Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurial Activities of Self Help Groups

Empowerment in the context of women’s development is a way of defining, challenging and overcoming barriers in a woman’s life through which she increases her ability to shape her life and environment. It is an active, multidimensional process, which should enable women to realize their full identity and power in all spheres of life. India envisions a future in which Indian women are independent and self-reliant. It is unfortunate that because of centuries of inertia, ignorance and conservatism, the actual and potential role of women in the society has been ignored, preventing them from making their rightful contribution to social progress. It is also because of distorted and/or partial information about their contribution to family and society that they are denied their rightful status and access to developmental resources and services contributing to their marginalization. Studies have shown that rural women help in producing upto 80 per cent of food in developing countries, yet they are entitled to only a fraction of farm land, and access to just 10 per cent of credit and five per cent of extension advice (Agrawal, 2003). Women must be empowered by enhancing their awareness, knowledge; skills and technology use efficiency, thereby, facilitating overall development of the society. The concept of Self Help Groups (SHGs) is proving to be a helpful instrument for the women empowerment. SHG is an organization of rural poor, particularly of women that deliver micro credit to undertake the entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship development and income generating activities are a feasible solution for empowering women. It generates income and also provides flexible working hours according to the needs of homemakers. Economic independence is the need of the hour. Participation in income generating activities helps in the overall empowerment of women. Thus to investigate the empowerment of women through entrepreneurial activities of self help groups, this particular research was conducted with the specific objective to investigate the empowerment.