Women's empowerment: effect of participation in self help groups

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the impact of participation in Self Help Groups on the empowerment of women in the context of the great importance being given to the group approach while conceptualizing any programme for rural women. The study is situated in District Mewat in the Northern State of Haryana, a state which faces the conundrum of rapid economic growth juxtaposed with poor social indicators, and uses the personal narrative method to give a voice to women s perspective. The study looks at various dimensions of empowerment material, cognitive, perceptual and relational. Access to credit can help in expansion of material base of women by enabling them to start and expand small businesses, often accompanied by market access; the women also experienced Power within : feelings of freedom, strength, self-identity and increases in levels of confidence and self-esteem. However, gender discrimination is most deeply entrenched in the family, evident in attitudes towards daughters in law, daughters, the gender based division of work, roles and responsibilities as well as the mind-set towards domestic violence and issues of ownership and inheritance of land. At the social level, an encouraging trend is that women have been able to challenge the norm of purdah. Besides, involvement in SHGs has enabled women to have a voice in the community affairs and they have been able to tackle problems such as a lack of drinking water and electricity, access to health services and children s education. Though women face handicaps to their involvement in politics, their participation in SHGs has altered them, and these women can be prospective leaders in the local political field. Nonetheless various constraints like discriminatory practices in labour, a low level of skills etc. operate to contract a woman s potential for empowerment. It may be comparatively easier to ensure material change than to cause a change in power structures and the ideologies and attitudes which accompany them. However, no milieu is static, and some of the recommendations for a way forward include providing a convergence of inputs, ensuring a proactive involvement of women in the program, changing social norms and perceptions and anchoring with wider movements of social change.