Economic development and Empowerment of women: A Comparative Analysis of before and after Joining Self Help Group Linked with Bank

Women are an important element of every economy. Speed of country’s progress depends on the speed of the development of woman in that country. Economic development along with women empowerment is important indicators of women’s economic and social freedom-BLP is one of the various approaches that have resulted economic development of women along with empowerment. The objective of this paper is to empirically test the effect of joining SHG linked with bank on economic development and empowerment of women. Data of 347 members is collected using a questionnaire form Yamuna Nagar, Haryana. A Convenient sampling technique is adopted for the study. After data cleaning, 326 questionnaires were found useful. The data obtained was analyzed using paired t-test through SPSS 16. Results suggested positive impact of joining SHG on income, expenditure, saving and credit related indicators of economic development and social, family, political, psychological and educational indicators of women empowerment. It is suggested to encourage women to join SHG for overall development of women, family and nation. NGO’s and government should make efforts to popularize the concept of SHG.