Socio-Economic and Institutional Impact on Decision Making through Self Helf Groups

The investigation was conducted to know the decision making role of rural SHG and non-SHG farm women in some selected villages namely Koshigram, Nanagar, Khayerhat and Jagigram under Burdwan district. Data were collected through interview schedule for 200 rural women (100 SHGs and 100 non-SHG members) during March, 2014. Findings revealed that majority of respondents (59%) were young women in the age group between 20 to 35 years. The sample were collected predominantly on nuclear families type. Most women respondents (98.5%) were from Hindu Scheduled caste and tribe. Mostly literate women sampled in this study engaged in various activities such as agriculture farming and farm labour. Decision Making Index (DMI) was developed to measure each of the items regarding different aspects of role. In the case of SHGs, the DMI ranged from 85-170 and in the case of non-SHGs the DMI ranged from 35-110 against a possible range of 0-200. On the basis of DMI top aspects of decision making role were Employment status (170), Occupation of the women (160), Woman’s capability of taking decision (160), Education (150), Age of the women (150), Access to family income (145), Land holding (140), Participation in Social organisations (130) and Participation in SHG’s (120). Contrarily, in the case of non-SHG women social except family type (110), economic and institutional factors had no significant impact on the participation in decision making. The decision making power in relation social, economic and institutional factors was greatest among the women of SHG households than the women of non-SHG households. From this study, it is recommended here to take immediate steps for empowering the rural women by providing latest scientific knowledge and skill through effective and appropriate channel so that they can help, motivate and influence the male farmers in taking accurate decisions in farm activities. Moreover, women should be involved with SHGs to get loan to utilize in various income generating activities for earning more income. As a result, they could uplift themselves socioeconomically and decision making. Keywords: Participation, farm women, socio-economic and institutional factors,farm decision