Jagruthi- A Study of Empowerment of Rural Indian Women through Self Help Groups

7/30/2019 Jagruthi- A Study of Empowerment of Rural Indian Women through Self Help Groups

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Table of Contents

Introduction - 7

I . India- A Society of Stereotypes - 8 II . Pressing need to break free from Stereotypes - 9

Empowerment of Women - 11 I . Definition - 12

II . Need for Empowerment - 12

Self Help Groups and Women - 15 I . Definition - 16

II . Self Help Groups in Rural India - 17

III . Influence of SHG on Political, Social andEconomical Sectors - 18

a. Political

b. Social Harmony and Justice-SUTRA and ENSS

c. Economy

Two Highly Successful Co-operativeMovements in India - 25 I . Story of AMUL - 26 II . Story of LIJJAT PAPAD - 28

a. Lijjat Patrika - 29


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b. Inclusion/Participation - 30 c. Accountability - 30

Government Policies on SHG in India - 33

United Nations Development Program &Womens Empowerment in India

- 37

Self Help Group and MicroFinance - 41 I . Concept of Microfinance - 42 a. SEWA - 43

b. WWF - 44 c. ICNW - 45 d. CASE STUDY - 46

Conclusion - 51

References - 53


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Preface

Jagruthi means awareness. This journal is my sincere effort tooutline the effects of jagruthi that has been ignited in the mindsof rural Indian women by Self Help Groups.

The article begins with an Introduction chapter featuring theStereotypes in Indian society and the crucial need of overcom-ing the gender bias between men and women. It stresses on thestrengths of women and how women-force is leading the future

of this nation by participating and even competing with men inevery field.

In the second chapter about Empowerment, we are going to de-fine it and understand the need for Empowerment in the lives ofrural Indian women. Empowerment is THE buzz word in the fieldof Social Reform and the vision and mission of all the SHGs andNGOs operating in most of the rural parts of India. The question:

From where this need for empowerment came from and whatare the means to achieve it?

Self Help Groups are a transformed form of Co-operative move-ments and Unions in India and its origin goes back to Bangladeshin the early 1976. Self Help Groups aims at empowering ruralwomen by socially and economically upbringing them throughmany development schemes like Education, Self Employment,

Credit programs and so on. In this section, we will see the roleof SHG in rural India and their influences on Social, Political andEconomical forums of the nation.

Any study of Empowerment of rural women in India would beincomplete without a chapter on UNITED NATIONS DEVELOP-MENT PROPGRAM that started in the year 1966.


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The discussion begins with a brief note on UNDP and movesonto UNDP and its achievements in India by taking example of 2rural women and their success journey.

An entire chapter is dedicated to understand the Policies of Gov-ernment on such SHGs. This is followed by very interesting sto-ries, I can say, about two of the highly successful groups in In-dia. They are not officially called Self Help Groups, because theystarted as a small union of people engaged in a common activityto improve their living conditions. They are AMUL and LIJJAT PAPAD stories. A whole section is presented to you detailing theorganized structure of SRI MAHILA GRIHA UIDYOG LIJJAT PA-PAD and how it resulted in the empowerment of millions of ruralwomen.

The last chapter is about SHGs and Microfinance. This is the high-lighter of the entire journal because Microfinance is that wing ofSHG which assesses the success of SHG. We will look into theworking of Microfinance sector of some of the SHGs like SEWA ,WWF , ICNW and also read 2 interesting stories, again, of ruralwomen who have been empowered to heights, through Micro-finance.


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Introduction


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Jagruthi: Rashmi Arun9

In a nation like India, women, especially rural women, have

always been victims of many social and economical injus-tices. Be it female infanticide, unemployment, gender dis-crimination, harassment or denial to Education. Thoughthere have been many social activists in several parts of thecountry working for these causes, they have been unable toput an end to these practices because of not getting enoughsupport from government or other bodies. When such activ-ists form groups or unions with many like-minded individu-als, not only they become a stronger voice but also can getthe attention of the government.

India - A Society of Stereotypes

Though this discussion does not seem relevant to the topicat the first glance, it is not so. The need for women em-powerment came into light because women were alwaysdeprived of their necessities and basic rights just becausethey are women, different from men in so many traints andcharacters.

This is what we call Stereotype in Indian society. From theages of Puranas and Vedas, men have been portrayed ashead of the family who is alone responsible for everythingaround him, be it matters of house, occupation or children.Men are expected to be aggressive and self confident asagainst women who were always pushed into the darknessof their confinement to home.

Chores like Bringing up the children, cooking, caring for el-ders and diseased were always stereotyped as the mandato-ry duties of a woman, not giving a damn for her choices andambitions. Even till late, occupations like nursing and officesecretaries were labelled for woman but now changing to


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Jagruthi: Rashmi Arun 10

accommodate both genders. This means we are moving to-

wards a modern Indian society which is not gender based.Though this transformation is complete in bigger cities andtowns, most of our smaller towns and villages still follow thisblind system.

