Social Empowerment of Fisherwomen Self-Help Groups in Coastal Villages of Tuticorin District, Tamilnadu

Self Help Groups are small homogenous groups consisting of 12-20 women from BPL families voluntarily organized to promote savings. This study aims at savings & rural credit of SHGs in five coastal villages of Tuticorin District viz Thaalamuthunagar, Vellapatti, Therespuram, Arockiapuram & Inigo Nagar. Tuticorin District having 19 town panchayats formed 1230 SHGs, and their achievement is 259%. The Objectives of the present study are: 1. To collect data on the socio-economic structure and activities of the fisherwomen SHGs; 2. To analyze the income and savings of the members after joining SHGs; and 3. To study the decision making either as equal partners with husband or independently on purchases for the family. The study utilized both primary and secondary data. Primary data relating to the socioeconomic background and various other aspects relating to social empowerment of the fisherwomen were collected through pre-designed questionnaire from 687 fisherwomen representing 38 SHGs from the selected five coastal villages in Tuticorin District. A separate interview schedule was designed, pilot tested and used for data collection. The schedule was used to collect specific information from each member of the fisherwomen SHGs. Percentage analysis and averages were used owing to the constraints imposed by the nature of data. Class interval technique was used to analysis the age, income, savings and expenditure. To conclude, the economic activities of SHGs are quite successful. In this way, SHGs in five villages of Tuticorin District were very successful to develop women empowerment and rural areas