Socio-Economic Status of Rural Women of Self Help Groups: A Study of Dhaniakhali and Polba-Dadpur Blocks of Hooghly District, W.B.

Abstract

Nowadays Self-Help Group or SHG plays a vital role not only in social transformation and upliftment of
rural women but also in social-economic betterment of them. The main objective of this paper is to
examine the impact assessment in the socio-economic status of rural women through Self Help Groups
with the help of a micro-level study of two C. D. blocks namely Dhaniakhali and Polba-Dadpur in
Hooghly district. 40572 SHGs are consisting of 394897 members in 18 C. D. blocks of Hooghly district.
Among the blocks, Daniakhali and Polba-Dadpur were selected for the study, of which 28 groups are
chosen randomly. From these selected groups 108 members have been selected to conduct the primary
survey. Personal interviews were conducted to find out the major purposes of the study i.e. to examine the
role of SHG in developing the socio-economic status of rural women and to analyse the impact of SHGs in
decision making. The study is mainly based on primary data and simple per cent calculation is used for
analysing the data. The major analytical tool employed for the study is tabular analysis to facilitate easy
interpretation. Map of the study area is prepared through ArcGIS 10.5 software. The present study
explains a detailed socio-economic profile of the SHG members in the study area