Collective Action and Community Development: Evidence from Self-Help Groups in Rural India

Collective Action and Community Development: Evidence from Women’s Self-Help Groups in Rural India

In response to the problems of high coordination costs among the poor, efforts are underway in many countries to organize the poor through “self-help groups” (SHGs)–membership-based organizations that aim to promote social cohesion through a mixture of education, access to finance, and linkages to wider development programs. We randomly selected 32 of 80 villages in one of the poorest districts...

The Role of Self-Help Groups in Community Development Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India

This paper explores the impact of participation in self-help groups (SHGs) on the well-being of women and their communities. A randomized-control-trial framework is used to evaluate the impact of SHGs in 32 villages of Dungarpur district of Rajasthan. These results suggest that in the first two years of their operation, SHGs had direct and positive impacts on women’s savings, employment, partic...

The effect of Self-Help Groups on access to maternal health services: evidence from rural India

INTRODUCTION The main challenge for achieving universal health coverage in India is ensuring effective coverage of poor and vulnerable communities in the face of high levels of income and gender inequity in access to health care. Drawing on the social capital generated through women's participation in community organizations like SHGs can influence health outcomes. To date, evidence about the i...

Economic and Social Impacts of Self-Help Groups in India

relationship between social capital and collective action in rural areas

objectives: this paper investigates the relationship between social capital and collective action in some rural areas of fars province and at the same time study determining factors affecting the social capital formation. method: this research was carried out with survey method in the 12 villages of fars province and selected a sample of 509 head of households. findings: among indicators of soc...