Published Paper Details:

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as a cornerstone of participatory rural devel- opment and gender empowerment in India, fostering financial inclusion, collective agency, and social transformation. This systematic literature review critically synthesizes empiri- cal studies published between 2000 and 2025 on the role of SHGs in advancing women's empowerment and reducing socio-economic inequality in rural Tamil Nadu. Using the PRISMA framework, forty-eight peer-reviewed articles were systematically screened and analyzed across multidisciplinary databases including Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The findings reveal that SHGs significantly contribute to women's economic mobility through microfinance access, entrepreneurial engagement, and livelihood diversification. Beyond economic outcomes, SHGs enhance self-efficacy, decision-making autonomy, and participation in local governance, thus serving as platforms for collective consciousness and social negotiation. However, the review identifies persistent challenges, including un- equal participation, caste-based exclusion, limited scalability, and dependence on external funding. Thematic synthesis highlights three critical dimensions of empowerment--economic independence, social inclusion, and political participation--that intersect to shape the trans- formative potential of SHGs. The paper further underscores the importance of integrating SHG initiatives with capacity-building, digital literacy, and gender-sensitive policy frame- works to sustain empowerment outcomes. By bridging empirical insights and policy dis- course, this review provides a holistic understanding of SHGs as instruments of inclusive growth and social justice in Tamil Nadu's rural landscape. The study concludes with a research agenda emphasizing longitudinal analyses, intersectional approaches, and partic- ipatory monitoring frameworks to enhance the efficacy and sustainability of SHG-based empowerment models.