A Synthesis of Agrarian Crisis & Microfinance-Self Help Group Policy in India: Exploring the Neoliberal Agenda

Abstract

Self-help group policy originated as a space that enabled the poor, especially women, to approach development through their own choices. The paper seeks to provide a historical background for the emergence of this policy in India. It further studies the role of each institution in consolidating the policy framework at various levels. An attempt is made to critically establish the interlinkages between self-help group policy and the agrarian crisis that India faced at different epochs of development. The policy is analysed at various levels including social, economic and political through conceptual frameworks such as social capital and class. An attempt is made to substantiate the arguments by discussing the case of microfinance crisis in South India- specifically in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The final part of the paper seeks to conclude that SHG policy in India is largely a product of depoliticisation of development and disempowerment of the poor, which emerged as a consequence of neoliberalism.