WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND MICROFINANCE - A STUDY ON SELF HELP GROUPS IN THANE DISTRICT OF MAHARASHTRA

Women empowerment in the context of women?s development is a way of defining, challenging and overcoming barriers in a women?s life through which she increases her ability to shape her life and environment. It is an active multidimensional process, which should enable women to realize their full identity and power in all spheres of life. India envisions a future in which Indian women are independent and self reliant. It is unfortunate that because of centuries of inertia, ignorance and conservatism, the actual and potential role of women in the society has been ignored, preventing them from making their rightful contribution to social progress. Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. Entrepreneurship amongst women has been a recent concern. Women have become aware of their existence their rights and their work situation. However, women of middle class are not too eager to alter their role in fear of social backlash. The progress is more visible among upper class families in urban cities. However it is observed the development of women entrepreneurship is very low in India, especially in the rural areas. The present paper is based on primary and secondary data collected from different sources and specially focus on women entrepreneurship. The collected data has been analyzed through statistical techniques i.e. SPSS, EXCEL and conclusion were drawn