Capacity Building in Rural Women through Formation and Strengthening of Self Help Groups in Cooch Behar District of West Bengal

Capacity building in rural women through formation and strengthening of SHGs was experimented at Khagribari, Dhalaguru and Dhandingguri villages of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal during 2012-15 with an objective to motivate the rural women to involve in different rural development programmes.Before the start of the trial most of the women were mere housewife and performed agricultural and allied activities in their own farming situation.Many of them were not the member of any group or organization.Beside, a number of SHGs are in existence but without any group activity.Azolla cultivation as Capacity Building through NRM, backyard duckary, multistoried cropping in homestead fallow land for generation of extra income, handicrafts on dye and tie, batik and fabric painting were some of technological interventions.Monthly savings, Loan repayment, discussion on different family welfare activities like child health care, children education, care of girl child etc. were some initiatives for economic empowerment.Social and psychological empowerment on various social issues were identified by the activities like celebration of social activities like tree plantation, independence day celebration etc., busyness in Azolla units, handicrafts units and other group activities, interested in training on new aspect, awareness about various social issues, easy and frequent movement to bank.Formation and strengthening of SHGs is most important in rural India as empowering of women is most important for empowering Nation.