Chapter Article in Contemporary Issues In Business And Economics: Volume-1
FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT INDEX: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF WOMEN IN SHGS RAJASTHAN, INDIA
Dr Aditi Soni*, Dr Sanjay Kumar Patel**
*Assistant Professor, School of Commerce and Management Studies, Dayananda Sagar University, Bengaluru.
**Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, School of Commerce and Management, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Rajasthan.
- ISBN: 978-1-387-65048-4
- DOI: 10.25215/1387734229.05
Reducing gender inequality and empowering women is one of the 17 goals of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Financial empowerment of women is one of the key steps in this direction. Empowerment means providing an individual with the power to exercise their rights and take their own as well as household decisions. Financial Empowerment of women is concerned with making women financially independent so that they can take their decisions and exercise their rights.
In India, Self Help Groups (SHGs) have contributed in empowering women with special focus on financial strengthening, extensively in rural areas of the country. The objective of the present study is to develop an index for measuring the Financial Empowerment (FE) of women and test it empirically. The study is based on data collected from women who are members of SHGs in Jaipur. The data is collected using Interview Schedule from both rural and urban areas of Jaipur. Indices are calculated for both rural and urban areas and a comparative analysis is conducted. The results show that the urban SHG members are more empowered as compared to rural SHG women.