THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(a): The details of the number of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the country and their annual
transactions during the last three years as reported by National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development (NABARD) are indicated below:
Particulars Year Total SHGs (Amt. in crore) No.
Saving linked SHGs 2006-07 4160584 3512.71 2007-08 5009794 3785.39 2008-09 6121147 5545.62
Loans disbursed 2006-07 1105749 6570.39 2007-08 1227770 8849.26 2008-09 1609586 12253.51
Loans outstanding 31.03.2007 2894505 12366.49 31.03.2008 3625941 16999.91 31.03.2009 4224338 22679.84
State-wise information of SHG loans outstanding for the year 2008-09 are furnished in the
Annex- A.
(b) & (c): A major national level study on ‘Impact and Sustainability of SHG Bank Linkage
Programme’ was conducted through the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
The study was aimed to assess the impact and sustainability of SHG Bank Linkage on the
socio-economic conditions of individual members and their households in the pre and post
SHG scenarios. The study did not estimate SHGs share in the Goss Domestic Product (GDP) of
India.
(d): The following steps are being taken to encourage SHGs:
# To give an impetus to microfinance the Reserve bank of India (RBI) has categorized
microfinance under priority sector lending and lending to SHGs was brought under weaker section
of the priority sector lending.
# RBI has permitted banks to use the services of Non Governmental Organisations
(NGOs)/SHGs, Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and other Civil Society Organisations as
intermediaries in providing financial and banking services through Business Facilitator
(BF) and Business Correspondent (BC) models. The authorized functionaries of well run
SHGs can be appointed as BCs of banks.
# RBI has advised banks to provide adequate incentives to their branches for
financing SHGs.
# NABARD has introduced training and capacity building of SHGs/grading of SHGs etc.
