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Success Stories |
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| Self Help Groups- Success Stories |
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| 1. From No where to Some where |
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| It looked like the world had ended for Qamar Sultana Khan, when her husband deserted her a few years ago. She lived in Urali Devachi, Haveli Taluka, Pune, Maharashtra province of India. She was unemployed, unskilled, depressed and was an additional burden on her already poor parents. Faced with an uncertain future, Quamar started showing withdrawal symptoms, unwilling to interact even with known people. The persistence of a field worker of Gram Mahila va Balak Vikas Mandal, an NGO promoted by Bank of Maharashtra helped in introducing Quamar to the SHG fold and she joined Ganesh Bachat Gat (SHG) IN 1995. Initially, she had to borrow Rs. 20 (US $ 0.5) every month to even make the compulsory savings with the SHG. She picked up some sewing work from neighbours, fetching paltry sums at times. |
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| Break through for Qamar Sultana came, with an exposure programme by Swayam Siddha at Kolhapur in 1996, She picked up tailoring skills through the programme. The SHG gave her a loan to get a stitching machine. Bank of Maharashtra financed the SHG. In a period of 2 to 3 years, she started earning around Rs. 300 per month (US $ 7). |
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Bleakness and uncertainty slowly yielded to hope and confidence in Quamar Sultana’s life. She started taking up useful activities like midwifery and postnatal help to the local women. She learned Rangoli block making and started producing artistic designs, which caught the fancy of a lady from the US who visited the village. Confident enough to forge friendship with a foreigner, Quamar Sultana even managed to sell Rangoli making kits to USA. “ I earned Rs. 50,000 (US $ 1,100) through rangoli kits !” Quamar Sultana told us, when we visited her in November 2002. |
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| Now, Qamar Sultana is an animator with an NGO. She earns a monthly income of Rs 1,500 (US $ 33), and has done up her house with a lick of fresh paint and with amenities like a gas stove! |
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| 2. |
Estranged wife gets justice |
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The SHG movement in one of the inaccessible areas of Orissa was initiated with the linking of 5 SHGs promoted by an NGO i.e. "Fellowship" in Bhadrak. Several poor women were motivated to form savings-cum-credit groups against all odds which ranged from economic backwardness, lack of awareness and social customs which impeded such practices. However, the NGO which was motivated by NABARD, persisted with the initiatives which resulted in 5 groups being formed and nurtured viz. Janani, Saheen, Sagar, Subhadra and Bhadrakali. These SHGs were linked to the banking system in October 1993 with a total credit assistance of Rs. 19,220 (US $ 420) from the Balasore Rural Bank. The small amount of loan advanced to each group did make one to wonder if this approach of frugal resource collation and marginal replenishment through a bank was an exercise in futility. One has to see to believe the impact !! |
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When Sasmita, one of the members of an SHG, was abandoned by her husband who was working in far off Bombay, she was forced to leave her husband's house with her two year old daughter. Her old parents with an alcoholic son found it difficult to take the additional burden of their daughter and grand daughter. It was a harrowing time for Sasmita and her parents. At times they did not have a square meal a day. But Sasmita wanted to keep her head high and in her lone battle for survival. The NGO- Fellowship, working in the area offered her some work in their literacy mission programme. This NGO has also been working in the social sector and they were reaching their target clients through groups of 15 to 20 members. The NGO helped her join one such group called Sagar Self-Help Group as a member and her joy knew no bounds when their group got the loan from the bank. All other members of SHG considered her request for loan as she was in deep financial duress. She opened a small retail shop of essential household items which she used to sell on the verandah (front portion) of her hutment during her spare time. The profits she earned from the shop coupled with the salary she earned out of her work in the literacy mission programme helped her to accumulate reasonable resources to improve the quality of life. The second round of borrowing from the SHG enabled her to expand her business to local kiosk and take this as a prime activity. This visible transformation in Sasmita caught the eyes of her elusive husband who was very keen to patch up the bygone era and realized the potential in her and also the strength of a fairer gender. This late realization enabled a patch-up and family re-unification. Sasmita's father thanks the Self-Help Group for this reunion of her daughter with her estranged husband and subsequent restoration of healthy family ties. |
