analysis was carried out to draw meaningful interpretation of the results. Garret ranking
technique was used to find the reasons for joining the Self help group. Factor analysis was used to
measure the determine the relationship between the observed variables. The results of the study
revealed that the SHGs have had greater impact on both economic and social aspects of the
beneficiaries.
Key words: Woman empowerment, SHG, Madurai, Tamilnadu.

Introduction
In India, the population already crosses one billion and nearly one third of its
population is living under below poverty line. In rural areas, the scenario is deplorably
worse, where almost half of its residents live hand to mouth life and below poverty line.
Self Help Groups (SHGs) have become the vehicle of change in the rural areas in India,
transforming the lives of the underprivileged and marginalized. SHGs organize the poor,
downtrodden and marginalized to join hands to solve their problems and the method has
been very successfully used by the government and Non- Governmental organization (NGOs) in
achieving several goals by empowering them.
In the international arena, out of 1.3 billion people who live in absolute
poverty, 70 per cent are women. In India, rural women though constitute almost half of the
population the participation in the labour force is only 33 per cent, while it is 56
per cent for male. Thus 67 per cent of the female population is not gainfully employed.
Majority of them are poverty ridden. The government should take earnest efforts to utilize
women force into productive employment.
For these women, poverty does not just mean scarcity and want. It means
rights denied, opportunities entailed and voices silenced. In fact women work
two-third of the world’s working hours, earning only 10 per cent of world’s income,
own less than one per cent of world’s property and accounts for two-third of the world
illiterate adults and 60 per cent of the world’s children who are not going to schools.

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Former President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere rightly observed that ‘a person can’t walk
very far or very fast on one leg. How can we expect half the people to be able to develop a
nation?’ Here, he sorrowfully pointed out the negligence of women, when the development
needs are discussed. He further emphasized the role of women in building the nation to a
new height.
In India, even though the share of women population is equivalent to that of male, the
entrepreneurial world is still a male dominated one. In advanced countries women
entrepreneurs are well organized. They are venturing into the challenging fields also.
The women in the rural sector in India have immense potential and
expertise in art and craft, handloom, food products, bamboo related articles, honey
bee, and the like. Small scale units create more self employment opportunities with
less capital investment requirements. The raw materials are locally collected and
there is less environmental pollution. It also requires simple technology and low
managerial skills. The finished products are exported that help to earn valuable
foreign exchange and preserve the balance of payment status. The credit
worthiness in the international monetary front will also improve. But, largely the
women are neglected group in the society in India. At this juncture, the need of the
hour is that the women should be empowered. So, the present study has focused to
examine the impact of Self Help Groups on the empowerment of women at a micro level. For
this Madurai District has been chosen as the study area to analyse the impact of SHGs on
women empowerment.

Review of Literature
During the course of the study, the study of several authors was referred and it is
imperative that an outline of the literature survey is put to note and the following
references are worth mentioning. Lakshmi Kantan K.R.(2000) in his article, “SHGs in the
Life of Rural Poor - A Case Study” indicated that the SHGs were very effective in meeting
the credit requirements of the members for conventional needs but the use of credit
for income generation schemes and improving livelihood was yet to be demonstrated.
Kundu K.K.et.al., (2006) in their work attempted to study the efficiency of SHG
bank linkage programme in Harynana and found that commercial banks facilitated the access
of the rural poor to financial services in a cost effective and sustainable manner. They pointed
out that through these rural poor, SHGs not only developed confidence in them but also
cultivated the habit of thrift/saving and utilized collective wisdom to tackle their own
problems.
Chalapathi, et al., (2008) in their article “Gender Equality and Empowerment of
Women” explained that women empowerment was not just economic independence
and it was much more than that. When women were economically independent they could
progress well in different spheres of life. They emphasized that investment was also a part of

