भूमिका
Self-Help Groups (SHGs), mobilizing over 10 crore rural women into 90 lakh groups under DAY-NRLM, act as primary vehicles for rural poverty alleviation by converting female socio-economic empowerment into household resilience.
Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation through SHGs
Self-Help Groups have transformed the rural landscape by fostering community savings, financial discipline, and collective enterprise among women.
- Financial Inclusion & Debt Relief: The SHG-Bank Linkage Project provides institutional, collateral-free credit with over 96% repayment rates, replacing usurious local moneylenders and reducing debt vulnerability.
- Livelihood Diversification: Initiatives like Lakhpati Didi and the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) facilitate non-farm and agro-enterprises, exemplified by Bihar’s JEEViKA expanding dairy, poultry, and solar livelihoods.
- Human Capital Investment: Increased female intra-household bargaining directs earnings toward child nutrition, healthcare, and schooling, arresting intergenerational poverty, as seen in Kerala’s Kudumbashree producing Nutrimix and managing community enterprises.
- Collective Agency & Safety Nets: SHGs pool risk during crises and empower women to actively participate in Gram Sabhas, ensuring leak-free delivery of welfare entitlements.
निष्कर्ष
Transitioning mature SHGs into Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and connecting them to digital platforms like ONDC and GeM will secure structural, high-value poverty eradication.