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Chapter 13: Findings and recommendations
The objectives of the project were to understand the impact of voluntary savings on SHG
members. To understand the same it was first essential to take a look at the member’s
income, expenditure, social status as well as their livelihood. More often than not several
financial as well as non-financial indicators influence member’s savings. We used both
quantitative as well as qualitative methods to arrive at our conclusions so that the analysis
is rich in nature. The findings are enumerated below recommendations on
implementation.
13.1 Savings and trust
13.1.1 Findings
We find that the SHG members trust one another but this trust does not translate into joint
business. They help one another in times of need but are not willing to take risk together
in terms of joint business. The SHGs have played a very important role in building trusts
and relationships among the members of the group. More than 90% of SHG members
believe that the act of pooling savings and management of their savings through this
collective mechanism has resulted in a sense of strong ownership of SHGs and increased
trust among members. They attribute the SHG formation to bringing these women
together frequently and understanding each other’s problems.
Group members were comfortable lending money to each other; however they were not
comfortable in investing in each other’s business. They seemed risk averse too in the
sense that they did not invest pooled funds into business.
