Empowerment of Rural Poor in India through SHGs

Dr. S.N. Kulkarni1 & Ashalata Sonawane2

1

Professorenior Emeritus, Wordss Institute of Research & Development studies, Nashik E-mail: [email protected] 2 Assistant Professor, MVPs KKW Pimpalgaon, Baswant Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Self Help Groups represent a unique approach to financial intermediation. The approach combines access to low cost financial services with a process of self management and development for the women who are SHG members. Through SHGs, participation of women in the countrys economic development is increasing. They also play an important role in elevating the economic status of their families. This has led boost to the process of women empowerment. This paper discusses the role of Microfinance in Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme, emergence of micro-finance as a tool of poverty alleviation programme, micro-finance for women, global scenario of micro finance and its progress in India till recent times. Self Help Group concept has been mooted along the rural and semi urban women to improve their living conditions. Even though SHG concept is applicable to men also in our country, it has been more successful only among women. They can start economic activities through SHG movement. In India, this scheme is implemented with the help of NABARD as a main nodal agency in rural development. It is self employment generation scheme for especially rural women, who dont have their own assets. In the latter part of this article, status of SHGs in India is discussed. In this part, physical growth of SHGs, growth of saving amount, growth of loan amount, position of outstanding, current status of SHGs, SHGs under SGSY and exclusively women SHGs in India is discussed. Finally, the position of SHGs in the country as it stands today seems to pose certain problems for the SHGs themselves, the funding agencies and the policy-makers as well.

Keywords: Rural poor, Self Help Group, women empowerment, NABARD

INTRODUCTION Self Help Group is now well established and accepted globally in general and in India, in particular. Self Help Groups represent a unique approach to financial intermediation. The approach combines access to low cost financial services with a process of self management and development for the women who are SHG members. Through SHGs, participation of women in the countrys economic development is increasing. They also play an important role in elevating the economic status of their families. This has led boost to the process of women empowerment. VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 42 ISSN 2277-1182

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Bangladesh has been acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of micro finance. Dr. Mahmud Yunus, Professor of Economics in Chitgaon University of Bangladesh, was an initiator of an action project Grameen Bank. The project started in 1976. The Grameen Bank provides loans to landless poor, particularly women, to promote self employment. This project becomes successful and India has adopted the Bangladesh model in modified form. To alleviate the poverty and to empower the women, the microfinance, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and credit management groups have also started in India. Role of Microfinance in Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme Some 80 percent of worlds 4.5 billion people living in low and lower middle income economies do not have access to farmer sectors financial services. Among these, 3.6 billion households account for the unmet demand for commercial savings or credit services from financial institutions.1 They estimate potential clients for microfinance. The average productivity of these household could be increased substantially with access to appropriate institution-saving credit services delivered locally because the benefits of financial services delivered locally because the benefits of financial services would also extend to the dependants of microfinance clients. The economic activities and the quality of life more than 18 billion people could be improved by providing them with local access to formal commercial microfinance. This is not a scale that can be reached by government or donor funded institutions.2 Microfinance demand can be met on a global scale only through the provision of financial services by self sufficient institutions. 1. What is Microfinance? In the past decades, the world has realised that the poor are bankable and poor women are the most trustworthy in providing financial services. Microfinance can be robustly sustainable. When the model is right, the growth of microfinance is fast. Worldwide microfinance institutions have grown 13 to 15 percent in the last decade. But still, in India two third of population does not have a basic bank accounts. Access and efficient provision of savings, credit and insurance facilities help the poor to match their income and expenditure. Microfinance can provide an effective way to assist and empower poor women, who make up a significant proportion of the poor and suffer disproportionately from poverty. According to Asian Development Bank Microfinance is the provision of broad range of financial services such as deposit, loans, payment services, money transfers and insurance to poor and low income household and their micro enterprises.3 Institutional microfinance is defined to include microfinance services provided by both formal and semiformal institution. Microfinance institutions are defined as institutions whose measure business is the provision of microfinance. Micro-credit is defined as the Programmes that provide credit for self empl oyment and business services including saving and technical assistance to the persons (World Bank VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 43 ISSN 2277-1182

