PROGRESS OF SELF-HELP GROUPS IN INDIA: OVERALL AGENCY WISE ANALYSIS

Author Name: Nikita Sharma

Volume/Issue: 01/12

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: http://www.doi-ds.org/doilink/05.2021-53711474/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1. PhD Research Scholar

ABSTRACT

Access to credit has been the key agenda of the government at all the levels. Poor people being highly underprivileged remain deprived of the access to financial markets. Microfinance facility has solved this problem by giving the poor an opportunity to get credit from the formal sources and use it to their full potential and earn a decent living for themselves, thus giving an impetus to concept of banking with poor. In India microfinance works effectively under various models. One of the most popular model is Self Help Group- Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) under NABARD, serving efficiently to the needs of the poor. SHG-BLP model working effectively from more than 25 years has a widespread network spread across the nation. This paper aims at analyzing the growth of the SHG-BLP model in India with focus on the different regions of the country and thus highlights the contribution of the formal agencies of credit like commercial bank, regional rural bank and cooperative banks in doing so for a period of five years i.e. 2015-2020. It was thus seen that the SHG-BLP works immensely for the women development as the WSHGs constitute a major share in the total numbers. Overall positive growth is witnessed in the performance of this programme but little disparities are noticed on the regional fronts with southern region being way ahead of other. Further the commercial banks contribution in spreading the network of this programme is immensely high.

Key words: Poverty, Financial inclusion, SHG-BLP, Microfinance