India - Village Facilities Survey , July 2002-December 2002, NSS 58th Round

Self-help Group: A Self-help Group (SHG) is a voluntary association of people who share a common problem, condition or history. By coming together, members share support and ideas on how to plan and live a more productive and fulfilling life. Groups are usually free of charge, on-going and open to new members. These groups are formed, at the local level, mostly by under-privileged persons with the idea of developing financial stability and money management capacity through internal loaning of their own savings. SHGs also play
an important role in the health care system. In self- help groups, people take care of each other and of themselves. For the purposes of this survey, an SHG which was registered as a cooperative society was treated as a cooperative society and not an SHG.