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1997). Theoretically micro credit means making provision for smaller working capital loans to the poor to take up micro enterprises like daisy farming, poultry rearing, weaving, handloom, handicrafts and other small household business etc. Micro credit is a system of alternate banking for a large segment of the poor particularly women, landless labourers, rural artisans etc. Who have neither savings nor any collateral to be able to have access to formal credit institutions.4 In the task Force Report the microfinance is defined as the provision of thrift, credit and other financial services and products of very small amounts to the poor in the rural, semi-urban areas for enabling them to raise their income levels and improve leaving standards5. Presently most poor households rely on informal resources for finance, which limits their abilities to actively participate in the benefit from the development opportunities. Microfinance contributes to the development of overall financial system through integration and financial market. Microfinance is economic instrument to empower women in rural Indian. It has been given relief to them from the clutches of informal loans. 2. Emergence of Microfinance One of the successful models discussed around the Grameen Bank, has successfully served the rural poor in Bangladesh. Group approach is not new in development process. Non-governmental organizations have been using this tool for working with the rural poor. For the last twenty years they are using this approach for economic empowerment of poor since 1992, with the initiative RBI, and launching of the pilot project by NABARD. The formal banking sector started adopting this approach for extending credit to the un-bankable sections of the poor. SHG bank linkage concept was evolved by Asia Specific Regional Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) and German Agency for Technical Cooperation during the workshop in Nanjing in China in 1986 and the action projects were implemented in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India7. In India the NABARD the apex financial institution with exclusive focus on integrated rural development supported in 1986-87, a MYRADA (Mysore Resettlement Development Agency) sponsored action research projects on savings and credits management of SHGs for assessing its efficacy to help the groups. Encouraged by the results, NABARD launch a pilot project in 1991-92 on linking SHGs with banks. The objectives of the pilot project were, 1. To evolve supplementary credit strategies for meeting the credit needs of the poor. 2. To build mutual trust and confidence between the bankers and the rural people. 3. To encourage banking activity both on the savings as well as credit side in a segment of the population that the formal credit institutions usually find difficult to cover. Steady progress of the pilot project led to the mainstreaming of the SHG bank linkage programme in 1996 as a normal lending activity of the banks with wide spread VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 44 ISSN 2277-1182

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acceptance. A working group on NGOs and SHGs headed by the Managing Director of NABARD, Mr. S. K. Kalia set up by RBI gave some recommendations in April 1996 for improving the Microfinance system: the important recommendations adopted by RBI for a follow up by the banks are as follows: 6 1 2 3 4 5 SHG linkage is treated as a separate segment under the priority sector. The programme is made part of the services area approach and lead bank scheme. Service area norms for SHGs are relaxed. Uniform documentation for SHG lending is introduced. RBI to review the SHG lending by banks every six months.

6 The concept is made at part of the regular training curriculum of Banks. While microfinance as a means to empower poor has been quite successful in India, the utilization of credit for adequate income and employment generation is a cause of concern for most of the stakeholders. Though the microfinance was intended to provide sustainable access to the unbanked poor, the question often being posed by different stake holders is what next? 7 3. Evolution of Microfinance for Women At the outset, poor did not have access to the formal financial institution as their formalities were cumbersome and required collateral. Formal institutions also did not favour financing the poor, as it involved high transaction cost and high risk. To a larger extend, money lenders catered to the needs of the poor, charging exorbitant rates of interest. Then, ROSCAS (Rotating Saving and Credits Associations) emerged to lend to the members in rotation. In 1950s bank started giving subsidized loans. But, that was not sustainable, as it eroded the capital base of the banks. In 1970s, group based lending methodologies, many donor agencies launch the microfinance programmes in various countries targeting poor women. Micro-credit summit campaign held in Washington between 2nd Feb and 4th Feb 1997, targeted to reach 100 million of worlds poorest families especially the women of those families, with credit for self employment by the year 2005.During the summit, various councils had been formed viz., Council of Governments, Council of Practitioners, Council of NGOs, Council of Donors and Council of Banks and action plan evolved. The summit secretariat organises the regional council meet and paves the way for formulating strategies for scaling up the programmes to cover more number of poorest families and monitors the implementation of the institutional action plan submitted by the various stakeholders. As per the state of microcredit summit report 2004(as on 31/12/03), there were 2931MFIS in the world and they reached 80,868,343 clients, out of which, the poorest comprises 54,785,433 and the women constitute 45.2 million (82.5percent).There are 1.2 billion very poor in the world, who live on less than 1$ income a day. Out of this 67percent of the very poor live in Asia. 8 The reach of microfinance to the poorest clients VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 45 ISSN 2277-1182

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as of Dec. 2003 is better in Asia compared to the other regions in the world as per the following table.9 Table 1.1. Coverage of the Poorest with Microfinance as of Dec 2003 Total Poorest Households in Million 157.9 61.5 12.1 3.5 234.9 Poorest Reached in Million 48.8 4.8 1.1 0.06 54.76 Coverage in percent 30.9 7.8 9.1 1.7 23.3

