Vol. 11, Special Issue 11 (2022)

Author(s):
Monica Singh and Sandeep Deshmukh

Abstract:
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) had piloted women ‘Self-Help Group-Bank Linkage Program’ in 1992. In 1999, the Government of India had launched Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)–a rural self-employment program with an objective to provide microfinancial services to the rural poor through SHGs. At present there are two dominant models viz., ‘SHG-Bank Linkage model’ and ‘Microfinance Institutes (MFIs)-Bank Linkage model’ are lending microfinance in the country. SHG being one of the approaches to microfinance has a unique innovation of credits delivery technique to enhance income generating activities. As on date, SHG-Bank Linkage Program reached to link ‘8.00 million’ savings linked SHGs and covered almost ‘100 million’ households in the country. This study has devoted to the psychological or attitudinal aspect of the rural poor associated with SHGs and impact of microfinance on sustainable rural livelihood security. The rural women possessed a favourable attitude because Self-Help Groups helped them to reduce their financial dependence on informal money lenders; they accessed hassle free banking services and started saving money after joining SHGs. this study suggests that leveraging microfinance for 'financial inclusion' and 'livelihood diversification' will enable low- and middle-income countries in South Asia to achieve the SDGs.