Women’s Group Initiatives:

A Path to Empowerment and Gender Equality

 

Susanta Chand¹, Ratul Saha²

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Kashipur M.M. Mahavidyalaya,

Kashipur, Purulia, Pin 723132 West Bengal.

²Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Sonamukhi College,

P.O. Sonamukhi, Dist. Bankura Pin. 722207 West Bengal.

 

ABSTRACT:

Women’s empowerment is a multidimensional process which should enable the individual or a group of individuals to realize their full identity and powers in all spheres of life. It consists of greater access to knowledge and resources, greater autonomy in decision making to enable them to have greater control over the circumstances that influence their lives and free them from shackles imposed on them by custom, belief and practices. Empowerment is a process that involves intellectual enlightens, economic enrichment and social emancipation on the part of women. Self Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as major agents of development and empowerment of weaker sections in the thirds world. In India, since the beginning of the Ninth Plan, most of the development programmed are channeled through SHGs. There is a common perception that women who join SHGs are not only become economically empowered but becomes powerful in many ways. They gain a say in family matters and their social status is enhanced. Under this circumstance in the present paper an attempt has been made to judge at what extent SHGs contribute to the improvement of women awareness and overall development or empowerment of women. . In our study 15 SHGs formed under SGSY (now re-structured as NRLM) have been selected by applying stratified random sampling method form the Bankura District of West Bengal and at the same time we have also tried to judge the awareness level of 50 poor adult females selected randomly from 50 Non SHG households in the same District. All the SHG and Non SHG households belong to BPL category. The study concluded that the non-SHG households suffer worst and women empowerment of the SHG households is still in process at the moderate level.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Micro finance through SHGs is now recognized as a key strategy for addressing issues of poverty alleviation and women’s development. Micro finance in the form of Self help group (SHG) linkage model has been able to inspire hope in the lives of thousands of rural poor, particularly rural women and enable them to contribute to their families’ well being through savings and borrowings. Through the generation of self employment and income the rural women are able to reduce poverty. Microfinance influences the quality of life of the rural women by providing easy finance. It is considered to be a powerful tool for empowering rural poor women by shifting them from debt-trap of informal credit sources to formal credit system. Although it is generally hoped that women’s access to credit through the microfinance route can empower women, the empirical evidence so far provided in support of this view is mixed.

 

For example, Hashemi, Schuler and Riley (1996) find that access to microfinance increases “women’s mobility, ability to make purchases and major household decisions, ownership of productive assets, legal and political awareness, and participation in public campaigns and protests”. Pitt, Khandker and Cartwright (2006) find positive effects of microfinance on women’s autonomy in purchasing decisions, women’s access to financial and economic resources, the size of women’s social networks, greater freedom of mobility for women and greater likelihood that the women initiate discussion with the husband about family planning. Ashraf, Karlan and Yin (2008) find that access to a commitment savings product leads to increased purchases of female-oriented durable goods (e.g. washing machine, sewing machine, stoves etc.) as opposed to other durables such as vehicles, recreational goods etc.

 

However, some studies find no or negative effects of microfinance access on women empowerment. Armendariz and Roome (2008) cite anecdotal evidence that female access to microfinance with male exclusion may have perverse effects on women’s empowerment. Pitt et al (1999) find that women’s access to microfinance may sometimes have a positive effect on fertility and no impact on contraceptive use. Rahman (1999) finds that a majority of women borrowers of Grameen Bank experienced increased spousal conflict and aggression (both verbal and physical). Garikipati (2008) in a study of two drought prone villages in India finds negative empowerment impacts on women’s work time allocation as well as control over minor finances. Banerjee et al (2010) in his study of Spandana finds no significant impact of microfinance on measures of women’s decision-making over issues of household spending, investment, savings, or education.

 

Given the mixed evidence of the literature on women empowerment effects of microfinance, more empirical evidence will be useful to shed light on the issue. With the help of primary sources of data, this paper makes an effort towards illustrating the role of micro-finance in empowering the rural women.

 

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

1)    To find out the workability of the microfinance and SHG in the present socio economic scenario in the proposed area.

2)    To find out the kinds of empowerment (economic and social awareness) those have been achieved by the SHGs members.

3)    To find out the socio-economic status of the other poor families in the proposed areas who are not yet been come under in the microfinance network.

4)    To examine whether the parameters caste, religion and education have any impact on the performance of SHGs with respect to women empowerment.

