IMPACT OF SHG IN KRISHNAGIRI DISTRICT EVIDENCE FROM DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

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1 IMPACT OF SHG IN KRISHNAGIRI DISTRICT EVIDENCE FROM DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS Dr. C. THILAKAM, Professor and Head, Department of Commerce, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. Mrs. G. LALITHA, Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Periyar University, Salem. ABSTRACT Poverty eradication is the major concern of rural development strategies in the developing countries like India. Experiences in implementing a wide range of rural development programmes in the country suggest that the incidence of poverty cannot be brought down through wage employment programmes alone. Creation of viable and sustainable selfemployment through micro-credit should be complementary to this strategy. Experiences in different parts of India and across the globe have demonstrated that free association of the poor themselves into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and entrusting the schemes directly to these groups are the best ways to implement the anti-poverty programmes locally. Key Words Self Help Groups, Poverty, Rural Development Strategies, Wage, Employment, Micro- Credit, Sustainable Self Employment, Schemes, SJGSY, NGOs, Empowerment,

2 INTRODUCTION Self Help Groups are increasingly accepted as agents of social change, development, and empowerment of the weaker sections. Self help groups approach represents a paradigm shift from development towards empowerment. The banking institutions channelize their credit to poor people through the Self help groups. Nowadays, there are number of NGOs organizing Self help groups with or without the Government support all over the country. The voluntary, autonomous, selffunctioning Self help groups are motivated by these external institutions to engage in Micro Credit operations and income generating micro enterprises. The policy shift towards empowerment and self-help group centered development needs to be justified and established with strong evidence of success of SHGs approach in achieving the goals of empowerment and development of women. The fruitfulness of these needs to be established in varying socio-economic and cultural contexts of Indian economy and society. Self Help Group, in its present form of development orientation, owes its origin to Grameen Bank founded by MOHAMMAD YUNUS OF Bangladesh. The experience of Bangladesh has proved the banking wisdom that helps in the women and poor people to improve their condition is the sure way to overcome the problem of poverty. An excellent recovery performance of 99 per cent has been recorded. This has been due to the practice of mutual trust and accountability in the group lending activities. The origin of Self help groups may be claimed as the Brain Child of Grameen Bank concept in its miniature form in India. The credit of spreading the concepts of Self help groups among the people in India goes to NGOs and NGDOs. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in India has taken interest to translate the benefits derived from Bangladesh model to develop the poor through Self help group Bank financing with the active co-operation of Non Government Organizations. It has announced certain incentives for banking institutions financing Self help groups and Self Help Promoting Institutions (SHPIs) and assisting the NGOs for training in Self help group financing. It is from the mid eighties, the government has also realized that the development programmes aimed at individuals have not succeeded in many areas. As a result, through providing training for self-employment, it has started stressing the group activities for better results. Impressed by the encouraging results, the government, in 2000, has come up with a novel scheme called Swarna Jayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana under which financial assistance will be provided only to groups which are willing to take up Namex International Journal of Management Research 164 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

