Self help groups-A tactical tool to upgrade the socio economic conditions of women in belagavi district Karnataka

The surfacing of Self Help Groups at the beginning of 20th century has served as a strategic tool for community organisations which brought many important changes in the lives of Women contributing to Empowerment. The role of women in building society is very high as stated by UN Commission on Status of Woman by saying that she is contributing to the world's population by virtue of an accident of birth, perform two third of the worlds work, receives one tenth of income and owns less than one hundredth of property. The present century has brought in many challenges to be faced by both the genders of the society either together or individually. Therefore there is a need to identify the role of woman in socio economic and sustainable development of the society. The present study has concentrated in studying the changes of socio economic conditions of women before and after joining the SHG's. This is studied with two research questions that are (i) SHG's are the tactical tool to upgrade the socio economic conditions (ii) Performance of SHG contributing to increase in the awareness & social empowerment. Hence the study is confined to Belagavi District of which 100 SHG members were contacted with the questionnaire using judgement sampling technique to obtain results.