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Agriculture can be a means of income only for a part of the year-for some seasons but for

the rest of the time the farmers migrate to towns to find jobs such as Rickshaw pulling,
etc. While men migrate in search of jobs during agriculture off-season, they leave behind
women and children. A majority of poor families belong to small and marginal farmers’
category (one acre and less than one acre land holdings). Absence of irrigation facilities
further adds to their misery. To solve such problems women come together and form
groups as to reduce their problems and worries and to earn a good amount of money to
support their families with the help of Self Help Groups.

Self help groups


WOMEN SELF-help groups (SHG) in rural areas of India have brought several thousands of
uneducated women out of the confines of their homes and enabled them to gain not only
considerable economic independence, but also an identity and collective voice. The SHG model
was initiated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in the
early 1990s.

SHG model links informal groups of women in rural areas to the mainstream banking system. As
these women are illiterate and lack confidence to transact with commercial banks, non-
government and social welfare agencies step in as intermediaries.

Supervisors from these institutions ensure that the women have the means and the discipline to
repay the loans and more importantly, they can conduct the transactions independently. So, they
encourage the group to elect their leader and build common group savings for a few months. The
group leader, who is educated enough to read and write, collects the members’ savings and
records it in registers. The members are told to borrow from the pool and pay back through
regular, periodic payments and keep a record of the transactions. Once this fund grows and the
supervisor has endorsed the group’s credit worthiness, the bank grants those loans.
Often, the women who manage the groups are Anganwadi workers. Being the hub of so many
activities helps them. The supervisors know each family personally; their problems, background,
everything. It helps to identify the cohesiveness of the group, which is essential in forming a well-
knit self-help group. The members use the loan to start such new ventures as vegetable vending,
tailoring, beedi-rolling and agarbatti making or merely to clear old loans or buy consumer
products.

Kalpatharu Grameena Bank as well as other regional rural banks avail 100 per cent refinance
from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at 65 per cent per
annum and lend to self-help groups at about 12.5 per cent. The SHGs are free to charge their
members any amount of interest acceptable to everyone.

“Several NGOs provide the self-help groups with vocational training. This helps them decide
what to do and do it efficiently. Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) at Kumbalgodu
provided training on silkworm rearing to some of the SHGs two years ago. The ’Navodaya Self-
Help Group’ in Tagachaguppe village was able to get a loan of Rs 50,000. Some of its members
utilized it to rear silkworms and send it to the neighboring Ramanagaram, one of the well-known
silk industry centers in the state.

Case study

Poverty unemployment, communal tension…these are the hallmarks of the old city of Hyderabad.
But a slow revolution is creeping in the slums of the old city. With the help of NGOs, women in
125 slums are taking advantage of the changing scenario to bring cheer to their families. Out of
the 800 odd notified slums in the city, women in 125 slums have formed around 225 self-help
groups to extend credit facility to needy members. The members of these self-help groups are
successful running credit societies for the past few years and their current membership stands at
4500. The result - happy homes, self employment and communal harmony.

Moreover various credit societies operating in different slums have come together to form an
umbrella credit society called “Roshan Vikas”. This society has its office quite close to the
historic landmark ‘Charminar’ in the old city. The Roshan Vikas helps the women to secure big
loans at reasonable interest rates.

The membership procedure is quite simple. In every slum 10-15 women come together and form
a self-help group. Contributing Rs. 30 per woman, who is very nominal, the group saves Rs. 750
per month. This amount is offered as loan to members of the group at 2 per cent interest rate,
much lower than the market rate which varies from 5 per cent to 16 per cent and sometimes
depending on the need of the borrower it may be as high as 25 per cent

There are several success stories of women in slums journeying from rags to riches after they
joined the self-help groups. Take the case of Maya, a widow in her early twenties. With a
mentally retarded daughter and two sons, it was the end of the road for Maya when her in-laws
threw her out of the house. She came to stay with her parents in Ambedkar Nagar slum in
Falaknuma and took up odd jobs as a maid in up market apartments.

The turning point in her life came when she was introduced to the self-help group members in the
slum. Maya decided to become a member. All that she needed to become a member was deposit
Rs. 30 per month. After joining the group she secured a small loan and set up a sweetmeats shop
in her house. Slowly she started stocking more things like cosmetics, cool drinks, and daily needs
items. She approached the Roshan Vikas credit society for a bigger loan and purchased a
refrigerator for storing cool drinks and other eatables. Today Maya is a dealer in her locality for
many soft drink brands including Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

The case of Ghousia Begum of Hafiz Babanagar is similar. With a small loan from the local self-
help group she started a vegetable shop at her house. Her husband used to help her in procuring
the vegetables from the main market. But it took a lot of time and money to transport vegetables
from the main market that was 12 kilometers away from her house. So Ghousia decided to buy an
auto van. With a bigger loan from the Roshan Vikas society she purchased an auto-rickshaw. Now
transporting vegetables is quicker and her husband drives the auto in spare time to earn extra
income. The living condition of the family has improved and the children are going to school.

Success stories like these are not restricted to one or two women. There are hundreds of cases of
women who brave all odds to find a solution to poverty and unemployment. In slums of
Amanagar, Kanchanbagh, Charminar, Malakpet, Hussainialam and Yakutpura, women are slowly
realizing their potential. The Roshan Vikas society which is managed under supervision of the
Confederation of Voluntary Association (COVA) will soon extend the concept of self-help groups
to other slums in Karwan, Golconda, Mehdipatnam and Secunderabad areas.

The Roshan Vikas credits society had made a small start but we have now created awareness in
125 slums in the city. They are making efforts to spread their wings.

Economic independence is the first step towards women’s empowerment and empowerment leads
to emancipation. This was the aim behind promoting women’s self-help groups in India.

Rural knowledge centers

The initiative has put computers with internet connectivity into the homes of women’s self-help
group (SHG) members. In rural, urban and semi-urban areas - for example in New Delhi, Tamil
Nadu and Karnataka -
Women and their Self-Help Group (SHG) networks are using ICTs in familiar and empowering
spaces with
Content developed specifically to meet their needs. Interactive multimedia content is being used
to support vocational and life-skills training, where particular attention is given to income
generating activities and the need for innovative production and marketing. The RKCs would
provide computer literacy and an array of IT enabled services to the adjacent rural communities,
with a special focus on empowering women in these areas. It is envisaged as a nodal point for the
delivery of IT skills and income-generating vocational training programs, providing e-governance
services, e-learning programs, and community based disaster preparedness initiatives, information
related to ecological security, health and agriculture, besides encouraging entrepreneurship at the
grass root level.
Self Help Groups will run the RKC, which is fully equipped with PCs as well as connectivity
solutions.

Whether it is city slums or interior villages in rural side, the concept of self-help groups has made
a remarkable difference to the life of several women.

Women in this region have today found an answer to their misery. By forming self-help groups
the women are generating income during off-season to support their families. For example in a
town, a group pf 15 women purchased a farm tractor by securing a loan of four lakh rupees from
the Municipal Corporation. This tractor is rented to private parties generating an income of Rs.
300 per day. The loan amount will be repaid by the group in installments.

In Mahaboobnagar district which is popular for its migrating labor, (labour from Mahaboobnagar
district are found all over India) women’s self-help groups are working to promote business.
Tailoring works, embroidery, lace work, book binding and carpet weaving are some services
offered by the women self-help groups.

Now women have become confident and they know their rights. This is helping them to be
independent and support their families in the agriculture season to earn extra money as well as in
the agriculture off-season. With the help of self-help groups women living in rural areas are
earning and working on their own and this helps them in gaining self-respect and independence.

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