The development and welfare of the rural women
has become a major concern for the Indian government. The
government has undertaken many measures to ensure a better
status to rural women, to utilize their untapped potential for
national development and to bring them into the spectrum of
economic development. One such measure is formation of Self
Help Groups among rural women which is a viable measure in
achieving the objective of women empowerment. Therefore,
the present study makes an attempt to evaluate the impact of
microcredit through Self Help Groups on economic
empowerment in the rural areas of Punjab State. The study
used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was
collected from 106 leaders and 318 members of SHGs from the
area under study. The secondary data was collected from
various published sources of central and state government.
The study shows that microcredit has significantly improved
the income of the women respondents which in turn has
increased their participation in household decisions. This
impact is more among large borrowers than small borrowers.
Thus, microcredit has strengthened the women empowerment.
The results of regression analysis indicate that the impact of
microcredit is highly significant and established positive
relationship with empowerment index in the rural area of
Punjab. Thus, women mobilization towards Self Help Groups
should be encouraged through the process of motivation which
will lead to empowerment and is very essential for their
upliftment and overall economic development of the country.
Moreover, the problems like delay in sanction of loan,
inadequate loan size, lack of skill based training and difficulties
in marketing the product must be addressed for effective
working and sustainability of SHGs in the state of Punjab.