PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

In a patriarchal society, like India, women live a very underprivileged life. In order to improve the condition of women, the government of India has adopted the strategy of Self Help Groups (SHGs). In this study, an attempt is made to analyse the role SHGs play in the empowerment of Indian women. The SHG is the association of 15-20 members of the same socioeconomic background working collectively to solve problems on the principle of self-help, harmony and mutual coordination. In this study research was conducted on 125 respondents from SHG group and Non-SHG group to facilitate comparison. The results indicate that SHG strategy helps in the empowerment of women.