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Open access Jul 2026

Self-Help Groups and Women Empowerment: An Analysis

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as an effective mechanism for promoting women's political and socio-economic empowerment by enhancing their access to financial resources, leadership opportunities, and collective decision-making. The present paper examines the role of SHGs in increasing political awareness and promoting political empowerment among women in Village Fatehpur, District Mansa. The paper adopts a descriptive and analytical research design based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire and personal interviews with women members of SHGs, while secondary data were obtained from books, research articles, government reports, journals, and official online sources. The findings reveal that SHGs have significantly improved women's political awareness, knowledge of Panchayati Raj institutions, participation in Gram Sabha meetings, leadership skills, self-confidence, and involvement in household and community decision-making. However, women continue to face challenges such as inadequate education, limited political awareness, economic constraints, patriarchal social norms, family restrictions, and gender discrimination, which restrict their active participation in politics. The paper concludes that strengthening SHGs through capacity building, financial inclusion, political education, and institutional support can further enhance women's political empowerment, promote gender equality, and strengthen grassroots democracy.   

Research Scholar Jaspreet Kaur, Debasmita Bala · 0 citations
Open access Jul 2026

“It’s all about the money!”: Challenges and tensions in the institutionalization of a community-based collective

The Protetoras da Leste collective is a social mobilization network made up of more than 200 women from the eastern periphery of São Paulo. The group operates by transforming women’s networks of care and solidarity into a driving force for territorial change, providing support, facilitating access to rights, and offering assistance in times of crisis, such as the recurrent floods that affect the territory where they live. Created during the Covid-19 pandemic to address its impacts on vulnerable families, the collective gained strength and legitimacy through its community-based actions. Its success led a local civil society organization to support and foster new initiatives developed by the group. With financial and institutional backing, the collective expanded its scope of action and established its own headquarters. As the group transitions from an organic support network to a more formalized structure, it faces the challenge of professionalizing its management and accessing public funding opportunities without losing active grassroots participation, while dealing with technical bureaucracy and the emotional burden placed on its leadership. The case thus explores the tensions and challenges involved in the collective’s institutionalization process.

Inácio Dias de Andrade, Débora Cajé Yamamoto · 0 citations
Open access Jul 2026

A Study on the Role of Self-Help Groups in Women's Financial Empowerment in Kerala

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have become an important vehicle for promoting financial inclusion and strengthening the economic position of women by improving their access to financial services, livelihood opportunities and participation in financial decision-making. In Kerala, the Kudumbashree Mission has played a pivotal role in expanding the reach of SHGs and creating opportunities for women to achieve greater economic self-reliance and social empowerment. Recognising the importance of these initiatives, the present study investigates the contribution of Self-Help Groups to women's financial empowerment and evaluates the influence of SHG participation on savings behaviour, income generation, financial decision-making, financial confidence and overall financial well-being. The study is based on both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data were collected from 120 women members of Self-Help Groups through a structured interview schedule. The respondents were selected from three districts of Kerala such as Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode, representing the southern, central and northern regions of the state, with 40 participants drawn from each district. Secondary information was obtained from books, scholarly journals, government publications, reports and other relevant documents. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach's Alpha, Pearson's Correlation Analysis and Simple Linear Regression Analysis. The findings indicate that active participation in Self-Help Groups significantly contributes to women's financial empowerment by promoting regular saving habits, improving access to credit, creating opportunities for income generation and enhancing their role in household financial decision-making. The study further reveals that SHG participation strengthens women's financial confidence, supports economic independence and contributes positively to their overall financial well-being. It concludes that Self-Help Groups are an effective instrument for advancing women's financial empowerment and promoting financial inclusion in Kerala. The study recommends expanding financial literacy programmes, strengthening entrepreneurship development initiatives and improving access to digital financial services to enhance the long-term economic empowerment of women.

