Perception of empowerment by the members of women self-help groups in goat farming in Thrissur district

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to analyse the members’ perception of empowerment through participation in women SHGs, to explore the members’ perception of effectiveness of functioning of their own groups and to analyse the opportunities and threats associated with empowerment through microfinance in goat farming as perceived by the members. Among the members of SHGs engaged in goat farming for atleast one year, operating under Kudumbashree in Thrissur district, 150 members were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. The data were collected through structured questionnaire and interviews. Three-fourth of the respondents had medium knowledge of goat farming and almost two-third had highly favourable attitude towards group activity. As for the members’ perception of empowerment, more than half of the respondents were in the medium category. The respondents had the strongest perception of being empowered in the psychological aspects. About the members’ perception of effectiveness of group functioning, more than three-fourth of the respondents fell in the medium category. The functioning of the group in terms of quality of official procedures was perceived as most effective by the members. Opportunity to earn income was perceived by more than half of the respondents, whereas, lack of cooperation from family members was perceived as the most serious threat. Intercorrelations of perception of empowerment, perception of effectiveness of group functioning, knowledge of goat farming and attitude towards group activity were worked out using Kendall’s tau-b rank order correlation. Significant positive correlation was observed between perception of effectiveness of group functioning and attitude towards group activity. The members’ perception of empowerment had significant negative correlation with their knowledge of goat farming. A significant negative relationship was found between the members’ perception of empowerment and the herd size of goats maintained by them. The perception of empowerment of the respondents having previous training exposure was higher than those with no training exposure. Also, the perception of empowerment of the illiterate members was higher than that of literate members.