Volume : 6, Issue : 4, April - 2017

Self Help Groups and its Impact on Financial Inclusion in Rural Areas

Dr. K. Vinodha Devi, Padma Nagendra

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">In India, providing access to formal financial services and products has been a thrust of banking policy for several decades. The current thinking at the global level has also had its echo in India, with policymakers at various levels undertaking a wide range of measures to include the excluded or the under-served within the fold of formal finance.</span><span style="font-size:&#10;13.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;mso-fareast-font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;&#10;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:&#10;115%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;&#10;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">One of the initiatives was micro credit through SHGs. A pilot project for purveying microcredit by linking Self Help Groups (SHGs) with banks was launched by NABARD in 1991-92 with a view to facilitating smoother and more meaningful banking with the poor.&nbsp;</span></p>