Idea mooted during Ninth Five Year Plan for formation of Self Help Group to alleviate the poverty of rural people was implemented by NABARD during 1992-93. The Cooperation Department under the State Government played a pioneering role in formation of SHGs at village level under the aegis and supervision of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and various Central Cooperative Banks. A detailed operational guideline for enrolment of SHGs as a member of PACS under business development plan and monitoring and regulation of SHGs was first issued by the Department on 02.05.1995.
Self Help Groups (SHG) usually consists of 10-20 Women per group coming from different families and belonging to economically weaker section. Of late, initiatives have been taken to form Male SHG. Men Self Help Groups comprising at least 5 male members who are residents of the same village/contiguous place but belonging to different families are being formed by PACS/LAMPS/FSCS/ /PAMS/UCBs/Farmers' Producer Organizations under Cooperative fold/Branches of CCB/DCCBs/WBSCB Ltd/WBSCARDB Ltd/ARDBs. Even there are mixed Self Help Groups where both women and men belonging to different families are members.
The objectives for formation of SHGs are mainly (a) Poverty alleviation by income generation, (b) Asset building, (c) Empowerment of poorer section of people, especially women, both social and financial areas of life and (d) Establishment of human rights of vulnerable sections and Awareness of socio-economic issues.
SHGs under Cooperative fold are nurtured, monitored and supervised by cooperative institutions such as PACS, ARDBs, UCBs, and Branches of the CFAs to ensure that the SHGs are not deprived of any kind of support necessary for their holistic development and loans are provided to them for undertaking economic activities. Having said that, it is to mention that loan up to 06 times of respective Groups' Deposit, is issued by the financing agencies on case to case basis. A whooping sum of ₹ 1650.77 Crore has been sanctioned as loan to SHGs during the last Financial Year ended on 31.03.2022. To ensure that these SHGs are not overlooked under any circumstances, a few Central Cooperative Banks have even introduced various welfare and Social Security Schemes for the members of the SHGs.
Moreover, to ensure that these SHGs can manage their day to day activities and also undertake economic activities towards income generation, State Government provides Financial Assistance for both Awareness/Orientation/Sensitization Training and Skill Development Training of the members of the SHGs under Cooperative fold. It is needless to mention that such trainings have played a significant role in the empowerment of rural poor during the past few years.