Region Asia Africa and Middle East Latin America and Caribbean Europe and NIS Total

Source: State of Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2004, Microcredit Summit Campaign Secretariat, Washington In India, the microfinance delivery model is based on the SHGs. The growth is excellent and it is transforming the lives of the rural women from bitter to better.10 STATUS OF SHGs IN INDIA Bangladesh has been acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of micro finance. Dr. Mahmud Yunus, Professor of Economics in Chitgaon University of Bangladesh, was an initiator of an action project Grameen Bank. The project started in 1976. The Grameen Bank provides loans to landless poor, particularly women, to promote self employment. This project becomes successful and India has adopted the Bangladesh model in modified form. To alleviate the poverty and to empower the women, the microfinance, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and credit management groups have also started in India. The Self-Help Group programme, in past eighteen years, has become a well known tool for bankers, developmental agencies and even for corporate houses SHGs in many ways, have gone beyond the means of delivering the financial services as channel and turned out to be focal point for purveying various services to the poor. The programme, over a period, has become the common vehicle in the development process. With the small beginning as a pilot programme launched by NABARD by linking 255 SHGs with banks in 1992, the programme has reached to linking of 69.5 Lakh saving linked SHGs and 48.5 Lakh credit linked SHGs and thus about 9.7 Crore households are covered under the programme as on 2010. This has resulted near about seven increase in the number of credit linked SHGs during the period 2005 to 2010. 1. Physical Growth of SHGs in India Physical growth of shgs in over all india is shown table 4.1: physical growth of shgs in the following table:

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Table 1.2. Year wise Number of SHGs in India (2004-05 to 2009-10) Year 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Number of SHGs 1068697 2238565 2924973 5009794 6121147 6959250 Growth Rate 109.47 30.66 71.28 22.2 13.6

Source : NABARD Report 2004-05 to 2009-10)11 In Table1.2, it is shown that how the number of SHGs are increased in the period 200506 to 2009-10. In 2004-05, 10, 68,697 SHGs were linked with the banks. In 2005-2006 the number of SHGs has been increased by 109.47 growth rate i.e. 22, 38,565. In the year 2006-07 growth rate was 30.66, in 2007-2008 growth rate was 71.28 in 2008-09 growth rate was 22.2 and in 2009-10 Growth rate is 13.6. The variation is grater in growth rate. 2. Current Status of SHGs (2009-10) (a) Physical Status 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Total number of SHGs saving: Linked with banks Out of total (of which) exclusive Women SHGs Out of total (of which) SGSY SHGs Total number of SHGs credit linked Out of total (of which) SGSY during 2009-10 SHGs credit linked 7. Total number of SHGs having loans outstanding as on 31st March 2010 of which SGSY SHGs 8. Estimated number of families covered up to 31st March 2010. (b) Financial Status (Figures in Rs. Crore) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Total savings amount of SHGs with banks as on 31st March 2010 Out of total savings of exclusive women SHGs Out of total savings of SGSY SHGs Total amount of loans disbursed to SHGs during 2009-10 Out of total loans disbursed to women SHGs during 2009-10 Out of total disbursed to SGSY SHGs Total amount of loans outstanding against SHGs as on 31st March 2010 9. Out of total loans outstanding against women SHGs VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 47 Rs.6198.71 Rs. 4498.7 Rs.1292.62 Rs.14453.3 Rs.12429.4 Rs. 2198.0 Rs.28038.3 Rs.23030.36 69.53 Lakh 53.10 Lakh 16.94 Lakh 15.87 Lakh 2.67 Lakh 48.51 Lakh 12.45 Lakh 97 million

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10. Out of total loans outstanding against SGSY SHGs 11. Average loan amount outstanding per SHG as on March10 (Rs.) 12. Average loan amount outstanding per member as on 31st March 2010 (Rs.) 3. Participating Banks Commercial Banks (public) Foreign Banks + Private Banks Regional Rural Banks Co-operative Banks Small Industries Development Bank of India 4. Support from NABARD (i) Capacity building of partner institutions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Number of programmes conducted during 2009-10 Number of participants covered during 2009-10 Cumulative number of participants trained up to March 2010 Grant support during the year 2009-10 Cumulative fund support up to March 2010

