Lately, India has witnessed widespread emergence of federated structures of informal self-help groups (SHGs) as a corollary of the growth of the SHG movement. Besides ensuring the sustainability of SHGs, these federated structures are seen as potential instruments that can socio-economically empower the former and their members. However, the formation of SHG federations has been neither uniform across the country nor free of perplexity as regards their design and role. Federations of cooperatives are seen as natural extensions of the organic growth process of primary co-operatives—formal or informal. The federating process, by way of vertical integration, is supposed to bring in several benefits as it tries to address the felt needs and shared values of members. The conceptual and normative tenets visualized for the success of federations suggest that such structures have to be bottom-up while being democratic and economically sound in their integration and functioning. The article is an attempt to critically examine the design and policy challenges confronting the SHG federations. Based on an assessment of their emerging roles and performance, the article identifies possible ways of taking forward the SHG federations in a sustainable way.
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