Government of India has made several attempts to improve financial access and to reduce poverty. In this endeavour the policies of the Government and the intermediaries like the financial institutions play a key role. Financial access in the rural areas has become a reality through the formulation and functioning of Self Help Groups (SHG’s), said Prof. P. Jyothi while delivering the Inaugural lecture on “Impact of Micro Entrepreneurial Development on Women Empowerment” at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on 22 July 2014.
Prof. Jyothi based her lecture on the research that she has undertaken in the southern states. Speaking to the students, faculty and staff, she stated that the Indian economy is characterized by low rate of growth, dominance of rural population, adverse land mass ratio, heavy dependency on agriculture, concentration of industries in urban areas, highly skewed distribution of income and wealth beside, high incidence of poverty and unemployment. The last two factors, poverty and unemployment, pose major challenges to the growth and prosperity of the country. To overcome this problem, some newly developed sectors like Micro Finance are playing vital role. Micro Finance is one of the most efficient and effective tools to fight against poverty. The benefits of Micro Finance reach to the beneficiaries through the mechanism of Self –Help Group (SHG). SHG is small group of poor people, who have voluntarily come forward to form a group for improvement of social and economic status of the members, she added.
Prof. Jyothi further said that the uniqueness of the Micro Finance through SHG is a partnership based approach which encouraged NGOs to undertake not only social engineering but also financial intermediation especially in areas where banking network was not satisfactory. The rapid progress achieved in SHG formation has now turned into an empowering movement among women. Government of India has initiated several skill development and training programmes in various dimensions of poverty alleviation schemes, she stated.
She elaborated that the present research aims to study the impact and challenges experienced in the process of entrepreneurial training programs. Addressing these issues would probably enhance the empowerment of the women and enable them to establish Micro Enterprises. Practitioners and policy makers would also be interested in the study as it would bring out an important area of focus in the objectives of Micro Finance, said Dr. Jyothi while concluding the lecture.
Dr. P. Jyothi, who is a faculty in the School of Management Studies at the University of Hyderabad has about two decades of teaching and research experience. Her areas of specialization include Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management and Entrepreneurship. She is also actively involved in Consulting and conducted several executive training programs in the HR and OB areas. She has presented several papers in National and International Conferences and has handled several national and international projects. She also associates with NGOs and is actively involved in outreach activities.
Inaugural lectures are delivered by newly appointed Professors of the University and are colloquia on their research interests, for the benefit of colleagues and students from all disciplines across the campus.
Dr. Jyothi can be reached on pjbsp02@gmail.com