Rs. 6251.08 Rs. 57795 Rs.4128

27 19 81 318 1

6804 2.54 Lakh 24.55 Lakh 9.93 Crore 45.02 Crore

(ii) Refinance Support 1. Refinance to banks during 2009-10 2. Cumulative refinance released up to 31.03.2010 (iii) Revolving Fund Assistance to MFIs 1. 2. 3. 4. RFA released to MFIs during the year Cumulative RFA released to MFIs up to 31 March 2010 Capital support released to MFIs during the year Cumulative Capital support to MFIs up to 31 March 2010 Rs.22.55 Crore Rs.55.49 Crore Rs.7.87 Crore Rs.24.86 Crore Rs.28.78 Crore Rs.107.66 Crore Rs. 15.83 Lakh Rs.3173.56 crore Rs.12861.65 crore

(iv) Grant of Assistance to SHPIs for promotion of SHGs 1. Grant assistance sanctioned during 2009-10 2. Cumulative sanctions up to 31st March 2010 3. Grant assistance for rating of MFIs during 2009-10 Source: NABARD Report 2009-10 p9. I-II 12 Current Position of Women SHGs in India (2009-10) Self Help Group concept has been mooted along the rural and semi urban women to improve their living conditions. Even though SHG concept is applicable to men also in our country, it has been more successful only among women. They can start economic activities through SHG movement. Even with the limited monetary help the members of SHGs could expand their horizon of productive activities which have become their means of living. Not only economic upliftment took place with SHG movement but also social VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 48 ISSN 2277-1182

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upliftment becomes possible through SHGs. From the success of this SHG concept is getting grater support from the women as well as from the Banking Institutions. In the table 4.2 the current position of women shgs in india. The details of total number of women shgs shown saving linked, credit linked and loans outstanding for the last two years are given in the table. It may be seen that the total number of saving linked and credit linked shgs, exclusive women shgs with banks were 76.4 percent and 81.6 percent, respectively. Further the percentage of loans outstanding of exclusive women shgs to loans outstanding of total shgs which was 8.9 percent as on 31st march 2009 has increased to 82.1 percent as on 31st march 2010. It shows that majority shgs are women groups their participation in saving and credit is increasing out of total number of shgs. Table 1.2. Current Position of Women SHGs in India (2009-10) (Amounts in Rs. Crore)
Total SHGs Particulars Year No.
Saving Linked SHGs Loan disbursed Loan outstanding 31.03.2009 31.03.2010 2008-09 2009-10 31.03.2009 31.03.2010 6121147 6953250 1609586 1586822 4224338 4851356

Exclusively Women SHGs No.

4863921 5310436 1374579 1294476 3277,355 98,97,797

Percentage of Women SHGs to total SHGs No.

79.5 76.4 85.4 81.6 77.6 80.3

Amount
5545.62 6178.71 12253.51 14453.30 22679.84 28038.28

Amount
4434.03 4498.66 10,527.38 12,429.37 18,583.54 23,030.36

Amount
80.00 72.6 85.9 86.0 81.9 82.1

Source: Status of microfinance in India 2009-10 p. V13 CURRENT POSITION OF WOMEN SHGs IN INDIA (2009-10) Self Help Group concept has been mooted along the rural and semi urban women to improve their living conditions. Even though SHG concept is applicable to men also in our country, it has been more successful only among women. They can start economic activities through SHG movement. Even with the limited monetary help the members of SHGs could expand their horizon of productive activities which have become their means of living. Not only economic upliftment took place with SHG movement but also social upliftment becomes possible through SHGs. From the success of this SHG concept is getting grater support from the women as well as from the Banking Institutions. Table number 1.3 shows the current position of women shgs in india. The details of total number of women shgs shown saving linked, credit linked and loans outstanding for the last two years are given in the table. It may be seen that the total number of saving linked and credit linked shgs, exclusive women shgs with banks were 76.4 percent and 81.6 percent, respectively. Further the percentage of loans outstanding of exclusive women shgs to loans outstanding of total shgs which was 8.9 percent as on 31 st march 2009 has

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increased to 82.1 percent as on 31st march 2010. It shows that majority shgs are women groups their participation in saving and credit is increasing out of total number of shgs. Table 1.3. Current Position of Women SHGs in India (2009-10) (Amounts in Rs. Crore)
Particulars
Saving Linked SHGs Loan disbursed Loan outstanding

Year
31.03.2009 31.03.2010 2008-09 2009-10 31.03.2009 31.03.2010

Total SHGs No.

