Women Empowerment and Self Help Groups in India

The present book is the outcome of strenuous research undertaken in the area of Gender Economics and it focuses on the successful working of DWCRA/SHGs in India. It is an in-depth study of economic, social, political and psychological conditions of women before and after they became the members of DWCRA/SHGs in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. This book assesses the various issues related to progress of SHGs movement in India and Andhra Pradesh and progress of SHG-Bank linkage programmes in different States in India in general and Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh in particular. The study reveals that the SHG programme in the district has enabled them to increase their Economic empowerment, and to further their awareness levels on several social and domestic evils. The findings of the study also indicated that the DWCRA women were highly satisfied with the performance of the programme and that it has greatly enabled them to achieve economic, social, psychological and to some extent even political empowerment in the district. The book will be highly useful to teachers and scholars who work in the area of Gender Economics and Women empowerment in particular.