Need to break free from the Gender barriers ofIndian Society

Indian society is undergoing a major metamorphosis inthe field of Education, Technology, Medicine, Agriculture orManpower. More interesting is the fact that in each of thesefields, women are working on par with men and I can say,with more dedication and sincerity. Women are even replac-ing men in those jobs which were meant to be only for men.Automobile Mechanics, Transportation staff, Jobs in petrolPumps are some such jobs for the mention. India has seensome great women entrepreneurs recently who are leadingthousands of women staff in their organizations and guid-ing them towards sunshine. Let me mention here one suchgroup of women in rural part of Rajasthan who are trainedin mason jobs and are now leading the front in installingand maintaining hand water pumps in the entire district.

The mountaineering expedition taken up by a group of 8women in 1993 to reach the summit of Mount Everest is thesymbolic representation of the heights women can achievein which ever field they are working.

For most of the women who have successfully broken thegender barrier of the society and made their name in thechosen field, the journey has not been an easy one. Begin-

ning from decision stage up till the execution stage, it isbattling all the way. In their long struggle for existence and


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survival, the roles of women have changed from that of a

prisoner confined to the premises of her home to a wholenew world of opportunities.


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Empowerment

of Women


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The word EMPOWERMENT and related facts and myths have

been around for many decades now. For the sake of sim-plicity and understanding of this article, let us stick to thedefinition as per United Nations (2001). Empowerment isthe process by which women take control and ownership oftheir life by expanding their choices. While doing this, theyattain ability to make these choices in a scenario where ithas been denied to them due to social and economic con-straints prevailing in the society. Women become self con-fident, economically independent, develop self esteem andearn a respectable position in their household, society andthereby prove themselves as good citizens of the nation.

Need for Empowerment of Women in India

This is proba-bly the mosttalked aboutand a win-ning speechin an Electioncampaign orthe main

agenda in theparliament inIndia. But it isreally disap-

pointing to learn that most of the resolutions passed in theassembly house, in favour or rural women have not made itfar. Fortunately many Self Help Groups that have been work-ing in many of the states are doing an excellent job in thisdirection and achieving noticeable results. Some of themwork closely with the Government and some are funded by


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NGOs and there are also few Private Institutions pooling in

their help.Woman is the reason for our existence and strength of everyfamily. Family is the smallest unit of our country and repre-sents our culture and values. Indias freedom struggle and itsconsequent win over the British rule has seen many braveWomen Warriors who have fought in war field shoulder toshoulder with men soldiers and sacrificed life in doing so.

Post independence era has not been so kind to women. Theystruggled under the rule of village landlords and upper castethat have been cruel to women. They were made victims ofharassment over dowry, were made to serve as slaves, werenot given right to study, and were not allowed any share inthe family property. Many of these wrong practices exist evennow. Although the situation is much better now, thanks to

many government rural development schemes and VillagePanchayat schemes. All these reformations are keeping theissues under control but have not been very instrumental inputting an end to it.

Women need to be empowered socially and economicallybecause; this is going to bring about a radical change in theirown lives first, then others, in their family and ultimately our

nation. In India, lot of stress is being given on this subject andnumerous schemes have been in rolled out periodically forthe overall development of rural women. Women have beengifted by qualities like Compassion, Patience, Hard work andcommitment and they can create wonders when they putall these together for a determined cause. An Interestingpoint to be noted here is that, many of these cooperativemovements and Self Help Groups that have been workingfor women, have been founded by women and majority ofits members are also women.


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An independent and empowered woman clearly is the pil-

lar of strength for her family. Her Involvement and decisionmaking powers can bring about visible changes in her fam-ily in matters like Child Education, Family Healthcare andFinance. Today, women are emerging as strong forces in thefields like Education, Biotechnology, Industry, Politics, Avia-tion and many more.

For most of the women who have successfully broken the

gender barrier of the society and made their name in thechosen field, the journey has not been an easy one. Begin-ning from decision stage up till the execution stage, it isbattling all the way. In their long struggle for existence andsurvival, the roles of women have changed from that of aprisoner confined to the premises of her home to a wholenew world of opportunities.


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Self Help Groups


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Self Help Group can be defined as the Non Governmental

and Non Profitable Organizations that are formed by peoplewith a common problem or situation, with the purpose ofpooling resources, collecting information and offering mu-tual support, service and care. The origin of SHG is traced toBangladesh as early as 1976. It is a common platform for thevolunteers to work for some of the social and economicalissues of the country.

Self Help Groups in India have been instrumental in creat-ing awareness in the minds of rural Indian women. Millionsof rural Indian Women have been benefited by the SavingsSchemes, Educational Programs, Skills Developmental Cam-paigns etc Organized by these groups. SHGs have brought arevolution in rural India by utilizing the resources.

The main purpose of SHG is to make the rural people finan-

cially strong, to utilize their ability to the maximum and help-ing them to establish small to medium enterprises, so thatthey source some permanent and fixed income through it.Some of the SHGs are recognized by the State Governmentand some by Central, run by NGOs and most of them arefully independent bodies.

