Mapping Empowerment: How SHG Penetration Aligns with Women’s Economic, Social, and Political Agency in India

This thesis examines the relationship between Self-Help Group (SHG) penetration and district-level indicators of women’s empowerment across India. Drawing on data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), and the Census, it evaluates whether districts with higher SHG density exhibit improved economic, social, and political outcomes for women. Contrary to initial expectations, SHG penetration is negatively or only weakly associated with several empowerment indicators. These patterns reflect the structural conditions of districts in which SHGs are concentrated—particularly higher levels of poverty and lower baseline development—rather than the effects of the programs themselves. As a result, district-level correlations primarily capture underlying disadvantage rather than localized impacts of SHGs. These findings highlight the limitations of using aggregate indicators to evaluate community-based empowerment interventions and underscore the challenges of measuring micro-level change with macro-level data. The analysis is limited by its cross-sectional design and inability to capture within-district variation or establish causal relationships.