Socio-economic Empowerment of Women through Self Help Groups Nagaland, India

A study was conducted to understand the impact of SHGs on the socio-economic status of rural women in Nagaland, India from October, 2021 to February, 2022 (four months duration). Nagaland is the 16th state of India which was inaugurated on 1st of December 1963. A total of 40 active SHGs were purposively selected from 6 villages, taking 3 members from each SHG making a total of 120 respondents. Descriptive research design and a multistage sampling method was adopted for this study. Findings revealed that, SHGs were engaged in income generating activities like selling of agricultural produce, pickles, nursery raising, cushion making, etc. 99.17% of the respondents reported slight improvement in communication; 100.00% of the respondents reported medium level of improvement in self-confidence and decision-making ability; 70.00% of the respondents showed medium level of innovativeness; 80.00% of the respondents reported medium level improvement in achievement motivation and risk orientation. In overall socio-economic empowerment, majority (84.17%) of the respondents were moderately empowered, 8.33% were highly empowered and 7.50% of the respondents showed low level of empowerment. The major constraints identified were low market value of their produce; lack of technical skill; insufficient training programmes and difficulty in raising finance. Thus, the study recommended that, capacity building programmes, skill set development in managing and marketing by focussing on in-depth trainings and education in entrepreneurial behaviour can help the women members develop various skills and empower them. These programmes can also motivate them to take their role as an SHG member seriously.