The Role of Self-Help Groups in Empowering Rural Women of West Bengal

Abstract

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as one of the most significant grassroots institutional innovations for translating the constitutional promise of gender equality into reality for rural women in India. This thesis examines the role of SHGs in the socio-economic empowerment of rural women in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, situating the empirical enquiry within the wider constitutional, policy, and institutional architecture that has shaped the SHG movement since independence — from the equality and welfare provisions of the Constitution and the recommendations of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1974), through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's (NABARD) SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, to the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and its West Bengal counterpart, Anandadhara. Adopting a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design, primary data were collected from 400 rural women SHG members and non-members using a structured interview schedule, supplemented by secondary data drawn from government reports, committee recommendations, and peer-reviewed literature.