Women's Self-Help Groups in India: Gender Equity, a Human Right

Abstract

Throughout the world, gender inequality—pervasive and deeply embedded in societal structures and ideologies—continues to inhibit human potential and retard the social and economic development of individuals, families, and entire populations. Viewed by many as an abuse of basic human rights, gender inequality perpetuates negative outcomes of health and well-being, and propagates undemocratic, unjust, and unproductive social patterns and political processes. India, a country vastly plagued by the ill effects of gender inequality, accounts for nearly 1/5 of total maternal deaths globally and only trails behind Sub-Sahara Africa for total losses due to reproductive health disparities (UNDP, 2010). The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the effects of SHG—within an Indian context—on the overall health of women, in order to grasp an understanding of this debated public health paradigm and to consider its applicability to a diversity of settings. SHG‟s has become a major strategy in India for combating gender inequality through a holistic approach to health and well-being. Gender inequality, within India and on a global scale, has become a pressing issue that requires aggressive and definitive action. Nurses are on the forefront of social and community change action; nurse‟s all-encompassing approach to health and ability to engage women in the community, allow them to facilitate health improvement as a development tool. The many „faces of gender inequality‟ (Sen, 2004) must not be obscured by contextual or cultural differences; they must be viewed through the lens of these differences in order to realize their common threads.