Most SHGs members in India are women from rural parts,

who are willing to venture in to small scale business withintheir purview but need encouragement and financial as-sistance. Because of their inability to procure credit frompublic sector Banks or other Government run credit institu-tions; they are crippled when it comes to small scale busi-ness ventures. In such situations, credit facilities provided bySHG come to their rescue. The formalities required by SHGsare minimal they also have flexible repayment options forthe principal amount with low interest rates. Apart from fi-nancial support, SHG also addresses many social issues like


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Education, medical etc. and works hand in hand with the

poorest of the poor.

Self Help Groups in Rural India

When we compare the life of urban women with rural coun-terpart, we all know for a fact that rural women have to re-ally struggle for existence. In a democratic country like In-

dia, urban women are enjoying all the freedom in their life,competing with men and proving themselves in every field.But in contrast, rural women are still living their life in un-certainty, unaware of any of the developments happeningin the country. Heinous crimes such as Female Infanticide,Domestic Assault, Children being sold for money is seen ev-erywhere and women stand as mere spectators, helpless tostop it. All though the line between urban and rural womenis becoming thinner and thinner as we are progressing tobecoming a developed nation, it has not yet merged intoone.

Some of the SHGs fights for causes like Compulsory Educa-tion, Providing hygienic living conditions, fight against casteor gender discrimination. Right to Information is a very im-portant right that each and everyone are entitled to and in-deed a very powerful weapon for winning the war againstinjustice. SHGs bring together, people from similar back-ground and status and listen to their problems and makethem realise their own potential to solving them. SHGs mo-tivates these people for free thinking and are their windowto the outside world, though which they can be a witnessto the technological advancements happening in the nation

and be a part of it in their own way.Some SHGs have been very instrumental in fighting some


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crucial battles in rural and backward communities in India.

For example, some SHGs have been able to purchase orlease lands to community forests (Nepal) and fishing Ponds(Bangladesh), thus tapping resources for development. An-other case is Grameen Bank in Bangladesh that dispersesloans to members who have track record of three loan cy-cles and those who possess title deeds of the lands in whichthey have a house. This way most of the Grameen members,who are women are entitled to get a loan which they canutilize for the Education of their children, investing in agri-culture or starting their own ventures. This results in boost-ing the confidence of women in their own household andthem becoming a role model for other women.

It is time that rural women break off their barriers and bringa change within them. But this is easier said than done.Without any support from outside, this is a task almost nextto impossible. Small Help Group is the outcome of a simi-lar though and SHGs are just the right solution for all theirproblems and lets see how.

Influence of SHG in Political, Social, and Economi-cal sector of the nation

There is another face to SHG in India which is, brining a rev-olution in Indian rural society in the form of Social, Politicaland Economical progress. How exactly SHGs achieve this isthe subject of narration in the following section.

Political:

More and more women, who are members of SHGs, are ac-

tively participating in the political field, beginning from theGram Panchayat Level and higher. This is mainly because of


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the awareness created in them by the volunteers of the SHG

through campaigns. SELF Help Groups have succeeded inmaking the people realise that solution to the issues of ruralwomen can only be implemented in full, when it becomesa policy or law. To form a law, one has to be backed up bya political party to take it to the Parliament level. To do thisexactly, women have to be in the forefront of rural politics.SHGs have been very instrumental in this cause and hassuccessfully crafted many women leaders, who are activelyinvolved in fighting some of the civic issues like issue rationcard, BPL cards, building of schools, ensuring proper medi-cal services in villages, facilitating healthy and clean drinkingwater in scarce areas and so on.

Number of women who are active in politics is still low butenhancing, which is a good sign. Studies show that 70% oftotal women contestants win. A good percentage of villag-es and small towns have women Panchayat Presidents andvolunteers who are working hand in hand with the govern-ment and non government agencies to implement develop-ment plans in their villages.

Talking about numbers, here are some facts.

One in every 4 SHG women members has contested

an election at Panchayat level.Out of every 5 SHG, one woman has been elected.

Studies also reveal that as compared to the South In-dian Villages, number of active women Panchayat headsis more in Northern Rural India.

Local election period is a significant time for SHG vol-

unteers to organize awareness campaigns, both priorand after elections where they reach maximum number


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of people. Post Election Campaigns are also held by few

SHG, to help its members to systematically approach theirsocial issues and get them resolved, with the aid of Politi-cal members.

Social Harmony and Justice

Indian Society is a hierarchical caste based system, which

has traditionally been very unkind to those who are at thebottom of the system, like Scheduled caste and Scheduletribe. Many unethical practises like slavery, behaviour to-wards Untouchables existed till recently. Most of the SelfHelp Groups are single caste groups, which means major-ity of the members come from a single caste or commu-nity. The reasons for this are, the members living nearby canmore easily be brought together into the movement andin Villages the formation of neighbourhood is usually castebased. Another advantage of these single caste groups isthe ease with which the Government policies and benefitsmeant for these people can be passed on.

In contrast to this, there are SHGs that are operating in crosscaste instances in which the members come from differentcaste. In this scenario, SHGs are able to unite them underone roof and eliminate any clashes or misunderstandingsthey have in their minds against each other and bring in so-cial harmony. In spite of all these efforts, we have not wit-nessed considerable changes in the structure and operationof Indian Society. So strong is the existence of caste barrier,that it takes the cumulative efforts by another hundred andthousands of groups to completely uproot the caste system

and atrocities happening in its name. But the achievementsof self help groups in this direction are really appreciable.


