Published Paper Details:

The role of women in the development of our country is equally important that of men. The overall development of the nation remains as a paradox until and unless the women get empowered as women constitute almost half of India's population of 1.2 billion. They must be empowered for overall development which includes socio-economic, political and psychological empowerment. SHG empowers rural women in various respects. It works as a democratic instrument for women's grass root development. Self-Help Groups are small group of individual members who voluntarily come together and form an association for achieving a common objective. Presently the self-help groups aremushrooming throughout the rural areas giving women the chance to become more empowered.It also acts as a bridge between women entrepreneurs who have the will to begin an enterprise but do not have the resources to fulfil their dream, and the finances needed for it. The empowerment of women through SHGs would give benefits not only to individual woman but also for the family and community as a whole through collective action for the development. Presently SHGs are one of India's most important tools for rural women to achieve socio-economic self-reliance or Atmanirbhar. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the impact of SHGs in the empowerment of rural women in the study area.