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RESEARCH ARTICLETable 1 shows that 86 percent of the respondents werein the age group of 35-50 years, 12 percent of themless than 35 years old and the remaining 2 percentwere above 50 years old. Almost similar report wasgiven by Anon (2009) where, 70 percent of themembers were of age group 26-50 years. This trend isbecause, under SGSY, training is imparted to the agegroup of 35-50. It is evident that 81 percent of themembers were female and the rest 19 percent weremale. The finding was in close conformity with Anon(2009). According to the SGSY guidelines, atleast 40percent of the swarozgaris should be female. Moreoften than not, in a block half of the SHGs areexclusive women groups. It is clear in the table 1, that77 percent of the members were having formaleducation of 5-8 years, 15 percent had less than 5years of formal education and only 8 percent of themembers had more than 8 years of formal education.In general, SGSY prescribes no educationalqualifications for the swarozgaris. Among therespondents, 32 percent belonged to forwardcommunity, 38 percent were SC/ST and theremaining 30 percent were other backwardcommunity. According to Anon (2006), theproportion of SC/ST was 55 percent of the totalmembers. SGSY focuses on the most vulnerablegroups of the rural poor. As per the SGSY guidelines,atleast 50 percent of the members should be fromSC/ST community and 15 percent should be fromminority. Family size was less than five for 72percent of the SHG members. In the case of 23percent, family size was between 5-8 and for 5percent it was large with more than 8 members.Contradictory results were shown by Anon (2009),that is, 56 percent of the respondents had family sizeof 6-10 members. With regard to livestock farming,58 percent of the members were having less than 5years of experience, 33 percent had 5-10 years ofexperience and the remaining 9 percent only hadmore than 10 years of farming experience. Majorityof them started livestock rearing after the SHGformation. Since capacity building through trainingis an important component of these group activities,even a non-experienced person can start a microenterprise, if really motivated. Experience in SelfHelp Groups was less than five years for 81 percentof the members. The rest 19% had more than 5 yearsof experience as SHG members.J. Ind. Vet. Assoc., Kerala. 10 (1)Table 2 Distribution of SHG members based on socio-economic characters n=100Sl.No Characteristic Category Percentage1 Major occupation Agriculture 10Livestock rearing 72Business 03Labourer 152 Income from Livestock < Rs.5000 62Rs.5000-10000 37>Rs.10000 013 Livestock Owned 8 numbers 264 Land owned