Women-led SHG Movement, Bank Linkage Programmes and Income of Urban Poor in India

This chapter deals with the most crucial aspect of the women SHG movement, the SHG-Bank Linkage programme. This government-sponsored micro-credit programme has been helpful in making the SHG movement sustainable up to a large extent. The chapter presents the evolution of the SHG-Bank Linkage programme in urban Andhra Pradesh with a historical perspective, beginning with the launch of Andhra Pradesh Urban Services Programme (APUSP). It has also briefly dealt with the origin of women SHG-Bank linkage programme in India. The chapter has also looked into the singular disadvantage faced by the urban poor, precisely the slum-dwellers, in accessing financial services like credit from formal institutions like banks. Apart from the steady growth of the bank linkage programme among the urban women SHGs in Andhra Pradesh and later Telangana, the chapter has also focussed on the micro finance crisis that almost threatened to derail the bank linkage programme in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The chapter has concluded that among all micro-credit programmes, the bank-linkage programme has the potential to become a sustainable programme for urban women SHGs in Telangana and seemingly having a positive impact on their livelihood and income.