 

SELECTION OF GROUP:

To examine whether the parameters caste, religion, education and sex have any impact on the performance of SHGs with respect to women empowerment we have taken 15 SHGs on the basis of the caste, religion and education in the study area. We try to present these through table 1.

 

Table 1 SHGs under different parameters

 

Thus as a whole we have taken 5 SHGs from each of the strata that we consider for stratification. On the other hand the average number of SGH members of our sample is 10.93.

 

METHODOLOGY OF MEASURING EMPOWERMENT:

It is not an easy task to measure women empowerment in a patriarchal society where women often thought that their husbands are the crowns on their heads. Another important barrier is the incidence of education among the members under our enquiry. Considering all short comings, we use a four-point rating scale to measure the empowerment on the basis of awareness or perception. Accordingly, we have interrogated 164 female SHG members with 26 questions to elicit their knowledge on educational awareness, economic awareness and socio-cultural awareness. On the other hand, we have already mentioned that we have considered 50 non-SHG poor households who belong to BPL category form the same district for the purpose of the present study. For the collection of the relevant data, we have used two types of specially prepared schedules. One is the schedule used to collect detail information about the working of the SHGs and we name this schedule as SHG-schedule. The other one is the household schedule. We use this schedule to collect information from the 164 households of the sample.

 

We have assigned weight on the awareness scale as given in Table 2.

 

Table 2 Awareness Scale

Score/Weight	Degree of awareness
0	No Awareness
1	Very Low Awareness
2	Moderate Awareness
3	Good Awareness

 

We have calculated awareness indices at various levels by using the following weighted index formula:

 

                   ∑ WS

AI =       -----------

                    MS

Where, AI= Awareness Index,

∑WS= Sum of the Weighted Score

MS= Maximum Score

 

Weighted score for any level is the sum of the product of weight and the corresponding frequency. On the other hand, maximum score is the sum of the score if all members have good awareness. Thus the value of the awareness index lies between ‘zero’ and ‘one’. If the value of awareness index is zero it simply means that the member has no awareness. Again, if the value of the awareness index is unity it means all the members are in good awareness situation.

 

We have also assigned the calculated index value to the variables considered for measuring four different kinds of awareness in the following manner as given in Table 3.

 

Table 3Awareness by Index Value

Index Value	Awareness Level
0.000---0.199	Very Low
0.200--- 0.499	Low
0.500---0.799	Moderate
0.800---1.000	Good

 

SOCIO-CULTURAL AWARENESS AND EMPOWERMENT:

Socio-cultural awareness is an important index that to be developed in the society particularly to disappear the social prejudice that exists in the rural society of our country. Microfinance programme pursued through SHG is a collective effort of group participants. The awareness on socio-cultural issues is being measured with the help of the following variables:

a)     Better Access to Education (BAE)

b)    Decision Making in the Households (DMH)

c)     Improvement in Self-Employment potential (ISEP)

d)    Control on Household Resources (CHR)

e)     Voice Against Social Exploitation (VASE)

f)     Improvement in Status in the society (ISS)

 

Table 4 Awareness Indices on Socio Cultural Issues

Households		BAE	DMH	ISEP	CHR	VASE	ISS
SHG	Schedule Caste	0.542	0.448	0.542	0.530	0.415	0.604
	Muslim	0.404	0.465	0.505	0.432	0.321	0.535
	Educated	0.858	0.768	0.788	0.744	0.714	0.818
SHG Total		0.601	0.560	0.612	0.569	0.483	0.652
Non- SHG Total		0.124	0.086	0.067	0.047	0.058	0.073

 

Footnotes:

1.     Schedule Cast Group: It consists of the members where at least 80 percent of members belong to SC/ST cast including the three key persons President, Secretary and Cashier.

2.     Muslim Group: It consists of the members where at least 80 percent of members are Muslim including the three key persons President, Secretary and Cashier.

3.     Educated group : It consist of the members where at least 80 percent of members of the group have successfully completed the eight years of education or more including the three key persons President, Secretary and Cashier.

 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

a)    Better Access to Education (BAE):

Education develops different types of abilities in a person and broadens the outlook. A member should have minimum basic knowledge of calculation for financial dealings, maintaining records of her financial transactions and concept of banking process so that she can visit a bank independently and confidently. In this way a member who joins SHGs, supposed to have a better access of education. However, the Table 4 elicits clearly that the member of our SHGs in total are in moderate awareness level. This is measured with the help of the first variable DAE. The members of the Muslim SHGs remain at the lower awareness category.

