Women empowerment through SHG promoted enterprises IN U.S. Nagar district of Uttarakhand
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Date
2021-12
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
India is a rapidly developing country but apart from this fact, India is also afflicted with societal issues of socio-cultural hegemony and gender inequality that cause disparities of income and opportunity. While India's GDP has increased by around 6% over the last decade, female labour force participation has decreased dramatically from 34% to 27%. As a result, a movement for women's empowerment is needed, particularly among rural women, so that they can be economically independent and self-reliant. Women's empowerment is a multi-dimensional and multi-directional process in this way. Present study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district, from which 2 blocks Gadarpur and Khatima were selected purposively for the study. The study was based on sample size of 120 with 80 SHG members selected from 2 blocks and 40 non-SHG members selected from the same locale. The study had following five objectives:
1. To study the socioeconomic status of the SHG members.
2. To examine the factors determining the participation of rural women in the SHG programme.
3. To estimate the cost and returns from various income generating enterprises.
4. To assess the contribution of SHGs in women empowerment.
5. To identify the constraints faced by the SHG members.
To meet the various objectives, simple descriptive analysis, binary probit regression model, cost and returns concept, three-point continuum scale and Garrett Ranking technique were used. The results showed that the majority of members were falling into middle age group and their average family size was 6.18. Average number of females per household was discovered to be 1.57. The average size of operating land holding was 0.53 ha. The probit model estimation showed that probability of participation in the SHG programme increased with the increase in the family size i.e., a positive relationship while it decreased with the increase in age or landholding size i.e., a negative relationship. The enterprises promoted by the majority of SHGs in Udham singh nagar district were milk production, vegetable production and masala making. Milk production turned out to be most profitable enterprise (returns per rupee invested was 2.04.) followed by Vegetable production (1.56) and masala making (1.13) in the area. For all the three dimensions of empowerment i.e., economic, social and personal, majority of the respondents fell in the category of medium empowerment while the category of high empowerment covered the minimum number of respondents. The major social problems faced by the respondents were lack of formal education, lack of training, conflicts among members and lack of social mobility. The major economic problems were low product price, lack of local buyers, lack of market information and long distance to the market, lack of credit sources, lack of quality inputs, lack of technical know-how and non-availability of equipments.
Government and other organisations working in this sphere should strive to amplify such programmes in the local areas with the help of SHG members in order to bring more women in the ambit of such programmes. Income generating enterprises should be diversified to include non-agricultural activities as well. There should be proper marketing facilities provided through cooperatives and government outlets so that the producer could obtain fair and remunerative prices and maximum share of consumer’s rupee. There should be adequate, well qualified staff for providing extension facilities, imparting necessary training for better utilization of locally available resources. A suitable arrangement from financial institutions should be made to shorten & simplify the loaning procedure for SHG members.