Self Help Groups: From Poverty to Prosperity An empirical study of district Kanpur Dehat

Abstract

Poverty and unemployment are the major problems of any under developed countries, to which India is no exception. In India, at the end of ninth five year pan 26.1% of the population was living below poverty line. In the rural area 27.1% of the population was living under poverty. The overall unemployment rate is estimated to 7.32%. The female unemployment rate is 8.5%. The rate of growth of women unemployment in the rural area is 9.8%. This is because of the low growth rate of new and productive employment. In the end of IX plan the rate of growth of implemented various schemes to reduce poverty and to promote the gainful employment. But the more attractive scheme with less effort (finance) is “Self Help Group”. It is a too to remove poverty and improve the rural development (Sabyasachi Das. 2003).

Uttar Pradesh having largest population in India is also considered to be a politically strong, enlightened and decisive force in India’s political gamut. Out of 58 years of Indian Republic hood, the state of Uttar Pradesh has pride of giving Prime Minister in one way or other, for 38 years. Despite all this, Uttar Pradesh is still considered as one of the poorest and most backward states of India. It is the most populous state having 16.44 percent of country’s population. The total population of the state, according to the census of 2001 is 16, 60, 52,859 out of which 8, 74, 66,301 are males and 7, 85, 86,558 are females. The Literacy rate in the state is 57.36% that comprises of 70.23% male literacy and 42.98% of female literacy. The rural literacy rate of the state is 36.66% (census 2001) in which women literacy rate is 19.02% while men literacy is 52.05%.