 

b)    Decision Making in the Households (DMH):

Microfinance is able to empower women to become more confident, more assertive, more likely to participate in family and community decision and better able to confront systemic gender inequalities (Littlefield et. al 2003). The member’s perception on their role in the decision making in the family matters is expected to improve after joining the SHGs. This is measured with the help of the first variable DMH. The index values of the variable DMH also indicates that the SHG members in total are relatively at moderate level of participation in decision making process.

 

c)     Improvement in Self-Employment potential (ISEP):

Microfinance to Self Help Groups may be considered as a vital option for meeting the financial needs of the poorer section of the society in the one hand and on the other hand this tiny amount of finance may also be used as small employment generation activities within the household (Robinson, 2001, p. 30). The members are supposed to use the loan taken under bank linkage programme for productive purposes and that too mostly for self-employment purposes. Though awareness in this regard has improved, but the value of ISEP reflects that it is still now in moderate level for SHG members.

 

d)    Control on Household Resources (CHR):

Normally, formation of SHGs is supposed to improve borrowing capacity, investment pattern, communication skills and decision-making power of the members. These in turn have to improve control on household resources and self-confidence of the members. Women’s access to credit increases asset holding in their own names increases their purchasing power, and their political and legal awareness (Hashemi et.al 1996). The index values of CHR also reflect that awareness level is at low awareness level for Muslim members and moderate for SHG members in total.

 

e)     Voice Against Social Exploitation (VASE):

A self confident woman having awareness about her rights does not tolerate the undue troubles created by other member of the society. She is supposed to raise her voice against the common problems and exploitation against of any kind like child marriage, dowry, drug addiction, injustice and domestic violence. Women’s access to credit strengthens their bargaining power within the household, improves their perception of self-worth and can lead to a long term decrease in domestic violence (Kabeer 1998). However, some of the women are hesitant and do not take these activities themselves and they remain lagged. We find from the above table that awareness level regarding social exploitation is just behind the moderate level i.e. at low level of awareness.

 

f)     Improvement in Status in the society (ISS):

SHG activities encourage and offer an opportunity to their members to go to the banks, to visit other places for acquiring skills, training and exhibiting their products in various fairs and exhibitions. Exposures of the members in the programme increase their confidence. In this way their statuses in the family and in the society improve. Microfinance by providing material capital to a poor person, their sense of dignity is strengthened and this can help to empower the person to participate in the economy and society (Otero 1999). We also find moderate level of awareness of the members regarding improvement in status either in the family or in the society.

 

Thus, we can say, socio-cultural awareness among the SHG members is not so strong. Out of the six explanatory variables the index values of one variable remain at a low awareness level and rest five are in moderate level if we consider SHG members in total. Again, among the different categories of groups Socio cultural awareness is highest for educated groups followed by Schedule Caste and Muslim groups. Out of six explanatory variables two variables of the educated group are in good awareness level. For the Muslim and Schedule Caste group the number reduces zero.

 

If we consider the Non SHG members then we find that all the explanatory variables are at very low awareness level. We have tried to judge their improvement in status in the family or in the society during the last five or six years. But the outcome is unsatisfactory. So, there is no denying that SHG activities empower women though there is variation on the basis of the cast, religion and level of education of the members.

 

CONCLUSION:

The study concluded that the non-SHG households suffer worst and women empowerment of the SHG households is still in process at the moderate level. So, there is a need for first bringing all the poor women under the umbrella of SHG and special care should be taken for improving skill, educational level of the SHG members so that they can achieve more economic benefit from SHG activities.

 

However, there is no denying that Microfinance Institutions have achieved considerable success in establishing equitable access to financial resources for women but the success rate is uneven among the different groups based on education, caste and religion in enhancing the social, political, economic and educational awareness and empowering of women. In most of the cases educated groups have succeed to achieve more score compared to other groups and empowerment level is lowest among Muslim groups in our study area. Thus, challenges lies in further improving, adopting and innovating the policies on the priority basis for more equitable treatment of women and children in the society. The problem of male influence or interference is also one of the most difficult challenges related to working with women as microfinance clients and in enhancing their level of empowerment. Thus, the receipt of the loan is not a guarantee of the overall empowerment of women though this economic empowerment might be considered as an entry point of overall empowerment of women.

 

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Received on 20.02.2025      Revised on 05.03.2025 Accepted on 20.03.2025      Published on 19.03.2025 Available online from March 28, 2025 Res. J. of Humanities and Social Sciences. 2025;16(1):28-32. DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2025.00006 ©AandV Publications All right reserved
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