Experiences from world over have shown that provision of credit, promotion of enterprise creation and income generating activities among women, especially in groups would transform them from ‘being alive’ to ‘living with dignity’. Micro-Finance as a tool of poverty alleviation and women empowerment has gained acceptance in development for both consumption and production purposes. It is also an accepted fact that the success of SHGs as a development tool depends on the availability of micro finance. Hence, the present study was designed to study the Empowerment of women through micro finance activities, and influence of group characteristics on the empowerment in three regions of Andhra Pradesh having highest number of SHGs in operation. 10 women from each village making a total of 240 women were selected by simple random sampling method. Results revealed that the half of the respondents (50.00%) were in medium category of overall empowerment in three districts revealed that followed by 44.58 per cent in high category and only 5.42 per cent in low category The computed `F’ value is 46.64. Hence, it can be concluded that all the variables taken for the study together explained a significant amount of variation in the empowerment of SHG women.

Keyword: Self Help Groups; Empowerment; Rural women; Microfinance; Profile characteristics; Influence;