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At the individual level, it is every ones moral to treat people

equally irrespective of their caste and sow the seeds of asociety free from this so called tradition.

SUTRA (Social Upliftment through Rural Action)

Sutra was started as a small communityto act as Conscious Keeper of the soci-

ety. Its main objective was working withissues related to gender discriminationand eliminating it by spreading awarenessamongst people in rural areas, especially.SUTRA was founded by SUBHASH MEND-HARPURKAR in 1977, with the help of an

NGO called Gender and Equity.

Project Ekal Nari Shakthi Sanghaan (ENSS, Hi-machal Pradesh)

SUTRA, along with few similar organizations has formed thisbody, to work for the upliftment of single women in the re-gions of Himachal Pradesh. It strives to provide justice to un-married, divorced, widows and deserted women, by provid-ing and restoring their rights to Education, Employment andland. ENSS today is home to approximately 6000 membersand operates across 190+ Panchayats spread over 18 devel-opment regions. Block, Zonal and state level gatherings areheld regularly where issues are discussed and resolutionswill be passed to act upon them.

Some of the projects that are launched by this group are, Moth-er Teresa Scheme, Widow Pension and Chief Ministers Kan-yadan Scheme. Camps are organised to spread awareness to


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act against

crucial is-sues liked o m e s t i cv i o l e n c e ,dowry ha-r a s smen t ,gender in-

justice andetc. Com-puter Lit-eracy Pro-

grams are also being undertaken to educate them.

SUTRA is now battling with the state Government to pro-vide 10 bighas of agriculture land to single women in thestate and also provide free medical checkups and providefree medicine for the needy and poor.

Effect of SHG on Economy

Establishing Economical stability is the core value of eachand every SHG and it proposes to achieve this motto throughseveral schemes and reformations. What is discussed in thissection is found in either part of full throughout this paperbecause that is exactly this work is about. Empowermentis the effect of gaining economical freedom. This sectionhighlights some of the effects caused by SHG on IndianEconomy, more importantly on rural Indian Economy.

Boosting up the Entrepreneur abilities of rural Indian1.Woman- SHG have encourages rural women to becomeself employed and start their own business, however smallit might be. Women who have stayed as a member in any


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SHG for longer period of time gain so much knowledge

and confidence that they change their business fromsmall scale to medium scale and higher and also ventureout into direct sales and marketing.

Easier access to credit. Microfinance through SHG has2.time and again proved that even rural Indian women arebankable. The savings schemes has remarkably changedtheir attitude towards their life and made them more re-

sponsible. Microcredit has saved many people from thecruel hands of money lenders and things like Pledging

jewellery and collateral property and losing their livesover it, has all been considerably reduced.

Being self employed has proved advantages for wom-3.en because they can manage their business and familyefficiently. More than 50% of SHG members take loan to

start their business. The loan amount varies between Rs500-5000, catering to the needs of women in flower busi-ness, fruits and vegetables, food processing and so on. Abusiness model not only benefits the proprietor but alsoprovides employment Opportunity to many local ruralwomen.

Programs like Skill Training and Entrepreneurship de-4.

velopment that are conducted by the SHG educate thesewomen about benefits of expanding their businesses totowns and cities, thus increasing their profits.

Rural women are now keener on sending their chil-5.dren to better schools, owning a house, investing wiselyin saving schemes and above all, are independent to taketheir own decisions in life.


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Two Highly

Successful Co-operative

Movements of India


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In this section, I will be talking about two of the highly suc-

cessful so called cooperative movements in India. Theyhave rewritten the story of mass movement in India and rolemodels for all Self Help Groups. They have provided self em-ployment opportunities to lacs and crores of rural womenand shaped their future.

ANAND MILK UNION Ltd. (Popularly known asAMUL)

As the name indi-cates, this move-ment started inAnand, then, asmall village inGujrat in WesternIndia in 1946. Thestrategy behindthis movementwas to implementmarket-orientedstrategies to help

the farmers to own and operate their own ventures, thus en-

hancing the value of the primary products that they make.The unfair attitude of the middlemen who bought milk fromlocals for meagre price and then sold it for profitable price inthe city led to the formation of this movement. The farmerswho worked at their farms were not paid the right amountand struggled for a living. As suggested by great Politicalleaders like Sardar Vallabha Bhai Patel and Morarji Desai, they

decided to get rid of the middleman and form a co-opera-tive society to include all the farmers and sell the milk them-


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selves. It was initially called as Kaira District Co-operative

Milk Producers Union Ltd and started with just 2 villages thatprocured around 247 litres of milk every day. Today AMULhas made India proud by making it as the largest Producer ofmilk in the World. More than 15 million milk producers pourtheir milk in 1, 44,246 dairy cooperative societies across thecountry. Their milk is processed in 177 District Co-operativeUnions and marketed by 22 State Marketing Federations, en-suring a better life for millions.

AMUL Story Continued . . . .

