Published Paper Details:

The basic principle of co-operation is voluntary association of people to serve their common interests. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) gave a comprehensive definition in the following terms; 'A co-operative organisation is an association of persons, usually of limited means, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a common economic end through the formation of a democratically controlled organisation.' Self help groups (SHGs) form the basic constituent unit of the micro finance movement in India. SHG is a group of five or more than five members, who pool their savings in to a fund from which they can borrow as and when necessary. The SHG members are usually poor and often women. The membership of a SHG shall not exceed 20 members. The SHG is linked with a rural co-operative or commercial bank, where they maintain a group account. Over time the bank begins to lend to the group funded out of the savings generated by the group members themselves called inter loans. It builds financial discipline and credit history that encourages banks to lend to them in certain multiples of their own savings and without any demand for collateral security. SHGs play crucial role in economic empowerment of poor people in the rural areas. In addition to the financial help, SHGs provides enough opportunities for the overall development of women in the rural areas. In this context an attempt has been made to analyse how co-operative sponsored SHGs involved in the empowerment of women