A Study on the Socioeconomic Profile of Self Help Groups Established under NRLM in the Jammu Region

National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) scheme was launched in 2011 with an agenda to reach out and mobilise seventy million below poverty line (BPL) households into self-managed self-help groups (SHG) and federal institutions and support them through livelihood collectives. In order to understand the profile characteristics of SHGs established under this scheme, the study was conducted in purposively selected Jammu and Samba districts in the Jammu region. Out of a total of 670 SHGs set up till 2017, a sample of 20 SHGs, 10 from each purposively selected Dansal block of Jammu district and Ghagwal block of Samba district were selected employing random sampling technique without replacement. Data collection was done by personal interview method with a semi structured interview schedule. The results revealed that all the respondents were female and majority were married belonging to the scheduled castes, with a nuclear family type having an average formal education upto 5th standard. It is also understood that there is a significant relationship between the education levels of the respondents with their caste and group membership. The study also found that majority of the respondents engaged into self help groups under NRLM belonging to the below poverty line category.