More than 41 lakh Women Self Help Groups (SHG’s) have been provided credit at the end of December 2013. Presenting the Interim Budget in the LokSabha today, the Union Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram said that ten years ago, only 9,71,182 women SHG’s had been credit linked to banks. At the end of December 2013, 41,16,000 women SHG’s have been provided credit and the outstanding amount of credit was Rs 36,893 crore.

SHG credit linkage expanded significantly, increasing bank access for women self help groups and growing outstanding loan balances. Expansion of formal bank credit linkage to women self help groups led to a substantial increase in bank financing: ten years earlier fewer than one million SHGs were credit linked, and by end of December 2013 over 41 lakh women SHGs had been provided credit, with a significant outstanding credit amount arising from those linkages.