Abstract: Women empowerment plays a vital role in the overall development of the society. In India various programmes and policies initiated by the government for the women empowerment and NABARD played an essential role in empowering women through the initiation of Self Help Groups and SHG-Bank linkage programmes and participation of women in SHGs created a considerable impact on their social as well as economic empowerment and brought a substantial change in the life of women at the fundamental level. The present paper is an attempt to analyze the contribution of Self help groups in women empowerment in India. As per the study the main reason behind the progress of Self Help Groups are: its credit linkage with poor and vulnerable people, it is very helpful in building up the financial status of its member households and above all, it has achieved success to develop the self dependence and confidence among poor and rural women which leads the development of the livelihood of the rural people especially women. Besides that the study also describes some of the constraints of women empowerment especially in rural areas and it is the utmost priority of the SHG programme and government to overcome the constraints to achieve inclusive growth through women empowerment