Self Help Groups In Rural Uttar Pradesh A Study On Income And Employment Generations

Abstract

Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have a third of the worldand#8223;s poor. The credit needs and other financial services are provided to the rural masses in general and to the poor in particular through the rural financial markets comprising an unorganized sector consisting of commission agents, moneylenders, landlords and the like and an organized sector consisting of pyramid type cooperative credit institution broadly classified into urban credit cooperatives and rural credit cooperatives. The urban credit cooperatives are also known as Urban Cooperative Banks. The urban cooperative banks aim at meeting the credit requirements of the people living in urban areas. The rural credit cooperatives may be further divided into short-term credit cooperatives and long term credit cooperatives. With regard to short term cooperatives, at the grass-root level there are Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) dealing directly with the individual borrowers. At the central level (district level) District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB) function as a link between the primary societies and State Cooperative Apex Banks (SCB). As against the three tier structure of the short- term credit cooperatives, the long term cooperative credit structure has two tiers with many states with Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDB) at the primary level and State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank at the state level. At the National Level there is the NABARD to organize the Agricultural Cooperatives. Also there is National Cooperative Union of India, as an apex institution at National Level. newlineThere is overlapping, duplication and dichotomy of functions within organized markets. The poor, however heavily depend on unorganized sector of credit like traders, landlords, moneylenders and the like. newlineThe unorganized credit sector has a number of plus points such as prompt supply of credit, no formalities, no security or collaterals with excellent recovery results. The dark side of t