Working Papers

The paper attempts to evaluate the performance of eight womena??s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) promoted in the village Bidaj by the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) under an action research project called Model Village Project. The SHGs project was one of the three schemes promoted by the IRMA team in Bidaj. The SHGs were created to act as instruments of savings and development for the women. Though the SHGs could be created fairly easily, overall they failed in the first three years of their existence to enable members to realise their potential benefits. As a result, the SHGs failed to make any significant impact on the socio-economic life of the women members. On the basis of the assessment made the main reasons identified for the failure of SHGs are, the wrong approach followed in the SHGs formation by the team, misconceptions about SHGsa?? goals both among the team and the members of SHGs; and lack of clarity about the concept of SHG particularly by the team leading to failure in ensuring conditions necessary for their successful functioning. A few lessons drawn from the project are also presented in the paper. The lessons include, the need for creating SHGs based on a clear assessment of the needs of different sections; taking care to avoid any major misunderstanding among members about the goals and purpose of SHGs; ensuring a clear understanding of the concept of SHG among team members involved in promoting SHGs, and the need to enhance the relevance of SHGs to their members by enabling them to meet effectively their requirements, be it savings or credit or income generating activities. ?? ??