Operational Sustainability of SHGs in West Bengal: An Experimental Analysis

Self-help Groups (SHGs) played vital role as a formal financial institution through social mobilization of rural people. To avail constant assistance from SHGs in economic intermediation, its sustainability is having wider distress in donor agencies, practitioners, policy makers and academicians. The objective of the present study is to assess the functional/operational sustainability of SHGs through selected performance indicators. The study considered two district of West Bengal namely Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur. Total 519 SHGs were selected at random from 16 Gram Panchyat (GP) based on the total number of SHGs functioning during the period from 2005-06 to 2016-2017. The study is based on primary data. The field study was conducted during January to March, 2017. To examine functional or operational sustainability of SHGs some performance indicator and variable like keeping books of accounts, Maintenance of SHG Passbook, Frequency of updating books of accounts, regular of group meeting, participation in group meeting, rules and management. This empirical study established that long run existences of the SHGs are prejudiced by various performance indicators.