Economic Development of SHG Members Financed by Regional Rural Banks in Bihar

Abstract

Through Swarnajayanti Gram Sw arojgar Yojana (SGSY) program m e, Government o f India has credit linked more than four crore rural households to the financial institutions fo r various income generating activities. As this programme is in implementation fo r the last ten years, and more than Rs 18,000 crore has been advanced as credit to the rural poor, it is expected that this programme might have henefitted poor people. In order to examine this assumption, the present study was conducted to know the economic development o f Self Help Group (SHG) members credit linked under SGSY in the state o f Bihar. One hundred SGSY-SHG members selected randomly from two Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) o f the state were studied and the findings showed that there was significant increase in income generation activity, expansion and diversification o f activity, personal savings, income level, mandays generation, economic independence and assets creation among the SHG members.