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empowerment and women should be provided loans for investment. The study suggested of
the economic component required that women had to access to and control production
resources, thus ensuring same degree of financial annoy.
Kolte et al., (2010) in their study expressed that due to the emergence of SHG,
women were able to see the outside world. They were able to understand the process
involved in solving local problems through political participation. In SHGs, women found an
opportunity to test their leadership skills. The SHGs proved themselves and had become
an important element of women empowerment movement in rural areas.
Esther Duflo in her research paper stated that the women empowerment and
economic development were closely related. In one direction, development alone could
play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women, in another
direction, empowering women might benefit development. Thus, the paper reviewed the
literature on both sides of the empowerment.
Srinivasa Rao D, and G.Jeyarajulu (2012) in their work studied the living
conditions of women through Development of Women and Children in Rural
Areas (DWCRA) programme members in Rayalaseema region in Andra Pradesh for the year
2008-09. The study suggested that there should be a monitoring cell to look into the
affairs of DWCRA, protection to DWCRA members from village money lenders, effective
and efficient training for the members, marketing of their products, and focus on
personality development and human relatives.

Statement of the Problem

India is a developing county. In Indian society, women are deprived of their
opportunities to a large extent. The educational levels of the women are less when
compared to that of men. Women are discriminated in wage terms even for the
same work they have performed. They are employed as a cheap substitute manual
labour. The socio-economic status is also at a lower level for women. The women
often fail to identify themselves as workers. They are treated like slaves not only in
working places but also in their own families. Even though, the central and state
governments legally provide equal rights and opportunities to women, they are
unaware of it. The very purpose of SHG is to alleviate poverty by generating more
income through establishing productive work in one way or other. The government
of India presently provide ample scope for SHGs particularly women SHGs by
proving micro credit facilities to pave way for starting small investment ventures.
This attempt improves the standard of living, self reliance, independency, autonomy
status in every respect, confidence, participatory level, equal opportunity and the like
of women in India. From this, it is to be clearly understood that the empowerment of
women lies in the working of SHGs. In this context the researcher has made an attempt to

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study the impact of Self Help Group on the empowerment of women particularly with
reference to the sample respondents in Madurai District.

Objectives of the Study

The following are the objectives of the present study.
 To assess the nature and extent of distribution of income and expenditure
irrespective of the sample respondents before and after joining SHG.
 To analyze the personal profile of the sample respondents of women SHGs in the
study area.
 To evolve the opinion of women members of SHGs on their empowerment.
 To examine the effect of SHG on women empowerment on various factors.
 To offer suitable suggestions on the basis of findings of the study.

Data and Methodology

Both primary and secondary data were used in this study. The primary data were
collected from the Self Help Group Members with the help of a structured Questionnaire.
The secondary data were collected from the Government publications, journals,
newspapers, magazines, NABARD Publications, RBI Publications, Madurai Mahalir Thittam
office, TNCDW Publication, internet and unpublished Ph.D Theses relating to the study.

Sampling Technique
For in-depth investigation, a sample of 300 SHG members in the study area
was chosen using multistage proportionate random sampling technique. In the first
stage, Madurai district has been purposively selected as universe. Secondly the
district has been categorized into rural and urban segments. Thirdly, Out of the
thirteen blocks in the rural segment, only seven blocks namely, Madurai East,
Chellampatti, Thiruppurankundram, Melur, Usilampatti, Thirumangalam, and Alaganallur
were selected for the study, as the number of SHG group formation was the highest in these
blocks. Likewise, from the Municipal corporation, Town Panchayat and municipality areas in
the urban segment, all the three areas were taken in to consideration for the present study.
Thus, finally, a total of 300 SHG members that is 225 from rural segments
and 75 from urban segments were selected for the study.

Construction of the Tools

In order to analyse the Simple percentage, Mean, Garret Ranking Technique have
also been used in the present study.

Orgin of the Study

The origin of Self Help Groups (SHGs) is the brainchild of Grameen Bank of
Bangaladesh, founded by Prof. Mohammed Yunus in 1975, who tried out a new approach to

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rural credit in Bangaladesh. Grameen gave loans without asking borrowers either to provide
collateral or engage in paper work. In India NABARD initiated SHGs in the year 1986-87.
But the real effort was taken after 1991-92 from the linkage of SHGs with the banks. A SHG
is a small economically homogeneous affinity group of the rural poor voluntarily coming
forward to save a small amount of money regularly, which is deposited in a common fund
to meet the members‟ emergency needs and to provide collateral free loans decided by
the group. The SHGs have been recognised as useful tool to help the poor and as an
alternative mechanism to meet the urgent credit needs of poor through thrift (N. Thalavai
pillai and S. Nadarajan 2010).

