Sustainable Development Goals chart out not only an ideal objective, but also the responsible pathways to attain inclusive, equitable prosperity. Poverty alleviation, gender equality, decent work and reduction of inequality are some of the key enumerations of sustainability, wherein the accessibility to dignified work opportunities can be seen as the gateway to materialising the other aforementioned trajectories. These improved livelihood trajectories can render a new configuration to the economy’s structure by boosting the participation of women and marginalised communities, redistributing income and assets equitably, and establishing a higher human development index. The institution of Self- Help Groups in India, as part of IRDP and SGSY, is one of the empirically renowned strategies to effectuate sustainable economic development through collective mobilisation of women into microenterprises, and generate livelihood opportunities for millions of rural women in India, thus addressing the requirements of SDG 8. This paper focuses on the Self-Help Groups of the Indian state of West Bengal, which has the largest number of SHGs in the entire country, and seeks to understand the ways in which these associations facilitate growth through self-employment. Utilising the lens of complex systems-thinking, this research also identifies the causes that hinder SHGs from achieving the aspirations stipulated within SDG 8, while charting out certain policy suggestions which can potentially help them overcome these challenges and establish their existence as a sustainable solution to neoclassical conceptions of growth