Economic Participation and Self-Help Groups: Pathways to Empowerment among Rongmei Women

It looks at self-help groups as a major, transformational resource to support the economic opportunities and strength of Rongmei women in Northeast India. Through the use of primary data gathered from Swangdwang Nidhi Limited and secondary data from the RNBA Development Organisation Report (2019–2020), the study suggests that SHGs are a form of bottom-up infrastructure for increasing financial inclusion, economic diversification in means of livelihood, and collective empowerment. SHGs, according to this study, enabled women to be involved in sources of income such as mushroom growing, livestock husbandry, weaving, tailoring, and food processing, affecting household economies and eliminating dependency. Empowering women to make economic decisions requires supportive institutional systems related to training, skills development, and market linkages. Indeed, the reports highlight longstanding struggles such as poverty, lack of social opportunities, and perpetuation of ‘traditional’ behaviour such as rice beer production, which is detrimental to women’s health and self-determination, especially in certain communities such as the Silchar Valley. In the face of these restrictions, SHGs have been crucial in democratizing women’s right to access resources, land, and leadership, and this has had wide-ranging socio-economic relevance when considering social or economic mobility among women and community growth. Furthermore, governmental programs like DAY-NRLM, as well as organisations like NABARD, support the SHG movement even more. The research points out that SHGs are, in fact, not only financial units but interactive platforms for self-reliance and social solidarity to facilitate the social integration and sustainable development of Rongmei females. In this way, the study brings us closer to the debate at the international level about women’s economic empowerment by situating the SHGs in the socio-cultural and economic structure of tribal areas.