MICROFINANCE THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS: A WAY TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Manpreet Arora, Swati Singh
International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Business Environment Perspectives, Vol 2, No 4 (2013)

Abstract
Sustainable Development has been one of the key agenda for discussion in recent times. Sustainability is a wider term. It does not mean taking care of environment only, it encompasses variety of issues. For achieving Sustainable Development, it is necessary that each sector should develop taking into consideration certain issues like poverty, unemployment, social, economic and political development.
Sustainable Development is a broad term having various dimensions benefitting the future generations. Rural development has always been at priority in developing countries. People in rural areas were denied access to banking services due various types of risk involved to the banking institutions. Thus, the concept of Microfinance emerged as the catalyst to boost up the economic growth of the country. Microfinance has proved to be development tool helping the developing countries to tackle various issues, which hampers the growth and the sustainable development. Disbursing Microfinance through Self Help Groups Banking has been a successful programme in India that is leading the country towards Sustainable Rural Development.
This conceptual paper aims at discussing the role of Self Help Groups and Bank Linkage Programme in attaining a way towards Sustainable Development through lending credit to the sustainable projects, which not only support the rural people but also take care of future generations by preserving and conserving the natural resources.