As already mentioned in the previous paragraph, AMUL start-ed in the year 1946 in a small village by name Anand in Gu-

jrat under the guidance of Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel. Therewere considerable progress in the Cattle and milk Industryunder the first Five Year plan (1951-56) and the Third FiveYear Plan (1961-66). Many state governments implementedseveral schemes in their respective states to encourage Dairyand Milk industry to serve the urban population by settingup dairy farms in cities like Mumbai, Calcutta and Madras.

Operation Flood Program was implemented by the NationalDairy Development Board (NDDB) between 1970-96. Underthis initiative, many milk Co-operative societies were set upin several villages and there was significant increase in bothProduction and consumption of milk all over the country.The main aim of this program was to distribute the prof-its directly to the farm men, thus avoiding the commissionwhich earlier they were paying to the middlemen.


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Women in Dairy industry

AMUL soon realized that women population involved in dairyfarming is considerably more than men. So, many trainingprograms were conducted in the initial period of OperationFlood and special incentives were given to all women dairyco-operative societies, purely encourage more and morewomen to start dairying and to become financially indepen-dent.

How women became socially empowered throughAMUL movement?

Women Dairy Co-operative Societies (WDC) played amajor role in creating self-Employment Opportunities forrural women by venturing into dairy business. WDCs op-erating in the villages are a very well organized structureswhere daily transactions happen methodically. Villagerswho are members in these groups are influenced by the suc-cess of these unions and implement these methods in theirown lives too, reforming from within. Women are trained onmodern Technologies like Artificial Insemination in Animalsand how better feed and hygienic conditions of the cattle

can improve both the quantity and quality of milk. With allthis knowledge gained through Co-operative societies, theyare able to establish themselves firmly in the dairy industryand in their own lives.

Story of Lijjat papad

Lijjat Papad is a household name for the crispy and crunchypapads in most of the homes in India. This establishmentwas started as a small co-operative movement back in 1959


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from Bombay.

Seven womenresiding in a flatin Giragum, insouth of Bombaycame up with theidea of makingpapads at homeand selling them.Their decision

that day resulted in 4 packets of papads , which later wenton to become 40,400 and now in lacs. The firm has grownat a tremendous rate majorly in Bombay and Gujrat regionsand is run by a team of 21 efficient women who manage theaffairs of the firm. The firm is proud of its annual turnoverwhich exceeds 301 crores at present. It employs over 40,000

women all over the nation who are involved in different ac-tivities at all the branches. Lijjat does not have any directsale system but markets the products through Distributorsand dealers. What works best behind this huge enterpriseis the simple Gandhian model of business that they haveemployed and still followed at each and every branch. Thethree main principles that form the core of this business areBusiness, family and Devotion.

Lijjat Papads Success Mantra

Lijjat Patrika

As the company grew from a few hundreds to thousandsof women, it became more difficult to keep them informed

about the companys affairs. Monthly regional meetings,Annual meetings were held to discuss company affairs like


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production rates, quality issues, accounts and day to day is-

sues faced by Sanchayikas. All these are done through LijjatPatrika which is circulated among those who are interestedat a nominal price. Apart from columns about the company,articles about woman achievers are also included to moti-vate the members.

Literacy programs are held in most of the Lijjat Papad cen-tres to educate the members and enlighten them about the

importance of education and encourage them to educatetheir children in turn. Those members who are involved indirect transaction of the company are given training on skills,management and finance.

Inclusion/Participation:

The simplicity of the systems in place at every Lijjat Papadbranch is the backbone for its success. Any woman can be-come a member by signing in a pledge and start workingas a Sister, as all the members are addressed. Every activitylike dough mixing, making masala, weighing papad, rollingout papads are given equal importance and all members arefree to choose any role they want. This does not make adifference in their income. Any sister can apply for a loanthrough the company for any reason. Working in Lijjat Pa-

pad has made them socially and financially independentand secure.

Accountability

Lijjat papads business success and women empowermentcan also be attributed to the ethics set in place for all sistersand management members. Some key features are,

Management committee members are selected from1.sisters. Any sister can become a management committee


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member with the consent of other sisters.

Open Discussions give way for free thinking and ex-2.pression of ideas by all sisters.

Account books are easily accessible making the entire3.system transparent.

There is no credit system in daily transactions of sell-4.ing papads. There is weight based calculation and per

piece calculation for the papads made every day.Profits are shared every six months in all branches in5.

the form of cash or gold, which is decided by sisters ofthat branch.

Lijjats Success mantra has empowered women in manydimensions of life. This is a complete by the women andfor the women group which provides a home-like workingenvironment for women in its branches where sisters workin harmony as members of one family. Those who were de-prived of Education now get a chance to study and makethem self sustainable in daily activities like reading a letter,handling banking, or teaching their children. The incomefrom sisters is a great add-on to their family income, whichhas brought respect to them in their own family and soci-

ety.These two groups are built on strong foundation of their vi-sion and following some of the best practices. Khadi Gra-modyoga Bhandar is another such movement which hasbeen highly praised. Back then, when these movementsstarted in different parts of the nation, no one, not evenits founders dreamt that they will become so big one day,

that they no longer remain as a small union started in smallhomes but revolutionise the whole nation. They all started


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with humble social and economic objectives, which even

now is the vision and mission of every Self Help Group.