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| 3. |
Together we earn – Together we till |
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Kowaiphang Bodal is a SHG of 11 tribal women from a backward tribal hamlet of Harijoy Chowdhury Para of Jirania block, West Tripura district, Tripura, India formed in June 2002. Nurtured by a social intermediary the group mopped up reasonable sum of Rs 6,050 (US$ 135) in a span of 10 months, which they safely kept with the local rural bank branch at Bankimnagar. Subsequently, the SHG commenced internal lending and started earning from interest payments. Intrigued by its promptness, dynamism of the members and its creditworthiness of the SHG the local branch of Tripura Rural Bank sanctioned a credit limit to this SHG. This offer served as a major confidence booster to the otherwise shy tribal women. They then started exploring the possibilities of starting income generating activities! A plot of about one acre land was hired on a one-time lease rent of Rs. 15,000 (US$ 333) to start agricultural operations – an activity which was familiar to all. The best raw material that the poor could give was labour which they collectively put by tilling the land. In one cropping season they could harvest enough to repay the borrowing and save for the future with greater hopes !! |
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Confidence begets confidence! Now Kowaiphang Bodal has even found additional avenues for putting their spare time to use. Every month, two members of the group, on a rotational basis, weave a Pachera (traditional tribal garment for the lower portion of the body) for sale. A Pachera for ceremonial use can fetch them a return as high as Rs. 600 ! |
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When asked about the benefits of forming the SHG, Secretary, Radharani Deb Barma says that taking independent financial decisions, negotiating deals and pursuing income generating activities, activities which they could not even dream of a few months back were now made real by Kowaiphang Bodal. |
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From simple ignorant women who could not even speak up for themselves they have metamorphosed into confident decision makers, investors and mentors to their families! |
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| 4. |
Gender power transforming villages |
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Mother Teresa SHG was formed with 20 women members under the guidance of an NGO, RUHSA in the year 1998 in Chennankuppam village of Vellore district of Tamil Nadu Province in India. The SHG has led to empowerment of the women members in this remote village. This emancipation process has also helped them to come out of the clutches of moneylenders. |
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HERE is one example of what the might of collective action can do…..The local practices largely led by the feudal lords ensured that poor hardly be given a Patta - an ownership certificate for the land they owned. There was no system of issuing Patta lands (land title) in the village since the last 10 years. With unified women power and persistent persuasion with local village leaders and community leaders the SHG members ensured issuance of Patta land to 47 poor families in the village. Subsequently about 15 houses have been constructed with support from a Government programme which had earlier bypassed the needy poor. The SHG members have also ensured that potable water connection is made available in the village as also good access road to the village. This SHG is now successfully managing a production unit for manufacturing Batik printed clothes, wall-hangings, etc. which are being sold in the local markets as well as outside. |
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| 5. |
Seeking a socio-economic space from the realms of wilderness!! |
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Vasugi SHG was formed in 1998 under the guidance of an NGO, RUHSA in Kavasambut village of Vellore district of Tamil Nadu province of India. Most of the members were beedi workers and dependent on money-lenders for their credit requirements. The SHG now actively participates in a number of activities in the village. Many of the members who used to put their thumb impression in place of signatures, have now learnt to put their signatures. One of the members, Jayanti is a widow with a daughter of 5 years. After the death of her husband, she was left with no one to support her. With the help of the SHG, Jayanti could get back her husband's share of property, which was her rightful due. She has also taken up a job and has become economically independent. The SHG is also actively involved in health care activities in the village. It has acquired on lease 3 acres of land for cultivation of sugarcane. The grass and sugarcane leaves are used as fodder for milch animals. For this, the SHG has been sanctioned a loan of Rs. 2,00,000 (US$ 4400) from a local commercial bank branch. |
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| 6. |
Women entrepreneurs of Dhenkanal - Breaking traditional thoughts |