Working Pattern of Self-Help Groups

 Self Help Group collects deposit from their members and length to needy member
for production purpose and for subsistence and consumption needs.
 Self Help Group also takes loans from banks to meet the needs of their members.
 Non-Government Organization helps the Self Help Group in processing raw
materials and marketing the produce.
 Entire loan amount disbursed to Self Help Group is refinanced by National
Agricultural Bank for Rural Development to the financing bank.

Analysis and Interpretation

SHG members in their socio-economic conditions and other related factor through
the structured interview schedule collected by the researcher. For this purpose the study
conducted for three hundred respondents of the SHG members were selected from various
Self Help Group’s in Madurai District. In this part, the result of Chi–Square test, Garret
ranking and Opinion survey are presented.

Simple Percentage Analysis

Percentage analysis was carried out and interpretation done keeping in mind the
objective of the study.

Garrett Ranking Technique

Under each one dimension, five related aspects have been chosen to measure the
consumers’ attitude. Garrett Ranking Technique has been used to convert the order of
preference given by the sample respondents into ranks. By using the following formula, per
cent position has been calculated and score values have been obtained from Garrett
Ranking Conversion Table.
( . )
Per cent position =

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Where,
- Rank given by the jth individual for ith factor and
- Number of aspects ranked by the jth individual.
Mean Score =

It has been observed that the percentage position for rank preferences 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
are 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 and its score values are 75, 60, 50, 39 and 25 respectively. After
calculating the total scores, mean score of each aspect has been calculated.
The calculated mean score of each aspect has been compared with one another and
analysed accordingly.

Socio - Economic Characteristics of Sample Respondents

This part attempts to analyse the socio-economic profile of the sample
respondents of SHG members of the study area. In order to have a bird’s eye view on the
characteristics of the sample respondents, the following factors have been taken into
consideration for the present study.

Table 1 Age of the Self Help Group Members

S.No Age No of Respondents Percentage (%)
1. 18-30 70 23.3
2. 31-40 116 38.7
3. 41-50 90 30.0
4. Above 50 years 24 8.0
5. Total 300 100
Source: Primary Data

Interpretation
From the above table reveals that out of total respondents taken for the study,
23.3% of them belong to the age group of 18-30 years, 38.7% of the respondents are 31 to
40 years, 30% of them belong to age group of above 41-50 years and remaining 8 % of them
belong to age group of above 50 years. Inference Majority of the respondents falls under
the age group of 31 to 40 years.

Table 2 Educational Status of the Self Help Group Members

S.No Educational Level No of Respondents Percentage (%)
1. Illiterate 63 21.0
2. Literate 237 79.0
Total 300 100
Source: Primary data

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Interpretation Table 2 shows that educational status of the Self Help Group
members, 79% of the members are literate and remaining 21% of the members are
illiterates. In this study, the maximum respondents are literate 79 Percent among 100
Percent.

Table 3 Type of Family Status of the Self Help Group Members

S.No Educational Level No of Respondents Percentage (%)
1. Joint 71 23.7
2. Nuclear 229 76.3
Total 300 100
Source: Primary data

Interpretation Table 3 shows that Family status of the Self Help Group members,
76.3% of the members are Nuclear and remaining 23.7 % of the members are Joint family.

Inference
In this study, the maximum respondents are Nuclear family 76.3 Percent among 100
Percent.

Table 4 Reason for Joining of Self Help Group Members

S.No Reason No of Respondents Percentage (%)
1. To start business 48 16
2. To promote savings 28 9
3. To get credit 97 32
4. To meet household expenses 54 18
5. To strengthen the leadership quality 24 8
6. Compulsion from other members 26 9
7. For other reasons 23 8
Total 300 100
Interpretation
The Reason for joining the self help group as a members, the table 4 shows that
32% of the respondents opinion regarding for to get credit,, the second importance for to
meet household expenses (18%),and remaining to start business, to promote savings, and
others. Inference Most of the respondents are joining for to get credit.

