African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6863

Full Length Research Paper

Empowerment of women through self help group approach: Empirical evidence from west Bengal, India

Sanchita Garai1* Gouranga Mazumder2 and Sanjit Maiti3
1Division of Dairy Extension, NDRI, Karnal – 132001, Haryana, India. 2Department of Agricultural Extension, BCKV, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India. 3National Research Centre on Yak, Dirang - 790101, West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 04 December 2012
  •  Published: 20 December 2012

Abstract

Women empowerment is always considered as the key aspect of social development throughout the world. Self Help Group is one of the most important approaches for women empowerment in India. This present study was designed to trace out the impact of Self Help Group in women empowerment in Nadia district of West Bengal, India. Both the members (beneficiaries) and non-members (non-beneficiaries) were considered for this study. It was found that beneficiaries had higher score in all the four dimensions of empowerment, that is, personal autonomy index, family decision making index, domestic economic consultation index and political autonomy index as well as aggregate empowerment index. It may be concluded that Self Help Group approach had a significant impact on women empowerment in Nadia district of West Bengal, India.

 

Key words: Empowerment, self help group, West Bengal.