Author(s): Saravana Selvi C and Dr. KS Pushpa

Abstract:
Kudumbashree has enabled the women to share their personal experiences and this in turn has given perspective to the individual situation of many women and transformed their personal feeling of hopelessness into a feeling of being part of a collective spirit. They have been able to develop a social network in the Neighbourhood area, which to some extent has evoked a feeling of social security. Through their involvement in micro enterprise activities, the women are now more confident and independent. “The gain in social space generated a feeling of inability to act, and the prospect of higher social status”. As the women got involved in micro enterprises, the workload of the women increased as they were still in charge of household related work. Even though the earnings from micro enterprise activities are rather limited, partly due to the repaying of the loan and partly due to problems of finding a space of agency in the margins of the market, the possibility of becoming an earning member and the ability to contribute economically has resulted in a modification in attitudes within some families. However there are still a few husbands who are not happy with their wives becoming economically independent. They are not willing to let them go for week long residential training classes which are a must to be part of the enterprise. As a result a lot of women are still excluded from micro enterprises. Their activities are confined to the small scale activities done by the ‘Ayalkootams’. In this context, measuring the attitude of Kudumbashree women towards self employment is essential for every hour. The present study is descriptive in nature based on survey method. The area chosen for the present study is Devikulam block. There are 120 NHG units were functioning in Vattavada Panchayat out of them 10 NHGs were randomly selected, from each NHG 3 members were selected randomly to measure the attitude towards self employment of the members. Interview schedule was used to collect the information from the respondents. The collected data were coded, analysed and presented in frequency tables by using descriptive and inferential statistics through SPSS package v.22. The data were collected from November to December 2018. The study concluded that the members in Kudumbashree have positive attitude towards self employment. It was identified that their social status and economic level has been increased after joining in Kudumbashree units.