The Future of Self-Help Groups
SHG Bank Linkage Model pioneered by NABARD served the dual purpose of financial inclusion as well as social empowerment for rural poor women from excluded communities. SHG program had shown to be successful in connecting both unserved as well as under-served customers with financial services. In the changing financial landscapes, it's merely a question of time before the JLG movement overshadows the SHG movement. The data on regulated microfinance institutions (MFIs) that submitted their numbers to the Microfinance Institutions Network indicates that over the past year, loan portfolios grew by 84 percent, and loan disbursements grew by 45 percent ( Source ). SHGs financed by the bank despite government schemes like NRLM became stagnant with the growth of the MFI sector. The data set ( Source ) shows a decline in SHG financed by banks post 2013 while the JLG movement is seeing tremendous growth. JLG model has led to the establishment of a large microcredit sector in India...