Socio-economic impact of enterprises adoption on self-help group households in Punjab

The socio-economic impact of adoption of the enterprises on SHG member households has been studied in the Punjab state by selecting the districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. A sample of 30 SHGs was selected randomly from these districts. Amongst the selected SHGs, 2 members from each of the SHG were randomly selected making a total sample of 60 respondents. Amongst the activities, the sample SHG members were found to adopt pickle and murabba, bee-keeping, papad/baddi and candle making enterprise, which were finally selected for the detailed analysis. The reference year of the study was 2014. The results of the study showed that SHGs had good impact on saving, income, assets formation, employment and other social aspects of the members. The SHG member households confronted the problems during opening of bank account, low credit delivery, high rate of interest on credit amount, lack of training, marketing problems and competition from MNCs. But it requires a lot more efforts on part of the government as well as the banking sector to promote SHGs in the state. There is need to focus on awareness programmes for adopted economic activities, training facilities and providing credit delivery.