Micro-finance: a viable strategy for poverty alleviation and women empowerment in India
Avinash Raikar
Indian Cooperative Review 44(3): 188-196
2007
Document Number: 232080
This paper assesses the importance of micro-finance for self-help groups (SHGs) in poverty alleviation and women empowerment in India. It indicates that SHGs are an important institutional mechanism for poverty alleviation. It is reported that NABARD has focused its attention on linking 1 million SHGs or bringing about one-third of the rural population under the bank-SHGs linkage programme by 2007. However, the target was achieved much before the due date. By 31 March 2005, about 24.4 million poor families were covered under the programme. The 90% of these groups were exclusively women's groups.