Measurement of Attitudes of Rural Women Towards Self-Help Groups

Self-help groups (SHGs) have emerged as an effective mechanism of empowerment and development of women as well as being an efficient mode of promoting group action and technology dissemination. Initiatives were undertaken at the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana to facilitate the formation of women's SHGs and to develop their capabilities through training programmes for harnessing the benefits of value addition and processing technologies for employment and income generation. The study attempts to assess the attitude changes in women about SHGs as a result of training. The evaluation of SHGs was conducted at attitude construct. A Likert-type scale consisting of 26 items was developed, for which Cronbach's alpha coefficient of reliability was observed as 0.85. The survey instrument contained five sections; namely, socio-economic upliftment; education and training; marketing and entrepreneurship qualities; technology adoption and participatory research; and banking/credit aspects. The training group consisting of 30 participants of SHGs responded to five-section survey instrument. Significant t-test results for mean values of attitude of women before and after the training showed a significant change in attitude of women in all the five areas as a result of training. Positive orientation towards a task paves the way for success. The study exemplifies the impact of training in instilling positive orientation. For addressing the issues of rural poverty, enrichment of the system with social capital through empowerment and formation of women SHGs; provision of financial and credit support; creation of market-driven and decentralized extension system; use of media-mix for technology transfer and informal education at rural level; conduction of need-based training and strong political will need to be emphasized.