WORK LIFE BALANCE OF WOMEN IN SELF HELP GROUPS

ABSTRACT The research is entitled as WORK LIFE BALANCE OF WOMEN IN SELF HELP GROUPS. Worklife balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) on one hand and "life" (Health, Pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development). On the other related, though broader, terms include "lifestyle balance" and "life balance" of women in Self Help Groups. To carry out this research primary data had to be collected. The required data was collected by the help of the questionnaire among a sample of 20 women in SHG chosen on Convenience sampling method. The data collected are analyzed and calculated with the help of statistical tools like Chi-Square Test and Anova Test. INTRODUCTION In India, women Empowerment is a buzz word to-day. As a nation, India is committed to the empowerment of women. Though women is regarded as the unsung heroine who works from dawn to dusk, yet it is unfortunate that even the ignorant and worthless men had been enjoying superiority over women which they do not deserve and ought not to have. So, since Independence, Government has made concerted efforts towards removing various biases.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN As majority women lack assets that help contribute to their empowerment and wellbeing, economic independence through self-employment and entrepreneurial development must be paid attention to. So, the Government of India has provided for Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

SELF-HELP GROUPS A Self-Help Group is a small voluntary association of poor people preferably from the same socio-economic back drop. The micro-credit given to them makes them enterprising; It can be all women group, all-men group or even a mixed group. However, it has been the experience that womens groups perform better in all the important activities of SHGs. Development alone cannot bring peace and prosperity unless social justice and gender equality are ensured. It has been well accepted that various development programmes have bypassed women who constitute about half of the population of the country.

International conventions and conferences, legal enactments, constitutional provisions etc. highlighted the imperative need for gender equality and women empowerment. The rural poor, with the intermediation of voluntary organizations join together for self help to secure better economic growth. This has resulted in the formation of a large number of self help groups in the country, which mobilize savings and recycle the resources generated among the members.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The research done by three authors LAURIE COHEN, JOANNE DUBERLEY AND GILL MUSSON on the title of Work Life Balance ? An Auto Ethnographic Exploration of everyday Home-Work Dynamics Based on data generated in auto ethnographic conversations among the three authors, in this article the authors critique the prevailing metaphor of worklife balance. They offer instead a conceptualization of the relationship between work and non work aspects of life that is more dynamic and less reductionist and in which emotions, as well as issues of autonomy, control, and identity, are integral features. These conversations elucidate home and work realms not as reified entities but rather as elastic constructions reinforced and also at times changed and redrawn in the course of the authors' interaction. The research done by PURNA CHANDRA PARIDA AND ANUSHREE SINHA on the title of Performance and Sustainability of Self-Help Groups in India: A Gender Perspective The existing literature on self-help group (SHG) bank linkage programs portrays them as an effective tool being used in various countries to approach a range of socioeconomic issues. This paper explores the performance and sustainability of this type of program in India at the group level. Because income-generating activities and other characteristics vary with the gender composition of self-help groups, their performance and sustainability vary.The analysis in this study is based on data from a survey carried out in six states in India. Overall, the performance analysis reveals that all-female SHGs perform best. The female SHGs are doing particularly well in terms of recovery of loans and per capita saving. The econometrics results indicate that only all-female SHGs are sustainable. The factors that determine the sustainability include recovery of loans, per capita savings, and linkage with an SHG federation.

References
1. Laurie Cohen, Joanne Duberley, Gill Musson Published March 5, 2009, doi: 10.1177/1056492609332316 Journal of Management Inquiry September 2009 vol. 18 no. 3 229-241 2. Purna Chandra Parida & Anushree Sinha. Asian Development Review, Vol 27, No:1, pp 80103.

OBJECTIVES To study how women will SHGs balance their work life and personal life RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DEFINITION: According to Redman and Mory, Research is defined as a systemized effort to gain new knowledge. RESEARCH DESIGN: The research design indicates the type of research methodology under taken to collect the information for the study. The descriptive research is used for this study. The main objective of using descriptive research is to describe the state of affairs as it exists at present. It mainly involves surveys and fact finding enquiries of different kinds. The research used descriptive research to discover the characteristics of employees. SAMPLING PLAN Sampling plan is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It covers the following areas: a) Sampling unit The respondents for carrying out the survey were selected from Women in Self Help Groups. b) Sampling size A sample size of 20 respondents was used to collect data. SAMPLING PROCEDURE:

Convenience sampling techniques has been adopted for the entire research study. QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN: Questionnaire is the heart of a survey operation. This is structured questionnaire, which has been framed for conducting the survey. The questions were presented with exactly the same wordings and in the same order to all the respondents. The questionnaire consists of both open ended and closed ended, dichotomous and multiple-choice questions. COLLECTION OF DATA There are two types of data. They are PRIMARY DATA The data those are collected as fresh for the first time and happen to be original in character are called as primary data .Primary data collected through questionnaire, (i.e.) structural questionnaires. SECONDARY DATA Data that have already been collected for some other purpose, perhaps processed and subsequently stored, are termed secondary data. Secondary data is which have already been collected by someone else and which have passed through the satisfied process. Secondary data were collected from, Company report and records Books Company profile Previous records Website Primary data Secondary data

TOOLS USED FOR ANALYSIS: The data gathered were analyzed by applying the following tools. 1. CHI-SQUARE TEST 2. ANOVA TEST

QUESTIONNAIRE To study on how women will SHGs balance their work life and personal life 1. What made you to be the member of SHG? a. Self interest to help others b. Economical development c. For Help and support 2. How you are balancing your work and family life? a. b. c. d. Not at all hard Not too hard Somewhat hard Very hard

3. Whether you face any constraints in balancing your work life a. Yes b. No c. If so how? 4. What suggestions you will provide to balance both life and work? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------