3 economic and production activities. Therefore, both the government and the non-government organizations are currently encouraging the Self-Help Groups to take up economic activities. The banks have been financing the Self Help Groups, which take up production and trade activities. REVIEW OF LITERATURE A.P. Sebastian Titus (2002) in his study Promotion of Women Entrepreneurs through Self Help Groups examines the promotion of women entrepreneurs through self help groups. According to him the women entrepreneurs who have started small enterprises expand them into large-scale units Self-help groups have made readymade garments and export them. A woman self help group in Dindigul District runs a unit providing agro-services with a total turnover of Rs.12 lakhs are more per annum. But most of the other Self- Help Groups are not able to reach up to the expectations. Some of the reasons cited were nonavailability of funds for investment, dearth of technical and managerial skills, inability to manage the labour force, dual role burden, lack of professionalism, gender bias and the like. T. Chiranjeevulu (2003) in his study. Empowering Women through Self Help Groups studied the micro enterprises started by self-help groups in Warangal district (Andhra Pradesh). The microenterprises belong to chilly processing units. Srujana Mahilabhivridhi Upadi Mutually Aided co-operative Society was formed with a membership of 514 women. Each group raised a share capital of Rs. 15, 000. The group members belonged to backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The researcher states that the conversion of consumption based self-help groups into entrepreneurship-oriented self-help groups led to employment generation and empowerment of women. J. Rita, R. K. Kushawaha, and A. K. Srivastava (2003) in their work, Socio- Economic Impact through Self Help Groups examined the function of Self Help Groups in Kanpur Dehat District. Twenty Five women from Self-Help Groups were selected as sample for the study. Ten woman members from each self help group and ten non- members from the same village were selected as respondents to study the impact of the self-help groups on their socio-economic status. The results show that there is relationship between the self-help groups and the socio-economic status of women. M. Soundarapandian (2006) in his study Micro Finance for Rural Entrepreneurs Issues and Strategies, made an attempt to analyze the growth of the SHGs and the role of micro-finance in developing the rural entrepreneurship. The study suggests that though there is a positive growth rate of the SHGs in states but in terms of growth of the SHGs there is wide variation among states. Linkages of banks with the SHGs are found impossible for this variation. Namex International Journal of Management Research 165 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

4 Matheswaran (2008) concludes his study; women Empowerment for Sustainable Development through Self Help Group Movement in Tamilnadu with the opinion that the Self Help Groups really help the women-folk to participate in organizes activities apart from helping members to mobilize funds. The empowerment of women really starts with such kinds of activities of Self Help Group. These above case studies reveals that given the assistance and guidance the self help groups are bound to make not only a sea change in empowering women but also tap the hitherto unutilized powers of women for sustainable development of the society as a whole. Kumar A (2009) in his study observed that this may lead to improved household-level outcomes with respect to health, education particularly education of girl, child nutrition and family planning. Amit Kundu and Suranjana Mitra (2010) their study reveals that there has been no significant impact of microfinance program in terms of improvement of the outcome variables among the member households, in spite of the low interest rate charged on loans, high repayment rate within the groups and small size of Self Help Groups. The reasons for the same are lack of skillbased training programmes for the members of groups and lack of marketing facilities to promote and sell the products produced by the members of Self Help Groups. The only positive aspect is that the members can now protect themselves from the clutches of professional money lenders who charge exorbitant rates. From the literature reviews it was evidenced that no study has been so far made with regard to the impact of self help groups in Krishnagiri district. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Self help group is introduced by NABARD in association with NGOs for the development of the poor. Self help groups are increasingly accepted as the agents of social change, development and empowerment among the weaker sections of the society. Since then, there has been curious interest among the researchers to analyze the performance and the impact of self help groups. Some of the evaluation studies on self help groups have dealt with the composition and structure of self help groups, operation of microcredit and microenterprise under self help groups. However such studies have not interrelated the performance of self help groups with their structure and dynamics. They have not enquired into the pattern of leadership. Against this background, the present study Socio - Economic Impact of Self Help Groups in Krishnagiri District aims at filling these research gaps through conceptualizing economic empowerment of women in a holistic way and suggest policy measure for their development. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Namex International Journal of Management Research 166 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