6121147 6953250 1609586 1586822 4224338 4851356

Exclusive Women SHGs No

4863921 5310436 1374579 1294476 3277,355 98,97,797

Amount
5545.62 6178.71 12253.51 14453.30 22679.84 28038.28

Amount
4434.03 4498.66 10,527.38 12,429.37 18,583.54 23,030.36

Percentage of Women SHGs to total SHGs No. Amount

79.5 76.4 85.4 81.6 77.6 80.3 80.00 72.6 85.9 86.0 81.9 82.1

Source: Status of microfinance in India 2009-10 p. V14 1. Progress of Savings amount of SHG movement: Particularly women have habit of saving. By taking advantage of this habit, SHG movement tries to make them credit worthy. Through their savings they can increase their economic activities and economic participation. From this scheme their savings become a part of bank savings. Shg movement is recognized as on effective tool for extending access to formal financial services to the unbankable poor. In table 1.4 shown that how the performance of saving accounts and saving amount of SHGs. Table 1.4. Year wise progress in Saving Accounts and Saving Amount of SHGs
Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Number of Saving Accounts N.A. 41,60,584 (9,56,317) 50,09,794 (12,03,070) 61,21,147 915,05,5810 69,53,250 (16,93,910) Growth Rate 20.41 (20.51) 22.18 (20.09) 11.97 (11.12) Amt. of Saving (Rs. Crore) N.A. 3,512.71 (757.50) 3.785.39 (809.51) 5545.62 (1563.38) 6198.71 (1292.62) Growth Rate

7.76 (6.87) 46.50 (93.13) 11.78 (-17.32)

Figures in brackets indicate the saving of SHGs under SGSY Source: NABARD report 2005-2008, status of micro finance in India 2009-1015 In the Table 1.3, it is indicated that the progress of saving Accounts and saving amount of SHGs in India. The researcher has selected groups of DRDA which is District Rural VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 50 ISSN 2277-1182

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Development Agency. This agency runs the scheme under Swarn Jayantee Gram Swarojagar Yojana (SGSY). So it is also important to observe the progress of SHGs under the scheme SGSY. In 2007-08 the growth rate of total SHGs saving linked was 20.41 where under SGSY it was 20.51 In 2008-09 it increase to 22.18 and 20.09 respectively. But in 2009-10 it decreased. It is 11.97 and 11.12 respectively in 2009-10. For amount of savings, growth rate in 2007-08 was 7.76 for total savings amount and 6.87 for SGSY groups. In 2008-09 it increased significantly i.e. 93.13 for total saving amount and 93.13 for SGSY groups but in the year 2009-10 it is 11.78 for total saving amount and 17.32 for SGSY. It shows that the trend is reversed in 2009-10. More efforts are required to create more productive activities for overall and SGSY also. 2. Progress of loan disbursed to SHGs in India The self help group is a viable alternative to achieve the objectives of rural development and women participation in economic activities. Shg is a viable organized set up to disburse micro credit to the rural women and encouraging them to enter into entrepreneurial activities. Credit needs of the rural women can be full filled totally through the shgs. The women led shgs have successfully demonstrated how to mobilize and manage thrift, appraise credit needs, maintain linkages with the banks and entrance financial self discipline progress of loan disbursed to shgs is as follow: Table 1.5 Year Wise Loan disbursed to SHGs in India
Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Loan Amount (Rs. In Crore) N.A. 6570.39 (1411.02) 8849.26 (1857.74) 12253.51 (2015.22) 14453.30 (2198.00) Growth Rate 34.68 (31.66) 38.47 (8.48) 17.95 (9.07)

Figure in bracket indicates the loan amt. of SHGs under SGSY from the total disbursements Source: NABARD report 2006-07, status of micro finance in india 2009-1015 In the Table 1.5 and it is observed that, disbursement of loan amount to total SHGs in 2006-07 was Rs. 6,570.39 Crore out of which loan for SGSY scheme was Rs. 1, 4111.02 Crore In 2007-08 increases to Rs. 8849.26 Crore and Rs. 1827.74 Crore. The growth rate was 34.68 and 31.66 respectively. In 2008-09 loan amount increased to Rs.12, 253.5 Crore and Rs. 2015.22 Crore respectively and growth rate is 38.47 and 8.48 respectively. For total amount it increases but for SGSY if falls. In 2009-10 total loan disbursement is