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Government

Policies on SHG


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Let us recapture the most commonly accepted definition

of Self Help Group. They are voluntary organizations whichcomprises of service minded people who work towardssome of the social, economical issues within their reach.Most of the Groups when they were formed did not associ-ate themselves with either the state of the central govern-ment because of the stringent policies of the Governmentand their way of approach to the issues was entirely differ-ent than that by the Government. SHGs worked at the rootlevel of problems, which was in rural India whereas most ofthe Government policies took a longer time to reach. But wehave to stress here that without the help of Government it isvery difficult to implement the measures and be successfulin it. Some of the issues need new laws to be formed andpolicies to be set, without which it cant be implemented infull.

In this section, we will look into the association betweenthe Government and SHG and how this has speeded up thework of SHG.

Literally, it is among the responsibilities of the Governmentto help the rural poor woman with its schemes and benefits,which it is doing to a great extent. Some of the examples inthis section are,

The department of Social Welfare of Woman and Child1.conduct training programs for members of SHG, wherethey are taught tailoring and handicraft work.

Department of Social Welfare organizes exhibitions to2.showcase the work of rural artisans thus expanding theirbusiness.

Department of Health and Education conduct free3.medical checkups and health awareness camps and also


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conduct Adult Literacy Programs under few schemes for

some SHGs.SHGs operating in rural areas function closely with4.

the Town Municipal offices for rehabilitation of slumsand providing drinking water, improving sanitation facili-ties and bringing the slum children to school and so on.For example, SHG from Dibbur Slum (Tumkur district inKarnataka) persuaded the Municipality to install taps for

drinking water in the year 2003.The elected representatives of the Local Panchayat5.

and Town Municipality encourage the people to be a partof the SHG and reap benefits from their schemes. Theyrepresent the Government and work in favour of the SHG,as far as the implementation of the policies is concerned.Though there have been instances where people holding

positions in the Government bodies work against the SHGactivities causing many of the work to be stalled halfway.But such situations are rare.

In situation where any SHG is not able to perform with-6.in its operating boundary in a satisfactory manner, the lo-cal government will take over from the SHG and continueits services. The reason for this is the inadequate funds

and infrastructure in SHG and lack of volunteers to coverthe entire village or town.


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United Nations

Development Program


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IN 1951, the Indian Government associated itself with the

UN Special Fund and the Extended Program for TechnicalAssistance (EPTA), which later merged as one under UnitedNations Development Program (UNDP) in the year 1966. Inthis section to follow, we will talk a little about this partner-ship of over forty years and how India has not only utilizedthe essentials of all the developmental schemes rolled outby UNDP but has exceeded its expectation in contributinga lot to it.

What India has achieved since its inclusion under UNDP isremarkable benchmark in its administrative and financialsystem, massive food production to meet the demands ofgrowing population, efficient railway and road network andetc. Successful establishment and smooth operations oflarge Industrial sector, banking and a complete transforma-tion in the Education field are some other to name. But whathas distinguished India from other countries that have alsopartnered with UNDP is that, all these developmental proj-ects have ignited new ideas in the minds of talented Indianmen and women who have completely taken the countryby storm and transformed the lives of many.

Some of the areas that UNDP covers are, Poverty reduction,Energy and Environment, Women Empowerment and Inclu-sion, Human Development, HIV and Development and soon.

UNDP works in nine states of India at present, alongside sev-eral partners in these states. The states are Madhya Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Orissa, Maharashtra and Assam.

For more information about UNDP and India, please referthe link


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In the following section, let us see how UNDP has changed

the life of Pushpa Devi Maurya (from Chak Padri, a village inUttar Pradesh in northern India) from just a rural woman toan entrepreneur?

UNDP-IKEA started a pilot project called SWAAYAM in UttarPradesh, which aimed at empowering rural women in thestate socially, politically and also economically. Pushpa at-tended the Skills Development Program at SWAAYAM in the

year 2009 along with some other women from her village,which later transformed her life and her co-workers. Thou-sands of women in and around her village who were work-ing individually in dairy and Milk business and those whoreceived knowledge through SWAAYAM campaigns realisedthe power of collective working and its potential. 9000 suchwomen came together and started their own milk union andcalled it SWAAYAM KSHEER in November 2011. Here, eachmember holds equity in the companys share and companyhopes to have 12,000 members soon.

Achievements:

On an average, the companys profits have doubled inthe last year.

The company has two milk chilling centres and thecompany plans to set up four more.

The companys recent business figures around 3 croresand over the next few years, it is expected to reach around14 crores.

Close to around 50,000 women from almost 500neighbouring villages have been benefited by this proj-ect.


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The program is speculated to reach out to total of 2.2

million women in the coming years.The chilling centre is responsible for collection of

about 2000 litres and milk from 56 villages and suppliesthe same to the state milk corporation.

A real achievement came in the form of establishment

of SWAAYAM KALA, a union of 5000 and more rural wom-en artisans who are expertise in handicrafts to make thisunion closely based on SWAAYAM KSHEER model.


