Activities of the Women Self Help Groups

 

 

The community based WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS  whose primary aim is to empower the women,. Palmyra felt that a major intervention is needed in the sphere of awareness generation and capacity building to empower women who are usually excluded from management decisions and deprived of their developments. 

 

 

The promotion of the community through the organizations like Women SHG’s and Water User Associations came into existence due to the support and guidance given by Palmyra - ICEF project for the sustenance of development. The entire program of the project is being supported by ICEF, without whose assistance the project would not have achieved this success

 

 

The present level of achievement of these SHG’s are only to meet their present small requirements  and it is still in nascent stage., Their progress are very much restricted as they do not have an access to higher quantum of credit for their bigger ventures.  Their present activity is mainly of rearing animals, growing vegetables etc., more of conventional / traditional agriculture and agriculture based allied activities only.  Value addition is the only alternative for getting better returns on their investments. 

 

 

Palmyra, working towards this ideal, federated the SHG’s as a first step, to promote them to organize a consortium of rural products by  co-coordinating efforts of all the members in their field of specialization and try and practice the concept of PRODUCER TO CONSUMER, thereby mobilizing the market on their own.

 

 

Origin of Self Help Group Concept in India:

In India the concept of SHG started at the intervention of IFAD (International Fund for Agriculture Development) in 1988-89. The Government of Tamilnadu through its Department of Women Child Welfare (Mahalir Thittam), along with the Indian Bank as their credit partner, adopted the concept in Tamilnadu for the development of women.  The development of women in empowerment came about through literacy programs and entrepreneurial income generation activities.

Having seen the success and the sustainable nature of these groups by peer pressure,  NABARD  brought out the present concept  with certain modifications and the reach is widening now. 

 

 

Concept :

 

·         Members should join the group voluntarily

·         They should be homogenous

·         Minimum 12 to maximum 20

·         In the age group of 18 to 60

·         They should practice thrift ( which is decided by the group)

·         They should have minimum of one meeting per month

·         All of them should participate in the meeting

·         They should practice internal lending from the corpus of the thrift and the rate of interest thereon will be decided by the members.

·         The repayments should be made as per the agreed terms by the member.

·         Based on the disciplined maintenance the group will be graded for external credit.

·         Proper books are to be maintained.

  

The main advantage of these groups is that their financial need is met to certain extent at a cheaper rate of interest without pledging jewels or document.  There is also an avoidance of exploitation by the money lenders who are charging exorbitant rate of interest.

 

 

Palmyra’s approach in formation of SHGs:

  

“ The poor is not trust worthy”,

“The poor is not bankable”,

“The poor is not able to save anything “

  

- The above myths are proved to be wrong.  And the SHGs are made into a sustainable community organization over a period of time.

 

By empowering a woman, a progressive change is brought to the country, which helps not only their own kith and kin; they help others in the society as well to bring  progress and joy into their life.

 

 

The process of SHG formation was started at the end of the year 1999..

 The process consist of

 

ü       Storming,

ü       Forming,

ü       Norming and

ü       Performing

 

Storming:    Create an awareness of togetherness and  benefits through  conflict management.

 

Forming:     After coming together, making them form their own groups,

which are voluntary and democratic in nature.

 

Norming :    Help them to make their own norms and regulations which are to be  followed for their own mutual interest.

 

Performing: Adopting the norms, systems and procedures to  make their own groups progress for their upliftment and empowerment.

 

 

The field level Initiative :

 

Methodology:  The following steps will have to be considered for the formation of women self help groups in the rural areas among the “Below Poverty Line families” as enumerated by the GOVT.

 

• Meeting with village potential leaders
• Identification of Below Poverty Line families
• Interested women will be invited for a meeting
• Explain and educate women,  the importance of formation of  women self help group in the village
• Roles and responsibilities of women as members of self help group.

 

• Selection of Animator, Representative 1 and Representative 2 (executive) by members.
• Opening of bank account (joint a/c) in the name of R1 & R2.
• Decision on periodicity of meeting (weekly/fortnightly/monthly).
• Decision on amount of savings and periodicity (weekly/fortnightly/monthly). 
• Maintaining registers. (Minutes, savings, loan, cash, general, etc.)
• SHG member’s participation in all training programs.

 

As of now Palmyra has formed 115 Women SHGs with 2085 members in the project area in two blocks viz. Vanur and Marakkanam of  Villupuram District, Tamilnadu.

