Societal Changes Due To Empowerment Of Women In Tamil Nadu – A Case Study

Micro credit has been widely hailed as a new way of empowering poor women and promoting economic and social development. But Quotas for women in legislative or other elected bodies, despite being introduced in many countries worldwide from the 1990s onwards, have not attracted the same attention. Self –Help Group (SHG) is a homogeneous group of poor, women, users etc. This group is a voluntary one, formed on areas of common interest so that they can think, organize and operate for their own development. SHGs function on the basis of co-operative principles and provide a forum for members to extent support to each other. Women’s entry into local politics through the mandatory reservation system seems to be more important than the SHG programme in furthering women’s empowerment with lasting effects. The SHG scheme is a political programme, which requires active funding and vigorous NGOS to function well and is thus subject to political conjunctures that may fade away after the first enthusiasm. SHGS cater to the need of many households for short-term smaller loans at rates lower than those charged by traditional moneylenders. Larger loans for starting small businesses are given to much fewer women but are still important for the development of women’s self-employment in the local economy. Numerous SHGS have been started according to the statistics given by panchayat unions and NGOS, but many of them are new and it is an open question if they will function as well as the “model-groups” with savings, repayment and “Profitable” investments.