The microfinance programme has passed a long journey from micro savings to microcredit and microcredit to microenterprises with an effort of transforming the household self consumption activities into micro businesses. Initially, the programme had been introduced to make availability of credit via formal institutions at cheaper rate, meeting livelihood and business opportunities, but with globalization, the objective of the programme has also changed. Globally, the programme has transformed the lives of the poor and marginal, but as far as its objective in India is concerned, it covers various other dimensions in addition to economic upliftment. In Odisha, the self help groups (SHGs) concept had been introduced under the umbrella of Mission Shakti and Targeted Rural Initiatives for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure (TRIPTI), and recorded 'Success beyond Target' along many dimensions, but their performance and impact on rural households was not clear. This paper tried to highlight the status, performance, and impact of SHG programmes in a tribal dominated district of Odisha.

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