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Self Help Groups

and Microfinance


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Most of the SHGs have a common motive of encouraging

rural working women to save from their earnings and poolin that money in a fund, from where they can avail the creditin needy situations. This principle is called Microfinance andsome of the SHGs are funded by Government bodies likeNABARD and other by NGOs and rest by Purely Private or-ganizations. These organizations not only provide financeat a lesser interest for causes like Education of children, formarriage or medical needs but also, motivate them to starttheir own small scale ventures by funding capital investmentrequired. That way, they become independent and also pro-vide employment to other folks in the village.

Microfinance is another wing of most of the SHGs whichprovides credit at low interest rate to women who comefrom poor and BPL women folk, for their necessities like Ed-ucation of their children, childrens marriage or agriculturalneeds etc. Most of the members in Microfinance institutionsare women because women are more reliable and sincereborrowers than men. Microfinance has given a new dimen-sion to the vision of SHG and has accelerated the result.Microfinance is a great window of opportunity to the ruralwomen to realise their dreams of living a free and fearlesslife.

In the upcoming section you will be reading two Microfi-nance institutions who are working for the empowermentof rural women in India and they are:

SEWA (Self Employed Womens Association)1.

WWF (Working womens forum)2.


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SEWA

SEWA was born inDecember 1971 in Ah-madabad, Gujarat, asa trade union of selfEmployed Women. It

was inspired by the Textile Labour Association (TLA), Indiaslargest and oldest union of textile workers formed in 1920 by

a woman named Anasuya Sarabhai.

SEWA Bank - Swashrayi Mahila Seva Sahakari Bank isSEWAs largest co-operative bank in India which is owned byself employed women as share holders. What began in 1974with 4000 members is now 1, 50,000 member strong andhas Rs 400 million working capital. This is the banking sectorof the group which has formulated saving schemes to the

rural women and also gives credit at lower interest.

Some of the schemes from SEWA back are

Housing finance scheme.

Women farmers credit scheme.

Sunrise Scheme for business development.

Sanjeevani Programme.

SEWA has served thousands of rural women through theseschemes. Not only they are able to repay the loan on timebut have continued to take further credit from SEWA. SEWAhas become the sunshine in their life and continues to beso. They have regained their respect and value in the soci-ety. SEWA banks loan repayment percentage is around 90%which is far more than 70%-80% what is seen in any otherPublic sector bank. This is a clear indication of the banks


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success story. SEWA bank has proved beyond doubts that

the poor women are also credit worthy. The money solelycomes from deposits from the poor working womens sav-ings.

Initially, extending SEWAs banking service to the poor andworking women was a great challenge in itself, because oftheir illiteracy. There were late repayments which was af-fecting the finance system. So, SEWA has come up with

doorstep banking where officials from the bank go door todoor and help them with the paper work required to facili-tate the credit. SEWA also holds campaigns to spread wordabout their programs. There have been occasions wheremembers failed to repay the loan on time due to their fail-ing health condition or unable to gather money because ofnatural calamities like floods and draughts destroying theircrops and so on. Hence EWA has flexible repayment planslike daily, weekly and monthly deposit schemes to suit theconvenience of its members.

Microfinance in SEWA also helps its members to form theirown union in their respective village and then link it to thedistrict level unions for obtaining better profits from theirbusiness. Suppose majority of SEWA members from a villageare involved in farming, SEWA helps to organize them intotheir own milk cooperative society. Through this, membersnot only get a fair price per litre of milk depending on thequality but also can escape the wrath of middlemen.

WWF- Working Womens Forum

WWF was born in the year 1978 at Madras, India out of anactivists commitment to prove that the poor are also en-titled for basic rights like Education, Clean Living conditions,


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Credit facilities and

healthcare. Theorganisation thatstarted with just 800women membershas now reachedan unbelievable 6lakh mark.

The finance sectionof WWF is called In-

dian Co-operative Network for Women (ICNW) , whichaims at bettering the socio-economic conditions of womenby making them financially stronger. This movement wasstarted in 1981 by some 2500 members of WWF contrib-uting Rs 20 each towards this bank. The ICNW has over 2,30,000 working women as shareholders and has effected adisbursement of over Rs.440 million with recovery of 96%covering 1003 slums and over 2700 villages.

Highlights of ICNW

Simple and systematic is the way of banking in ICNW, whereevery member is a share holder and can voice his opinionfreely in the matters of the organization.

Loan amount can be anything from as small as 1600 to30,000 and repayment options are made to suit the mem-bers convenience.

Non-collateral loans are also given based on mutualguarantee by another member.

The repayment rate is 98%, which itself is a mark of selfconfidence and determination it has sparked in the minds


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of its members.

The network has achieved self sufficiency in terms ofboth financial and operational methods through comput-erization of its branches to meet the constant growingdemands of its members.

WWF also empowers poor women through its institu-

tional structure by training them to act as health promot-ers and credit officers in their neighbourhoods.

Apart from Microfinance, WWF has active participationin preparing the working rural women to fight for betterwages and living conditions.

WWF plays a key role in moulding the women to ac-tively participate in both Political and legal front in theirown villages to hold up for women causes and civic is-

sues.

