Is Book Keeping A Challenge to Self Help Group?

The legitimate and systematic account management is the strength for any form of informal and formal
institutions to sustain for a longer period. In this context we can‟t neglect the Self Help Groups and their
accounts management procedures. Involvements of MFIs and NGOs in formation of SHG, book keeping
and also in their capacity building have been evidently proved. Everyone will accept that SHGs have an
inevitable role in book keeping for the maintenance of periodical subscriptions, Voluntary savings,
Internal & External loan Repayment and Disbursement, Cash book and cheque receipt register. But still
there is a gap in maintaining these records which leads to dismantle of group at some stage. Though there
are many reasons for a group to get dismantle, improper book keeping and financial accounting plays the
major role. Basically these SHGs members posses either minimum education or lack education. Hence,
accounting becomes a big challenge for them and the accurate book keeping is the strength for their long
term sustainability. In the light of the above concept, the study is planned to use the primary data‟s
collected from structured questionnaire by interviewing the members of the SHGs as well as from their
records, in the selected urban centers of Thiruvannamali District, in Tamil Nadu. The findings will
suggest for a better accounting system.