Financial Inclusion Self Help Groups SHGs and Women Empowerment

Contents: Preface. 1. Empowering women through self-help groups (SHGs)/Ranju Kumar Bharali, Amal Jyoti Chiring and Debojit Konwar. 2. Self-help groups SHGs: a swot analysis/Gopal Sharma. 3. Self-help groups SHGs and women/Dipanjana Chakraborty. 4. Micro finance, self help groups SHGs and empowerment of women/Jyotsna Saha. 5. Micro credit for inclusive development/Pradeep Kumar Sengupta and Kartick Das. 6. Micro finance and the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions PRIs/Kartick Das and Nibash Paul. 7. Women empowerment through NGOs: a case study of Darjeeling district/Gopal Sharma and Kartick Das. 8. Exclusion of women in the micro finance institutions development and regulation bill 2011/Surya Narayan Ray. 9. Child labour in Bidi Industry: a case study/Bappa Sarkar. 10. Social exclusion of population with indigenous knowledge/Ashok Das Gupta. Glossary of select financial terms. Index.

Women\'s lack of economic empowerment not only impedes growth and poverty reduction, but also negatively impacts education and health outcomes for children. Thus it is extremely important to ensure that women are economically empowered.

Financial inclusion may be defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups, such as women, at an affordable cost.

Self-help Group SHG Bank Linkage Programme was launched in 1992 as flagship programme by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development NABARD. The objective is to meet the financial needs of the poor by linking SHGs with the formal credit agencies. Financial inclusion of the women can be best ensured through SHGs.