Self Help Groups (SHGs)

16. 'The emergence of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in contemporary times points to the slow but steady withdrawal of the state from developmental activities'. Examine the role of the SHGs in developmental activities and the measures taken by the Government of India to promote the SHGs.

(250 words)                                                    15M

Ans.. Self Help Groups (SHGs) are certain bonding's or groups of people (mainly females) which have come together for a specific purpose (mainly economic). These groups have many important functions to play mainly in the contemporary society.

• They are being formed in different fields like agriculture, handicrafts, dairy development, micro-finance, skill development etc. They are mostly found in the rural areas.
• By looking at the functions these groups are performing, it is frequently said that it seems that government is slowly and steadily moving away from development activities and these groups are taking over.
• It is also said that the domains of institutions of local self government are overlapping with the domains of SHGs. As these groups are performing most of the things assigned to the panchayats.
• SHGs are the part of every employment generation, poverty, alleviation and skill development scheme of the government. Till now these groups have performed really well, take the example of Kudumbashree in Kerala, it is certainly a yardstick that other SHGs should achieve.
• These groups have more exposures to financial credits, these groups have strong bondings because mostly they are formed among the people of same gender, caste, economic needs etc. These groups have performed really well in the sectors of small food processing units, dairy products etc. These groups have worked in the field of financial inclusion and allowed the people from below poverty line to above poverty line. The credit culture in these groups is found to be really good as they have defaulted quite less.

Measures taken by Government to Promote SHGs

• As part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) or Ajeevika, government facilitates women-led self-help groups by giving them bank loans at easy interest rates. This interest subvention provision has been further extended to more districts.
• The government has promoted the Self-Help Group (SHG)-Bank Linkage Programme to be implemented by commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks for providing micro-finance to SHGs.
• NABARD promotes SHGs by providing grant support for training, capacity building, skill upgradation, exposure visits etc.
• Scheme for promotion and financing of Women Self Help Groups (WSHG) is being implemented by NABARD across backward and Left Wing
• Extremism (LWE) affected districts.

However, less work has been done to increase their bondings as most of the groups are formed based on caste affiliation. The interest rates on loans are also too high for them to function in a profitable way. Quite less efforts have been made to provide them technology education and marketing skills.

So, to make this mechanism work, there is a pertinent need of fast reforms to eliminate the drawbacks.