Women Empowerment through Participation in Self Help Groups (SHGs): A Way towards Achieving Sustainable Development

Goal 5 of the SDGs targets achieving gender equality and promotes women empowerment. Since women constitute 50% of the population, issues related to their social, economic and political empowerment are integral to each of the 17 goals. Government of India, in its Ninth Five Year Plan (1997–2002) introduced the Self-Help Group (SHG) model as a core strategy for the empowerment of women and since then it has emerged as one of the largest and fastest-growing microfinance programs in the developing world. The present study aims to study the functioning of the SHGs, and the perception of SHG participants about their empowerment in terms of education, economic, social and political. The study is based on Surulia village, in Purulia District of West Bengal and includes 100 SHG members. Results revealed that SHG participation has benefitted the members significantly with 82% respondents agreeing to improvement in their reading and writing skills, 90% women agreeing to increased family income after joining the SHGs and 46% women have gained awareness about women’s rights over property. However, despite these achievements SHG participation has not led to any significant improvement in terms of political empowerment among these women.