Impact of self-help groups upon women empowerment- A case study

The present work is the documentation of an empirical research carried out to explore the extent to which Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have been able to empower participating women. The concept of Microfinance based self-help groups have garnered considerable interest all around the world and have emerged as a potent tool to empower women and enhance their socio-economic status. However, the model of SHG based Microfinance works with a very pronounced assumption that engaging women in income generation activities empower the participating women and their life across various dimensions improve significantly. This research work tries to explore the assumption and the real impact of SHGs upon the empowerment of participating women based upon empirical data collected across selected districts of Jharkhand state in India. The author sincerely feels that this book is valuable for practicing researchers, students or any person interested in social sciences research.