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Rs.14, 453.30 Crore and for SGSY it is Rs. 2198.00 Crore. The growth rate for this year is 17.95 for total loan amount and 9.07 for SGSY. In recent years, growth rate for total amount is reversed. For SGSY it increased by 0.59 per cent, which is very insignificant. It needs to increase significantly because of its direct linkage with rural employment generation. 3. Loans Outstanding of SHGs in India: As the result of many past studies shows that recovery performance of SHGs is quiet good than the other loans. Many of SHG members are below poverty line. But they can fulfil from their SGSY credit needs by loans from SHGs. These loans are mainly small in amount. Mainly women members are very honest about repayment. If there is some outstanding peer group pressure increased and repayment may be possible. Therefore outstanding of BPL Groups are low. In the Table 1.6, we can observe the position of outstanding during recent past five years. Table 1.6 it is observed that outstanding amount of total SHGs and SHGs under SGSY is increasing because number of SHGs and amount of loan disbursement is also increasing. But when we observed growth rate of outstanding we can find that it is diminishing in total and in for SGSY also. In 2007-08 it was 37.47 for total amount, but 47.17 for the group belongings to SGSY. In 2008-09 it was 33.41 for total amount and 21.69 for groups of SGSY. In 2009-10 it is 23.63 for total outstanding amount and 6.64 for amount of SGSY groups. From the above discussion we can observe the progress of SHGs in India. Micro credit for the poor groups is not possible from institutional structure of banking, but it becomes possible through SHG movement. It is effective tool for poverty alleviation and improving socio-economic status of rural poor. Table 1.6. Year Wise Loan Outstanding of SHGs
Year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Amount of Outstanding (Rs. in Crore) N.A. 12366.49(3273.03) 16999.91(4816.87) 22679.48(5861.72) 28038.28(6251.08) Growth Rate N.A. 37.47(47.17) 33.41(21.69) 23.63(6.64)

Figures in brackets are showing outstanding of SHGs under SGSY Source: NABARD report 2006-07, status of micro finance in India 2009-1016 SUMMARY In this article, an attempt is made to present progress of SHG movement India. In India, this scheme is implemented with the help of NABARD as a main nodal agency in rural development. It is self employment generation scheme for especially rural women, who dont have their own assets. So, they cannot participate in economic activities like VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO.1 52 ISSN 2277-1182

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savings, credit, business etc. But from the implementation of the scheme, participation of these rural poor women is increasing in economic activities. In the first part of this chapter global initiative about micro-finance is provided. In the latter part of this article, status of SHGs in India is discussed. In this part, physical growth of SHGs, growth of saving amount, growth of loan amount, position of outstanding, current status of SHGs, SHGs under SGSY and exclusively women SHGs in India is discussed. Finally, the position of SHGs in the country as it stands today seems to pose certain problems for the SHGs themselves, the funding agencies and the policy-makers as well. To highlight some of these: 1. The quantum of savings mobilised by the SHGs, and particularly those by the rural women SHGs is too small for creation of business assets required with current rate of inflation in the country. 2. Linkage of SHGs with banks consumes a lot of time. Unless supported by competent and honest NGOs, SHGs find it link themselves with the banks for financial support. As a result, the rate of savings groups being converted into active economic activity based groups is still insignificant. 3. Most of the enterprising SHGs, both, male and female, suffer from shortage of inputs and lack of efficient marketing services. Lack of appropriate training facilities for different trades is also no less important a problem. We hope that the policy makers and the NGOs shall take care to resolve these issues soon. REFERENCES
An interview of muhammad yunus-yojana-jan- 2008 pp 7-10 Lalita N. And Nagarajan B. S.-2003, Self Help Groups in Rural Development. Pp-29-30 World Bank Report: South Asia-2007-Yogana-jan-2008 Pp 11-12 Sony Balbir-2007- Empowerment of Women Workers-The Unorganised Sector Pp 86 Basu, Srivastav and Das Gupta 2005-Readings in Microfinance by N. Lalita Sony Balbir-2007- Empowerment of Women Workers-The Unorganised Sector Pp 86-87 NABARD Report 2004-05 to 2009-10) NABARD Report 2009-10 p9. I-II Status of microfinance in India 2009-10 p. V NABARD Report 2005-2008, status of micro finance in India 2009-10 Economic survey of Maharashtra 2010-11 pp.177 Mulani M.V., unpublished Ph.D. Thesis of P.P.55 NABARD Report 2006, status of micro finance 2008-09, 2009-10 www.rural.nic. in (sited on 14th April 2011)

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Annual Credit Plan 2009-10 pp 10-15 NABARD Report 2004 to 2007, www.rural.nic.in State focus paper 2009-10, Annual credit plan 2008-09, to 2010) Potential linked credit plan 2009-10, P.125 Official data of DRDA Nashik

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