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Mahatma Gandhi, in his famous speech during the Lahore session of the Congress in 1929, said, “India lives in her villages.” It is relevant even today after eight decades progress and an astonishing invasion of technology. Technological progress and the tremendous development of the IT sector often blind many of us to the toils of the rural tiller who brings our daily lunch. No effort for national development can ignore the villages; they determine the destiny of the country. Rural development is no more something that emerges from the common sense of a select few; it is the result of organized work involving the techniques of modern management. This emphasizes the need of a broad-based research in the field of rural management also reflecting in management education. This book is an attempt in that direction. I sincerely hope that this book will provide insights into the subject to faculty members, researchers and students from the management institutes, consultants, practicing managers from industry and government officers.
The concept of Empowerment is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional and multi-layered. The women’s empowerment is a process by which women gain greater share of control over resource-material, human and intellectual like knowledge, information, ideas and financial resources like money-and access to money and control over decision-making in the home, community, society and nation.1 The Proceedings of the Third International Women’s Conference held at Nairobi in the year 1985, paved the way for emergence of concept of women empowerment and the statesmen of great vision perceived it as a powerful tool for re-distribution of social power and control of resources in favor of women.
Any sustainable development has equity as its base. To ensure this women-focused development is a pre-requisite. Though women constitute predominant segment of the population, they have been socially and economically marginalized since long time. Any strategy of development should be inclusive by bringing this segment of population into central stage of growth and development. Empowering these disadvantaged groups has received the attention of development policy makers and strategists all over the world. This chapter is an attempt to present key concepts related to women empowerment and micro-finance, initiatives at various levels to translate these policies into action program, key players in the program, stakeholders, pros and cons of empowering women by provision of microfinance through SHG.