Impactful Potential of Microfinance towards Achievement of SDGS: Case Study on SHGS-Bank Linkage Program in India

The economic growth and Sustainable Development of the economy are based on the socio-economic empowerment of its population in a country. Microfinance has been recognized as one of the vital toolsfor poverty alleviation and socio- economic empowerment of women. Microfinance has been giving great support to poor women and helping them to move out of poverty economically and socially. Contemporaneously, United Nations General Assembly in Sept. 2015 established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve prosperity and peace in the world with inclusion of gender equality and poverty cure. The Microfinance is directly related to six SDGs, viz., End poverty (01), Zero hunger (02), Good health & wellbeing (03), Quality education (04), Gender-equality (05), and Decent work and economic growth (08). The action plan of the G8 nations mentioned that “Sustainable Microfinance can be a key component in creating sound financial market structure in the world’s poorest countries.” Most of the poverty alleviation programs cover rural areas to provide wage and self-employment besides providing other financial service like savings, credit, money transfer and insurance. In 2022 India’s SDG rank was 121 out of 163 countries. India’s recent overall score was 60 out of 100 (NABARD-2022-2023). In India Vikshit Bharat 2047 aims to make India a developed nationfocusing on gender equity, empowering women and girls for sustainable development. In this context the initiative taken by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development merits mention as it has been in the forefront since 1992 to support the Self Help Group (SHG) linked projects with microfinance across the country which is popularly known as “SHG-Bank linkage program.”The pathway of Microfinance to achieve SDGs is twofold, viz., financial inclusion and social engineering. This paper critically analyses the progress of the SHGs through bank linked programs and identifies the challenges in the process of holistic empowerment of women and suggests theways and means to achieve SDGs.