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Women's self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members' ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency. ; Non-PR ; CRP4; IFPRI1; E Building Resilience; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender theme; Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies (WINGS) ; PHND; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

Governments and development organizations worldwide are considering group-based platforms as alternatives to government- or market-based approaches for service delivery. This paper analyses the correlates of women's membership in self-help groups (SHGs) using two datasets from India. Older women and those in villages without banks are more likely to join SHGs. Different findings across the two datasets highlight the drawbacks of using program evaluation data for guiding geographic targeting and placement of SHG programs. Our results emphasize the need to understand regional variations in membership and the unique characteristics of women, households, and villages when designing and targeting SHG platforms, particularly when using them for service delivery. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; CRP4; Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies (WINGS); Capacity Strengthening; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; G Cross-cutting gender theme ; PHND; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

Women's self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members' ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency. ; PR ; IFPRI3; ISI; CRP4; Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies (WINGS); G Cross-cutting gender theme; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all ; A4NH; PHND ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)