Empowerment in the context of women’s development is a way of defining, challenging and overcoming barriers in a woman’s life through which she increases her ability to shape her life and environment. Today, globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. The Government of India and state authorities alike have increasingly realized the importance of devoting attention to the economic betterment and development of women in India. In India, self-help groups represent a unique approach to financial intermediation. Self help groups are novel and innovative organizational setup in India for the women up-liftment and welfare. This paper highlighted the role of self help groups in empowering women and discusses its importance for the economic development of women of the country. The key problem is small producers are unable to acquire access to the opportunities, skills and resources to upgrade and do not have the capabilities to engage with and influence the market system to reap the benefits that arise from upgrading processes. To address the problem, intervention like lobby-advocacy, capacity building, research and knowledge will be taken. Finally it is expected that empowered producers have higher economic status through increased income as result of improved access to services, finance and market

Vinod Kumar Rawat is Associate Fellow Varanasi. He has a PhD from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, with specialization in Women empowerment. He has published many articles in journals and chapters in books. His main research areas are urbanization, poverty, health, social exclusion and social protection programmes.