Level of social participation among rural women: A comparative study of members and non-members of self help group in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Pages: 1075-1079
V. Brindha (College of Nursing, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)
S. Sampath Kumar (Department of Sociology and Population Studies Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)


Empowerment of women is essentially the process of upliftment of economic, social and political status of women and the ways to empower women include changes in women’s mobility and social interaction, access and control over resources and decision making and self employment. Self Help Group (SHG) activities lead to women empowerment by positively influencing women’s decision making power at household level and their overall socioeconomic status. A study to assess the level of social participation of SHG members and non members in rural areas of Coimbatore. Descriptive study was done among rural women selected through multi stage sampling technique and a pretested interview schedule was used for data collection. Nearly 30% of the members and non members were between 26-35 years of age, having primary education and 50% of them were housewives. The main reason for joining the SHG was taking loans and 90% of them used for their business. Among the SHG members the mean social participation score was highest for casting their vote independently and was lowest for tasks like participation in social gathering and also for their view about themselves as efficient leaders whereas in non members the mean score was high for participation in public debate. The mean level of social participation of the SHG members and non members were same and there was a significant association between the income and level of social participation, which give us an inference that rural women who are economically empowered are also socially empowered.