Progress of Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme in India

Abstract

In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the progress of SHG-Bank linkage programme in India during the period between 2007-2008 and 2019-2020. The progress of SHG-Bank linkage programme has been analyzed in terms growth of savings of SHGs with banks and growth of bank loans disbursed to SHGs. For this purpose the data required for the study were collected from the official publication of National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD), different published reports, journals and existing available literature. This study employed simple statistical tools such as percentage analysis and averages to analyze the data. The result of the study shows that there is significant raise in the amount of savings of SHGs with banking sector and amount of loans disbursed to SHGs, During this study period. However the agency-wise analyses of savings of SHGs and loans disbursed to SHGs show that the Commercial banks lead in getting savings of SHGs and loans disbursed to them followed by Regional Rural Banks and Co-operative banks. Not with standing the remarkable progress, geographically there has been skewed development of SHG-Bank linkage programme in India. There is wide regional disparity in the spread of SHGs, savings of SHGs with banks and loans disbursed to SHGs under this programme. The outreach of this programme is spectacular in Southern region while North, West and Eastern regions are lagging behind. In view of the large outreach, predominant position and the possible benefits to the poor, it is very important to see the benefits of this programme to reach across all sections of the society and regions. So far the SHG movement is India is mostly South-Centric and it is yet to take off the real sense in other regions of India.