Study on Socio-economic Condition of Self Help Group Members in Golaghat District of Assam

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Manoj Kumar Sarma

Abstract

SHGs are a viable alternative to achieve the objectives of rural development. SHG plays a pivotal role in social transformation and social economic betterment of rural women. Assam is a flood affected area where people cannot depend purely on agriculture all through the year. Moreover Assam is based on its agro-economic climate conditions. Thus non-form activities like handicrafts, rope making, embroidery, catering services, repair shops, cattle farming, fisheries etc., give immense scope for women to earn their livelihood when they do not have income through agricultural activities. Banks in association with NGOs give training to SHG members in all these activities. The Government of Assam encourages the SHG activities and marketing of their products.
The main objectives of this paper are to examine the role of SHG in developing socio economic status of rural women, and to identify the satisfaction level of self-help group members in SHG activities. There are 4949 SHGs in Golaghat district of Assam consisting of 8 blocks. Among the blocks, Golaghat North Development Block was selected for this study; of which 18 groups are selected at random. From these selected SHGs, 180 members have been selected to collect the necessary primary data. The Chi-square test and average method is used as statistical tools for analyzing the data and testing the hypothesis. The conclusion of this paper is that Self Help Group is an important tool which helps the rural women to acquire power for their self supportive life and nation building efforts.

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