Dr. Biju Thomas, Dr. Sateesh Chandran S. · 0 citations
Review Open access Aug 2026

A Study on the Factors Influencing and Mechanisms Promoting Social Work Participation Among University Students in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from a Systems Theory Perspective

Against the backdrop of the comprehensive implementation of the ‘Five-Community Coordination’ mechanism, university students—as future professionals in social work and a reserve force for community voluntary service—play a crucial role; their willingness to participate is directly linked to the sustainability of grassroots governance and the quality of services provided. This study, which focused on university students in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, employed a combination of questionnaire surveys and statistical analysis to systematically examine the current status, characteristics and influencing factors of university students’ willingness to participate in social work. The findings reveal that whilst university students demonstrate high levels across dimensions such as personal motivation, family and peer support, institutional support, social and environmental support, and life experiences and sense of giving back, their willingness to participate remains relatively low, exhibiting a dichotomy characterised by ‘high recognition but low willingness’; only 17.8 per cent of students participate on a regular basis, with ‘low-intensity participation’ being widespread; first-year students’ total participation scores are significantly higher than those of third-year students, reflecting the existence of a ‘year-group inhibition’ effect. Correlation analysis indicates a strong correlation between developmental experiences and reciprocity, and between social and environmental support and willingness to participate; there are also strong correlations among the various support dimensions, reflecting the interconnection and synergistic effects of factors at different levels emphasised by systems theory. The findings suggest that although the current support system is gradually improving, there are structural bottlenecks in ‘transforming motivation’, with a lack of tiered and progressive design, in-depth practical experiences, and mechanisms for continuous feedback. Based on systems theory, this paper proposes a promotion mechanism comprising ‘micro-activation, meso-integration and macro-coordination’: at the micro-level, short-cycle micro-experience projects and feedback-based placements are used to bridge the gap between knowledge and action; at the meso-level, a three-tier progressive system of ‘experiencers, implementers and leaders’ is established, linking voluntary service with professional placements and final-year projects; at the macro-level, a tangible collaborative platform involving ‘universities, communities and enterprises’ is established, with permanent placement positions set up at social work stations. The study is limited by its cross-sectional design and sampling from a single geographical area; future research should employ longitudinal tracking and quasi-experimental designs to further elucidate causal mechanisms. Only by deeply integrating young people’s developmental needs, professional competencies and grassroots governance tasks can we achieve the organic unity of ‘helping others’ and ‘self-development’, thereby supplying grassroots governance modernisation with a young workforce that is committed, capable and resilient.

Siyu Yue · 0 citations
Open access Jul 2026

“Things are really not in order here” : Self‑help groups as a community‑led welfare architecture in volatile settings

Self-help groups are well-established mechanisms of mutual support and collective well-being. However, their developmental role in protracted crises remains underexamined. Drawing on qualitative interviews, focus groups, and collaborative vignette analysis in eastern DRC, this study explores how women’s self-help and rotating loan groups function as solidarity networks within developmental social work. The findings highlight self-help groups as a form of crisis governance, rotating loans as both means and ends of sustainable livelihoods beyond mere survival economies, and informal peer networks as emerging sites for accidental counselling. Together, the findings reposition self-help groups as community-led welfare infrastructures, offering a globally relevant alternative to state-centric and clinical models of recovery in protracted armed conflicts and forced displacement.

A. Kasherwa, Helmut Spitzer, Lucio Kikuni Kangela et al. · 0 citations
Open access Jul 2026

Feminization of poverty and problem-solving capacity among female-headed households in indonesia: self-esteem and social support as determinants

Female-headed households represent one of the most economically and psychosocially vulnerable groups in Indonesia; however, their internal coping capacities remain insufficiently explored within the social welfare literature. This study investigates how self-esteem and social support shape the problem-solving capacity of poor female-headed households in Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia. A qualitative descriptive-explanatory case study design was employed, with data gathered through in-depth interviews with ten purposively selected primary informants prioritizing information-rich cases, two focus group discussion sessions, and participant observation. Data were analyzed using theory-guided thematic analysis following the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, and validated through source triangulation and member-checking procedures. The findings reveal that informants experienced a severe collapse of self-esteem and social misrecognition during the initial transition following spousal loss, further exacerbated by stigma within patriarchal rural communities. Active involvement in the Pekka Union served as a radical psychosocial turning point, reconstructing self-esteem through collective recognition and skill mastery. Social support emerged as the most dominant force shaping problem-solving capacity, substantially exceeding the contribution of self-esteem. These findings challenge deficit-oriented perspectives and affirm that resilience among female-headed households is relational and collectively constructed. Social welfare interventions should therefore adopt strengths-based and feminist empowerment strategies.

Bambang Rustanto, Tuti Kartika, Dwi Yuliani et al. · 0 citations