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Abstract
Women empowerment is the most important instrument for the socio-economic development of a nation. Bringing women into the mainstream is one of the major challenges for every government. Women empowerment has become a meme in the global governance network. In this context, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as the tool that wields power to create a socio-economic revolution in the rural areas of our country. Self-Help Groups movement in India has been working in the right direction in empowering women and eradicating poverty in the rural and urban areas. Many women in India strongly believe in the movement and hold it responsible for improving their livelihoods. However, women are still not empowered as per the expectation. The present study is an attempt to analyse the role and performance of SHGs in promoting women's empowerment in Virudhunagar district. The broad objective of the study is to analyse the operating system of SHGs for mobilization of saving, delivery of credit to the needy, repayment of loans and in building up of opinion of SHG members regarding increase in the power of decision making. The SHG movement in India has been moving in the right direction, but still a long way to go. It is necessary to empower the women more and more in social, cultural, economic, political and legal matters, for the interest of the family in particular and the nation in general.