Impact of Micro-finance on Socioe-conomic Aspects of SHG Women (A Study in East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh)

Microfinance in India started in the early 1980s with small efforts at forming informal self-help groups (SHG) to provide access to much-needed savings and credit services. From this small beginning, the microfinance sector has grown significantly in the past decades. It is important to distinguish between the functions of microfinance and the potential it carries to improve the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people. The core function of a microfinance programme is to provide financial services, to reach poor women and men and give them access to savings and credit. The main aim of this paper is to study the impact of micro-finance on the socio-economic status of SHG women. In this purpose East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh has been selected and 5 mandals randomly observed for data collection and from which 400 SHG women randomly selected. However, the potential of microcredit goes beyond the provision of financial services to poor and vulnerable people. This distinction helps design microcredit programmes more effectively, because while the smooth functioning of microfinance is dependent on the stability of economic institutions such as banks and money-lending organizations, the potential of microfinance is dependent on the health of social and socio-economic institutions such as social norms, patriarchy and education. As women are the key actors in the microfinance system, this distinction becomes not just important, but necessary.