Role of Self Help Groups in Women Empowerment – A Study with Reference to Vellore District

Abstract

Women are a necessary part of each economy. All-round development and agreeable growth of a country would be
conceivable just when women are considered as equivalent accomplices in progress with men. In the majority of the
agricultural nations today, increasingly more accentuation is laid on the requirement for the development of women and their
dynamic cooperation in the standard of the development process. The empowerment of women is a holistic idea. It is multidimensional in its methodology and covers social, political, and economic aspects. Self-Help Groups have been instrumental in
engaging grass-root women in several areas. Confirmations from various areas uncovered that there are positive improvements
realized in terms of all the group members becoming literate; mitigating village disputes, improving health and education of
children and keep the village roads clean and giving exposure to all the members of the group to carry on the bank’s
transactions. Self-Help Groups have helped from multiple points of view in replacing moneylenders, changing cropping
patterns, expanding utilization of organic pesticides and manures, making seed banks; and creating better awareness on
nutrition, well-being, health and hygiene. Subsequently, this study is an attempt to understand the Role of Self Help Groups in
Women's Empowerment in Vellore District.