Participation of Women Members in a Community – driven Development Project

Abstract

A community-driven development project named ‘Pudu Vazhvu’ was launched in Tamil Nadu in  November 2005 with World Bank assistance. The goal of the project was to reduce poverty among the  rural poor and other vulnerable groups and to promote their empowerment, through targeted assistance  for productive livelihood activities, in a more enabling village environment, adopting Community Driven  Development (CDD) approach. Under this project, rural women were grouped into Self Help groups to  promote their livelihood status. Hence there is a need to study the CDD-SHGs effectiveness. The study  was carried out in Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu as it is one of the districts in Tamil Nadu where  Pudu Vazhvu project was implemented. A sample of 132 respondents was selected from two blocks (six  villages) following Proportionate Random sampling technique. The present study was undertaken to find  out the participation of women project members in various activities of CDD project. The study revealed  that Pudu Vazhvu project SHG women members had participated in group meetings record and account  maintenance, formulating the rules and regulations and in getting loans.