5 To examine the impact of self help groups in Krishnagiri district. HYPOTHESIS There is no significant difference between socio-economic factors and their empowerment status. METHODOLOGY The present study is based on both Primary and Secondary data. The study is based on field survey with a structured interview schedule. The researcher personally conducted the interviews with the members of self help group. A multi stage stratified proportionate random sampling procedure has been adopted to select, district, block and self help group. 200 women self help groups have been selected from Krishnagiri block as well as Kaveripattinam for the purpose of intensive analysis. For this study, members of self help groups and animators of groups have been selected based on the following criteria, namely, a) Members those who has been a member for more than a year and b)animators whose group was above three years of age. The following statistical tools are used namely, Chi- Square Analysis and Discriminate Analysis. STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE REGION Women in the district, rural Krishnagiri and Kaveripattinam, live in the most deprived conditions of ignorance and poverty, completely unaware of their potential and individuality, leading unhealthy lives burdened with many and too frequent pregnancies. They sow, weed out, transplant, winnow and carry the produce and the agricultural waste from the fields to their homes on the head, often with their child on their back or in the womb. TABLE No. 1 - AREA WISE GROUP FORMATION IN KRISNAGIRI DISTRICT WOMEN GROUP FORMED S. No AREA ENROLLED SAVINGS Numbers % Number % RS. % 1 Rural Urban Total Source: Secondary data Table No.1 exhibits that rural area shows highest (87.7 per cent) percentage in group formation the urban area has only 12.3 percent. In the case of women enrollment, 88 percentage of the rural women are enrolled and only12 percentage of the women in urban area. Savings also shows a highest percentage (97.4 per cent) in rural area than (2.6 per cent) in urban area. Namex International Journal of Management Research 167 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

6 S. No. TABLE No. 2 - SHGS FORMED IN KRISHNAGIRI DISTRICT Block Name No.of SHG UPTO No. of SHG UPTO No. of SHG UPTO No. of SHG UPTO Total Ground No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % 1 Village panchayats Total Panchayats Municipalities Grand Total Source: Secondary data The above table shows the SHG group formed in Krishnagiri district during the period from to Among the three select blocks, most (86.9%) of the SHG s are formed in village panchayat area followed by municipalities (7.5%) and total panchayats (5.5). SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE SHGs IN KRISNAGIRI DISTRICT TABLE No. 3 - SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE RESPONDENTS S. NO. FACTORS No. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE AGE 1. Below 30 years years Above 40 years Married Unmarried Widow Religion 1 Christian Hindu Muslim OC BC MBC SC ST Illiterate School level Namex International Journal of Management Research 168 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

7 3 HSC UG Coolie Home maker Govt. Employee Private Employee Below Rs.10, Rs.10,001-20, Above Rs.20, It is noted from the above analysis that majority of the respondents belonging to below 30 years of age. It is observed from the above analysis that majority of the respondents are married and majority of the respondents are Hindus. Majority of the respondents belong to ST category. It is found from the analysis that majority of the respondents are educated till school level. It is observed from the analysis that majority of the respondents are Coolies. DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS,,Discriminant function analysis involved classification problem also to ascertain the efficiency of the discriminant function analysis all the variables which satisfy the entry and removal criteria were entered into the function. The two groups are defined as Group 1 - Low level satisfaction, Group 2-High level satisfaction. The mean and standard deviation for these groups and for the entire samples are given for each variable considered in the analysis. TABLE No. 4 - SUMMARY TABLE STEP Variables Entered Wilk s Lamda Minimum D 2 Sig. r 2 1 Educational Qualification % 2 Occupation % * 3 Marital Status % The summary table indicates that variable education qualification entered in step 1, occupation entered in step 2.The variables such as education and marital status entered into step 3 are significant at 1 per cent significance level. All the variables are significant discriminators based on their Wilk s lambda and D 2 value. Z = (Educational Qualification) (Occupation) (Marital Status) Namex International Journal of Management Research 169 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

