Which of the following institutions has contributed mainly in improving the economic status of the poor women in rural areas?

Correct — B. A self-help group is a small savings-and-credit group, usually of 15 to 20 women from one neighbourhood, which pools regular savings and lends from that pool to its own members.

Because the group guarantees the loan collectively, a member borrows without collateral and outside the moneylender's rates. That is precisely how a poor rural woman's economic position improves.

Banks then lend to the group rather than to the individual, so the institution the question wants is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Integrated Development Project — The option names a generic project title rather than a standing institution, and nothing in it is specific to credit for poor rural women.
• (c)
  Indira Awas Yojana — Indira Awaas Yojana was a rural housing scheme, giving assistance to build a house. It was restructured as Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Gramin in 2016 and never worked as a credit institution.
• (d)
  Rural Health Scheme — A health programme delivers services, not income. Nothing in it creates the savings pool or the collective guarantee that lets a woman borrow.

Rural credit has two faces. The formal one — banks and cooperatives — asks for collateral and paperwork that the rural poor rarely have. The informal one — moneylenders and traders — is available, at rates that trap the borrower.

The self-help group was designed to bridge them. Members save small amounts regularly and lend to one another from the pooled fund. After a year or two of good repayment the group itself becomes creditworthy to a bank.

The collateral is the group's word, and the borrower's bargaining power is the group's.

Key facts

• A typical self-help group has 15 to 20 members who save regularly and lend from the pooled amount.
• Loans to SHG members are collateral-free and rest on the group's collective guarantee.
• NABARD launched the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme in 1992.
• NCERT notes that SHGs also become a forum in which members discuss health, nutrition and domestic violence.

Common traps

• Choosing a familiar welfare scheme when the question asks which institution raises incomes.
• Assuming an SHG lends government money. The first pool is the members' own savings.

No directly related past PYQ was found.