Social Mobilization and Women Empowerment SHGs in Coimbatore City Tamil Nadu India

Abstract

Poverty is one of the biggest social problems in the world which requires various levels of intervention by the Government as well as civil society organisations. The issue of poverty is more widespread in developing countries like India. It is highly challenging to any form of development planning in India which deprives the quality of life of the poor. Hence it is essential to provide sustainable solutions to overcome poverty. Therefore mobilization of urban poor into the development of own their form of institutional is an effective investment and alleviation of poverty (NULM, 2013). newlineThough the literature on Self Help Groups (SHGs) provides a solid bedrock of knowledge on which fresh studies can be undertaken, there are a few research gaps noticed. Firstly, the studies on SHGs have predominantly focused on rural areas. Only a few studies were conducted in urban areas because the SHGs were introduced later in the urban areas. Secondly, in Tamil Nadu, only a few studies could be found in urban areas. Further, in Tamil Nadu, a few SHG studies were conducted in rural areas (Veena, 2005). The conclusions of the studies clearly show the rural SHGs role in Women Empowerment, hence extensive study is required in urban areas especially in Coimbatore city. Thirdly, though methodologically most of the studies are quantitative, rarely qualitative understanding is considered. Hence this study will involve both the methods to figure out exactly how SHGs contribute to women empowerment in urban areas. The present study addresses these research gaps in the context of Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu. The methodology of the present study is predominantly quantitative. However, to record the process of women empowerment, the qualitative method is also used. Both individual members and the Women Self Help Group constitute the unit of study. All the women self-help groups (WSHGs) working in the urban areas of Coimbatore and its members constitute the population of the study.The WSHGs promoted by Tamil Nadu Government in Coimbatore..