8 TABLE No. 5 - CLASSIFICATION RESULTS (BETWEEN LOW AND HIGH ACTUAL GROUP NO. OF CASES Group I 125 Group II 75 USER GROUP) Per cent of grouped case correctly classified: 69% PREDICTED GROUP MEMBERSHIP GROUP I GROUP II % 22.4% % 54.7% The above Table 5 gives the results of the re classification. The function using the variables selected in the analysis classified 69 per cent of the cases correctly in the respective groups. It is found that the Discriminate function analysis was applied to the respondents on high and low level of satisfaction. FINDINGS Majority of the respondents are belonging to below 30 years of age category. Majority of the respondents are married. Majority of the respondents are Hindus. Majority of the respondents belong to ST category. Majority of the respondents are educated till school level. Majority of the respondents are Coolies. Majority of the respondents are saving below Rs in a year. It could be noted from the multi-discriminate analysis that the function using the variables selected in the analysis classified 69 per cent of the cases correctly in the respective groups. Further, the variables educational qualification, occupation and marital status are significantly discriminating the two groups like low and high empower. SUGGESTIONS Regional variation might be removed by identifying the constituent regions on the basis of their level of development so that effective implementation of schemes and programmes in an impartial manner is possible. As the improvement in women empowerment for a positive change in socio- economic levels, the prevailing disparities in terms of blocks, community and literacy levels among the SHG members could be avoided. The poor people, irrespective of their heterogeneity in their socio economic status, could be attracted towards active involvement in SHGs by enlightening the significance of SHGs. Women empowerment can be ensured by requiring all the respondents to make the deeds of their houses in their names. The functioning of the SHGs can be strengthened in such a way to rope in the respondents irrespective of their land holding status to involve themselves with dedication in the SHG activities. In consonance with the role of SHGs as a source of rural upliftment, its number and activities could be enlarged, widened and deepened. The NGOs who are tile catalysts in creating the awareness among Namex International Journal of Management Research 170 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

9 rural women, could be provided with adequate support and protect. CONCLUSION The research was very helpful for enhancing the real state of the women. The involvements in the SHGs have brought about economic and social changes among the members in the study area. A large number of the members have reported that their family status have increased by becoming a member of the SHGs. The income level of the SHG members has raised and this has uplifted their social status in their area and in the society. Since SHGs, help women to achieve economic empowerment and this policy measures will contribute a lot to the nation. SCOPE FOE FUTURE RESEARCH On the basis of the Present Study, there is a greater scope for future researches in this area viz., a) A Comparative study of Socio-Economic impact of Self Help Groups in two cities, b) Women Empowerment through Self Help Groups in two cities. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study is made from the selected blocks in Krishnagiri district of Tamilnadu. The respondents are from rural areas and due to their inhibition it has been little bit difficult for the researcher to get precise answers for sensitive queries. The interview schedule was prepared only for the Self-Help Group members exclusively but not for NGO s and Government officials. REFERENCES A.P. Sebastian Titus. Promotion of Women Entrepreneurs Through Self-Help Groups, Khadigramodyog. The Journal of Rural Economy. VoI.XXXXIX. No.2. November 2002, pp T. Chiranjeevulu, Empowering Women Through Self-help Groups, Kurukshetra, Ministry of Rural Development. Vol.51. No.5. March 2003, pp J. Ritu, R.K. Kushawaha, and A.K. Srivastava, Socio-Economic Impact through Self-Help Groups, Yojana. Vol.47. No.7,.July pp M. Soundarapandian September 2006, Micro Finance for Rural Entrepreneurs Issues and Strategies, Kurukshetra, pp Matheswaran, Faculty of Adult and Continuing Education University of Madras, Chennai , Women Empowerment For Sustainable Development through Self Help Movement In Tamilnadu Kumar. A Self Help Groups, Women s Health and Empowerment : Global Thinking and Contextual Issues, Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Namex International Journal of Management Research 171 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.

10 Studies, Vol-4, No-3, 2009, Pp Amit kundu and Suranjana Mitra Group Lending Scheme Operating Through Primary Agricultural Credit Society A Critical Assessment, IUP Journal of Managerial Economics, Vol-8, No-3, 2010, Pp Gupta. K. R, Rural Development in India, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. Kothari C.R Research Methodology (methods & techniques), New age International Publishers Ltd, New Delhi. Kamata Prasad : NGO s and Social Development Opportunities, 2003, edition- I. Lalitha N. and B. S. Nagarajan, Self Groups in Rural Development, New Delhi: Dominant Publishers and Distributors. Marguerite S. Robinson (2001): The Microfinance Revolution : Sustainable finance for the poor, Word Bank, Washington, D.C. Open Society Institute, New York, May 2001 First Printing. Namex International Journal of Management Research 172 Vol. 2, Issue No. 2, July December 2012.