Garret Rank score

Income propagation
Income is an indicator for women empowerment. Increase in income of the
individual or family alleviates the level of poverty and improves the standard of living of the

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people. The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) is assessed with the help of income.
Higher the level of income more will be the PQLI and vice versa. The empowerment of
women is assured only when the level of income increases. In order to understand the
status of empowerment of women particularly with reference to income propagation, the
following income related aspects are taken into consideration for analysis.
Total No
S.No Rank Mean
Aggregate Rank
Factors 1 2 3 4 5 Score
score
Fulfillment
62 67 48 50 300
1 basic 7333660 52.42 2
4680 3996 2145 1245 15726
necessities
Reasonable
income with 82 67 56 55 41 300
2 53.69 1
dignity work 6120 4032 2790 2145 1020 16107
place
Getting out of
71 63 58 61 47 300
3 clutches of 51.86 3
5325 3780 2900 2379 1175 15559
money lender
To create
61 58 68 50 64 300
4 productivity 50.47 4
4545 3456 3390 2145 1605 15141
assets
Elimination of 26 34 38 76 126 300
5 37.37 5
rural poverty 1980 2016 1920 2145 3150 11211
The above table furnishes the Garret’s Scores. The highest score is awarded to
Reasonable income with dignity in work place. The least score is awarded to Elimination of
rural poverty. It is inferred that “Reasonable income with dignity in work place” is the
important factor of self help group.
Findings
 Majority of the respondents falls under the age group of 31 to 40 years.
 The maximum respondents are literate 79 Percent among 100 Percent.
 The maximum respondents are Nuclear family 76.3 Percent among 100 Most of the
respondents are joining for to get credit
 Reasonable income with dignity in work place is the important factor of self help
group.

Suggestions
 The self help groups and its importance must be implementing as lesson of text book
among school; level education.
 Self Help Group is powerful tool to enrich the savings activities and poverty alleviation.
In this context to support by the government and uplift the women through Self Help
Group oriented developments.

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 More schemes can be introduced by the government and it has not be communicated
and advertised proper way to reach the Self Help Groups. So the Non Government
Oganisations and other support agencies to deals with Self Help Group with periodical
intervals. In the aspects, Self Help Group members more satisfied and benefited.
 In order to strength the women empowerment, female literacy has to be promoted

Conclusion
Empowering women puts the spot light on education and employment
which are an essential element to sustainable development. A women is said to be
powerful only when she has a control over a large portion of power resources in the
society. The study reveals that it is possible through SHG. But as of date, women were
lacking behind in so many factors in realising empowerment. So attention by the
government as well as other agencies should be needed to improve their empowerment. It is
hoped that the study might be useful to the policy makers, academicians and the government
for their future course of action. If the study helps the planners and researchers to fulfill
their goals even in a humble way, the researcher will feel that she has been amply
rewarded.

Reference
1. Lakshmikantan K.R., “SHGs in the Life of Rural Poor - A Case Study”, Women’s ink, April-
June 2000, pp. 12-13.
2. Kundu K.K., K.S. Sha, U.K. Pandey and Kusum Jain, “Sustainable Micro Financing Through
SHGs in Gurgaon District (Haryana)”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 56,
No. 3, July-September, 2001, p. 483. Kurukshetra, Vol.54, No.9, July 2006.
3. Challapathi B.V., Raghavulu., and Hari Prasad P., ‘Gender Equality and Empowerment
of Women, Southern Economist’, Professor of Public Administration, Directorate of
Distance Education, S.V.University, Tirupathi, July15, 2008 PP. 27-30.
4. Kolte. SB, Pronoti Luise and Anjali Vaidya, ‘Women Empowerment. A Study of Hinkani
Women’s Mutli State Dairy Co-operative’, Journal of Commerce
and Management thought Vol.I, No.3, July, 2010. PP. 285-295.
5. Sreenivasa Rao, D and G. Jeyarajulu, ‘Empowerment of women Through DWCRA
Programme A Study on Rayalaseema Region: AP ‘Southern Economist 51st year of
Publications, May, 15, 2012 PP45-49.

Web Site
1. www.google.com
2. www.wikipedia .com

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