Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the question given below.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The Self-Help Group (SHG) Bank Linkage Programme, spearheaded by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), stands as the world's largest participatory microfinance initiative. By organising rural women into affinity groups of ten to twenty members, the model fundamentally replaced collateral-based underwriting with peer social capital. Group members pool modest periodic thrift savings into a shared internal fund, extending emergency microloans to peers for healthcare, agricultural inputs, and micro-enterprise capital before establishing formal borrowing lines with commercial banks.
Empirical evaluations demonstrate that SHG integration substantially elevates female household agency, improves child nutrition metrics, and fortifies rural households against exogenous agro-climatic shocks. The repayment discipline within SHGs consistently exceeds ninety-five percent, sustained by the psychological efficacy of collective peer monitoring. Nonetheless, critical structural challenges compromise the model's long-term sustainability. The mushrooming of unregulated digital lending applications offering predatory instant credit has led to severe borrower over-indebtedness in peri-urban belts. Furthermore, while SHGs provide effective consumption-smoothing safety nets, they frequently fail to graduate members from informal subsistence activities into viable, scalable, and value-adding micro-enterprises due to deficient managerial skilling and market access.
According to empirical studies cited in the passage, what positive socio-economic outcomes correlate with SHG membership?
๐ก Solution & Explanation:
Correct Answer: (B)
Core Concept: Reading Comprehension โ Outcome Evaluation
Step-by-Step Solution:
1. Paragraph 2 explicitly states: 'substantially elevates female household agency, improves child nutrition metrics, and fortifies rural households against exogenous agro-climatic shocks.'
2. This corresponds directly to option (B).
Key Shortcut / Exam Tip: Match 'female household agency, child nutrition metrics, climate shocks'.