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Tensions prevail between Noopur and her husband Bansidhar primarily due to low income of the family. Bansidhar runs a shop which does not draw enough customers as the stock he keeps is limited. Noopur discusses her problem with some other women. These women, too, face the same problem. An enlightened person of the village tells Noopur about the formation of SHGs in many places for solving the day-to-day problems of women. She discusses the idea with other women and they decide to form an SHG called Laxmi Narayan SHG. SHG consist of 20 women members. They have no money to save. Hence, each member collects 4 kilos of rice per month per member and allows the needy members to borrow from the accumulated stock. The borrowing member is required to repay whatever she had borrowed along with 3 kilos of rice per quintal per month as interest. In 1996 they sold their stock for Rs. 7,000 (US$ 156) and switched over to cash savings of Rs. 25 per month per member. They continued to deposit the money in the local bank. Subsequently, Bank sanctioned a loan of Rs. 20,000 (US$ 220) against the accumulated savings of the group of Rs. 10,000 (US$ 110). The members borrow from the group at 3% monthly interest. Some of the members of the group have utilised the loans to increase the stocks of their own or husbands' small shops. They could make a profit of 30% to 40% from the extra stocks created form loans. Now they have started a joint betel nut processing business with the involvement of the group members to generate more income. |
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| 7. |
Women SHG show bankers the way !! |
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M. Latha is barely 27-years-old, but her village background and limited education do not make her shy away from handling all the intricacies involved in getting a loan of Rs. 300 thousand from a nationalised bank in her village, Perumanur, about 10 km from Salem town in Tamil Nadu. |
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She is but a small peg in the micro credit revolution that is slowly but surely creating pockets of economic power and giving rural India women the opportunity to chart their own course of livelihood. |
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Latha is the leader of a 20 member self-help group (SHG) in Salem district, where the Indian Bank hopes to disburse, by the end of this financial year, loans of about Rs. 60 million to about 1,200 SHGs. With Rs. 3,00,000 (US$ 6,600), her group has bought a tractor and is engaged in renting it out for all kinds of chores ranging from ploughing of fields to transporting of sand, bricks and other construction material. |
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On an average, the group is able to rent out the tractor for about 20 days a month, at Rs. 300 (US $ 6) an hour. From the profits, it has already repaid Rs. 1,52,000 (US$ 3,300) lakh of the amount lent by Indian Bank at 12 per cent interest, on a monthly diminishing basis. |
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At the moment, Latha's group hires a driver, paying him Rs. 100 a day. "But since my group members and also bank officers are saying that I should learn to drive it, I'm taking driving lessons. I can drive it but need some more practice," says the woman not without awe in her voice, as she is about to take on what is definitely a man's job in her village. |
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While her husband works as a daily wage labourer, she handles the group's finances, which includes the personal savings of its members and the repayment from the profit got through the tractor. The less advantaged members of her group, four or five at a time are employed in loading and unloading construction material and the group pays each a daily wage of Rs.50. So for these women, it is a double income. |
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Explaining the working of the SHG concept, Mr M. Kanakasabai, Indian Bank's AGM, Salem, says the bank has done pioneering work in the field of micro credit through a pilot project in Dharmapuri district, launched in 1989. |
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"At that time no banker came forward to lend to these women and there was no documentation model available. So we designed the documentation and started lending without security at a time when even NABARD had a question mark in its mind, and only later accepted it as a good model for the uplift of the masses," he said. |
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But before the bank decides to lend, it watches closely an SHG piling up its savings, which can range from Rs. 10 (US$ 0.25) to even Rs. 50 (US$ 1.25) a week per member. It identifies an NGO that works with the group, monitoring its meetings, keeping the accounts and training the members on all aspects of micro credit. Once a group has saved Rs. 40,000 (US$ 900) to Rs. 50,000 (US$ 1,100) the bank moves in to provide three to four times the amount as loan. |
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This amount can be broken up into smaller components and given to the group members, for activities like keeping milch animals, goats or sheep, running petty shops or tea stalls, making silver anklets, running tailoring units and the like. A part of the loan can even be given to individual members as "consumption loans" for medial treatment, children's education, marriage in the family or repairing the house. |
