Pant, Mandakini2025-05-202025-05-200000http://192.9.200.215:4000/handle/123456789/776This study highlights how voluntary organizations HARC, PEACE, and SAHAYI empowered poor women in India through capacity-building strategies, especially via Self-Help Groups (SHGs). It focuses on women’s access to microcredit, participatory learning, and livelihood enhancement training. Capacity building covered leadership, financial literacy, and social development, enabling women to gain confidence and recognition. The paper recommends that adult education policies integrate empowerment, local relevance, and participatory methods.Out of an estimated 1.2 billion poor people in the world, over two-thirds are women. They face abject poverty in want of adequate food, clean water, sanitation, and health care. They often lack access to the critical resources of credit, land and inheritance. They are denied opportunities, choices; access to information, education, and skills. Without any sense of power whatsoever, their participation in decision-making is minimal, both at home and in the community.enSelf-Help Groups (SHGs)Capacity BuildingParticipatory LearningAdult EducationGender and PovertyWorking Paper