Gender equality and women empowerment is the third of the millennium development goals (MDGs). The development of women has been the central focus in development paradigm since independence. There have been dynamic shifts in policy approaches during the last sixty years from the concept of welfare in the 70s, to the development in the 80s and to empowerment in the 90s. Along with government and non government agencies, a participatory community approach of the rural women known as self help groups (SHGs) are working towards achieving the goal. The objective of this paper is to study impact of women participation in SHGs and their empowerment indicators (i.e. social, economic, political etc.). A survey of 83 SHGs was conducted in Belbari Block area through structured schedule for collection of primary data. These data have been analyzing through statistical techniques. The result showed that SHGs in Belbari area carry out various activities like awareness campaigns, social control activities like advocating for poor and voiceless women, providing skill based trainings to members of SHGs etc. The study found that women empowerment is positively impacted by self help groups. The various activities like rural microcredit reduced the economic dependency of women upon other members of the family and the trainings and knowledge enabled the women to begin economic activities. Thus, women could use the fusion of loan and trainings to improve their livelihood by diversifying their income sources and reducing dependency. The meetings and awareness programs increased the knowledge and experience which led to an increase in the ability of making quality decisions and ensure participation. The higher empowerment indicators of the SHG participants as seen in the study suggest that participation speeds up the empowerment process.