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The finance component, which comes from the bank, has to be lent out strictly on 12 per cent interest to individual members. But the real profit for the group comes from the money lent out to members from its own savings at a whopping 24 per cent interest. Your scepticism that rural women can repay loans at such a hefty interest is countered by the refrain: "We used to borrow from moneylenders at much higher interest rates ... as high as 60 % to 100% p.a. .. and even then repay that money. In this case, it is much easier to repay the loan." |
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Default is dealt with strictly - though allowed for a month or two under grounds of compassion decided by the group - and for "every day the repayment is delayed, the woman has to pay a fine of Rs.10" With such a hefty penalty, default is indeed rare. And, in times of distress, the woman also has her husband's earnings to dip into ! |
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In Moornahalli village, about 42 km from Dharmapuri town, a few groups have turned up to talk to us. Each group has its own uniform; a bright polyster saree in floral design; with the group leader donning a plain green sari. Most of them were, and some of them continue to be, daily wage labourers, but looking at their clothes and glittering jewelry, and more than that the confidence they display when they answer your questions, they could be working women from any big city. |
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Says Selvi, leader of one group, "A couple of years ago, we did not know what a bank or a pass book was, and would not dare to enter a bank. But now we can sit with these officers and discuss our loans". |
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Saroja, a member of her group has taken a loan of Rs. 20,000 (US$ 440) for setting up a "tiffin kadai", which serves piping hot tea and idlis and vadais to her customers. "My husband helps me run the shop and we have no problem in repaying the instalments," she says happily. |
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Depending on the quantum of the loan, the bank decides the monthly repayment sum. But going through the records maintained neatly by the groups in the villages of both Salem and Dharmapuri district it was surprising to find that most of the groups pay back the loan ahead of schedule. In Dharmapuri district the repayment is a mind-boggling cent per cent and in Salem District it is an unbelievably high 98 per cent. |
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To your persistent queries on how the repayment could be as magical as this, Mr. N. Balasubramanian, Manager (Agriculture) Dharmapuri, says simply, "How can we answer a question which we have been asking ourselves all the time ?" |
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But he is certainly not complaining, while coming out with answers such as "peer pressure", group dynamics" or "the woman not wanting to let down her group". |
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But more heartening than the fact that these women are able to access bank credit, repay it in time, make a profit and plough the money back to the family, is the working of "group dynamics" on social evils like female infanticide in this belt notorious for killing of girl babies. |
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Particularly in Dharmapuri district, group members take a pledge that no woman in their families will be allowed to commit female feticide or infanticide. This should be significant indeed in a milieu where many groups have both the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law as members ! Moreover, many of these groups have exercised their economic and social clout to stop an incident or two in their respective villages. |
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Of course dowry is something even they cannot take on, at least for the moment. Alcoholism in the home is another evil, which they bluntly say they do not want to discuss in public. But when it comes to economic power, these women have come far, far away from the point "when during family quarrels their husbands used to ask them if they could even raise a credit of Rs.10 from the local moneylender. Today the women can turn around and say that collectively they are raising loans worth lakhs," says Mr. K. Francis, Director of Integrated Village Development Programme. |
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And, a tiny bit of the group profit goes towards gifting the local school a few dinner plates or tumblers, a table or couple of chairs, or the village a couple of tube lights when the local village body is broke ! |
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"You can measure their confidence from the fact that from one of our branches, two women boldly collected the loan of Rs.1 lakh in cash, put the money in an open basket and walked out, countering our warnings with a smile and saying that this is our village and nobody will dare steal this money from us," adds Mr. G. Rangarajan, Indian Bank's Lead District Manager of Salem. |
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