Study of Microfinance and women empowermentthrough 2 examples

Story of Putlibai, a fisherwoman from RaJpally.

Putlibai belongs to fisherman community in RaJpally, a smallvillage in the district of Medak, Andhra Pradesh in South In-dia. Her family lived on the income they made by selling fishwhich they caught from reservoir in the nearby town mar-kets. They could barely make the end meets with this smallincome. They earned only Rs 2 per week which was almostnothing at all.

Putlibai soon realised that few more fishing nets could go along way in catching more fish. But she could not afford tobuy them nor was she eligible to obtain credit from any of


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the banks. The reason being she did not have any collateral

to take the loan. The only option was to take loan from localmoneylenders who charged heavy interests and thus eventhis door was shut on her.

The year 1998 proved a lucky one for Putlibai as SWAYAMKRISHI SANGAM (SKS) started its operation in the name ofSANGAM in their village, which comprised of four joint li-ability groups, each had 5 women as members. They owed

to mutually undertake each others loan obligations. Eachmember saved 10 cents/week and the unit started to giveloans of Rs 50 to members within 3-6 weeks of its operation.The loan had to be repaid in 50 equal weekly instalments.

Putlibai availed loan of Rs 35 after four weeks of joiningthe centre and added more fishing nets to her business. Bydoing this the quantum of daily fish catch tripled and her

weekly income went up from Rs 2 to Rs 6. A second loan ofRs 100 for the same purpose increased her income to Rs 10per week. In her third year with the group, she borrowed Rs150, which resulted in increase of her daily catch of fish toabout 150 Kgs. As she could not sell all these fish in a singleday, she started to store the fish in a nearby cold storageplant. Her family income has increased by 150% because ofthe benefits she availed from this SHG and she does not in-tend to stop at this.

Like Putlibai, many more women in this village have takenfinancial help from SKS and enhanced their income.

Story of Rajamma in the city of Silk- Karnataka

This is not the story of just one woman, Rajamma but of thehundreds of women like her who are forced to send their


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children to work as labourers in the Silk Firm, thus depriv-

ing them off the fundamental rights to Education. But since2009, thanks to the developmental work taken up by SHGsin Silk Producing districts of Karnataka like Channapattanaand Ramnagar and neighbouring districts, these womenare a happier lot now. With the help of the volunteers ofthe group, they are able to earn more for their family andstopped their children from working as labourers and aresending them to schools.

Rajamma herself started working on the silk reels to feed forher three young children and later helplessly had to send herchildren to work as well. The SHG program running in thisregion is supported by International Labour Organizationand takes funding support from Italian Organisations andGovernment of Karnataka. The main objective of this wasto spread awareness in mothers of child labourers and makethem financially stronger that they can take their childrenout from silk looms and give them education. They providetraining on Saving Practises, to organise groups and workcollectively and on some of the best methods in Silk Indus-try.

Rajamma is now a successful micro entrepreneur and em-ploys 20 women like her in the group. She visits women likeher from door to door, explaining the benefits of joining thisSHG and her efforts have not gone wasted. Many womenhave her example and became members in the group. Theyare able to procure microcredit from banks to expand theirbusiness, educate their children, buy agricultural land andmanage their family well, which would have been otherwiseimpossible.

The project has formulated a training manual which is beingused all over the state. With the hard work and commitment


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shown by these mothers of child labourers, most of the ob-

jectives of the groups have been fulfilled. Ultimately, no SHGor Government or any NGO can be successful in upbringingones life, without self determination and efforts.

Rajamma and her husband work in the Silk looms now andher children are happily attending schools and college. Herelder son is attending Industrial Developmental Training andyoungest is in 7th grade and daughter in 12th. The group

has brought back smiles on the lips of countless motherswho were once helpless spectators of their own childrensmiserable conditions and now beam with pride when theysee their children becoming literates. The group has beenable to rescue more than 6000 children from the clutches ofChild labour practise.


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Conclusion


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References


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SUTRA- http://www.sutra.org.in/enss.htm1.

AMUL-http://www.amul.com/m/about-us)2.

UNDP-http://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/op-3.erations/about_undp.html

SEWA-http://www.sewa.org/4.

SEWA BANK-http://www.sewabank.com/5.

Research paper on SEWA -http://www.sewaresearch.org/6.Thanks_papers.asp?id=18

Working Womens Forum-http://www.workingwomensfo-7.rum.org/

Definition of SHG-http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.8.com/self-help+group

Story of Rajamma-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpM9.BY1ZRAa4&feature=related

Articles about Microfinance10.

http://www.edarural.com/documents/SHG-Study/Executive-

Summary.pdf

http://www.aptsource.in/admin/

resources/1273818040_SHGs-keystone-paper.pdf

http://www.microfinance.lu/comas/media/37_swain_an.pdf

http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/empowerment.pdf

UNDP-11.

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/wom-

enempowerment/successstories/india--transforming-poor-rural-

women-into-successful-business-ma/

http://www.in.undp.org/india/en/home.html


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Documents

Jagruthi- A Study of Empowerment of Rural Indian Women through Self Help Groups