 

30% of women belong to the Scheduled caste /Scheduled tribes community (which are socially and economically backward communities).         

 

The table below shows the no. of SHGs with members and communities:

 

Number of Women SHGs with Members and their Communities:

 

Agewise Table:

 

All the groups are practicing the savings (thrift) and internal lending (sangha loan). The awareness level of our SHGs are commendable and they are vibrant. 

 

 

Savings Table : (As on July 2007)

 

 

   

  

Credit requirement of the groups are addressed in the following ways:

 

A.             Internal lending from the corpus of the group.

 

B.             Since their corpus accrued may be small in size the induction of external funds are necessary when everyone goes for income generation activity either individually or collectively.  The financial institutions like Banks are stepping in and after rating them through the parameters (given in the annexure) they make a credit link and extend funds for their activity after a minimum period of 6 months.

 

C.             Where ever the groups consist of members of economically weaker (below BPL / SC / ST) the financial assistance available through government sponsored programs like SGSY  a component of subsidy is also available.  Under SGSY program  the first instalment is given as Revolving Fund  and the next instalment of economic Assistance towards starting an economic activity .

 

  

 

 Internal lending -  A blessing for the group members.

 

A substantial number of the poor have remained outside the purview of the formal credit system.

An important factor in the sustainability of SHG’s is the circulation of internal loans taken from their group savings. The women of the SHG’s were made to realize the importance of small savings among them and are motivated to make regular savings.

 

This helps them to meet their need- based small loan requirements and also prevents them getting exploited from the money lenders.. All the SHGs are maintining books of accounts systematically  and  have a savings a/c with the  bank in their group name.

 

The  amount borrowed from the corpus of the group are mainly utilised for the purpose related to agriculture, education, health, etc. The group charges an interest of 2% per month on the borrowings.  Thus the interest earned by the groups is either augmented into their corpus or paid as dividend to individual members over a period decided by the group.

 

In March 2007 the cumulative  savings of all the 115  SHGs  amounted to Rs.73.75 Lakhs.  Apart from the savings,  the cumulative interest earned on their internal lending amounted to  Rs.52.43 lakhs for the last 7 years.

 

 

 

 

The usage of loan by the members of the groups are:

 

            Productive purposes                          -           70%,

            Education of their ward                     -           10%

            Health and festivals                           -           10%

            Consumption (food)                           -           10%                   

 

The unique feature analyzed from the above are that the major portion of their borrowings are used for their upliftment of their family both in economical and social terms.

 

Palmyra has taken a role of Friend- Philosopher and guide in building their capacity, understanding their responsibilities and rights in the society and transformed their life to the present status.

 

The SHG’s promoted by our organization graduated to a level of managing their resources from Rs. 500 to Rs. 5 lakhs purely based on their mutual trust.  They have a better understanding on leadership, human relations and developed the entrepreneurship.  The SHG’s are so motivated about their togetherness and mutual interest that  unanimously they decided to extend interest free credit  in deserving cases towards medical expenses.                

  

 

Credit assistance through Government Sponsored Program

 

 

Revolving Fund (RF)

 

Economically backward (Below Poverty Line – earning < Rs.2000/month/family) SHG’s  will be  provided a Revolving Fund assistance of Rs. 25000/   through their Bank of which Rs. 10000/- is the subsidy component after credit rating / grading the group .The  financing banker is charging interest at the rate of 12% per annum for Rs.15000/- Lock in period is for 3 years.

 

 

Economic Assistance (EA)

SHG’s on prompt repayment of their loans can move to the second stage, called Economic Assistance (EA), consisting of a loan-cum-subsidy. With this EA the SHG’s enter into a higher level of activities either individually or collectively. Our SHG’s utilize the EA under the following IGP’s

 

 

§         Goat rearing

§         Animal husbandry

§         Leased land cultivation

§         Purchase and renting of agricultural machineries and

§         Handicrafts based products.

 

 

Based on the initiatives and guidance given by Palmyra, the groups  utilized these government assistance in not only creating their assets for income generation but also had proper credit discipline through their prompt repayment.  Their income (surplus) generation is also deposited with the bank.. 

 

Hence our groups are commanding very good respect among the government officials like DRDA / THADCO ,  Animal Husbandry, Insurance Agencies, Agriculture Department and Bank. 

 

There is a social emancipation at the community level.