Grassroot Development and Women’s Empowerment: Evaluating Self Help Group Initiatives for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Transformation

India has been witnessing a rapid growth in the economy in the past few decades, from a agrarian economy to opening up to different sectors, yet the development in the rural areas of India is still lopsided, People living below the poverty line still suffers major financial crisis, low wage jobs, unemployment problems. There are plenty of ways to improve the livelihood and socio-economic development of people living below the poverty line threshold, One such way is through empowerment of women, providing them the opportunity and push to do something on their own with togetherness, Self help group (SHG) is a transformative approach focused on empowering and mobilizing rural women, those belonging from marginalized and poor background in both urban and rural areas, The main aim of forming self help group is poverty alleviation by providing micro loans and subsidies, reducing the need to go through traditional collateral requirements. SHG’s also focuses on providing a forum for women to share their problems, their issues in daily life. The growing importance and benefits of SHG’s in the district of Jorhat, Assam can be attributed to various factors- training and development schemes provided by the government for the capacity building, monetary assistance and subsidies provided by the government and bank tie-ups, low interest loans have given them the necessary support to start livestock farming, tailoring and financing small grocery shop’s and grow their businesses, along with the coordination and understanding of their group members during delayed weekly monetary contribution, providing support for each other during their hard time dealing with stressors and other allied support.