| Women’s Empowerment and Microfinancing through Self Help Groups |
We believe that women’s empowerment, especially in the rural areas is linked with health issues, education and financial independence. With this end in mind, various innovative employment generation schemes, education programs and health camps have been organized in our project areas.
Self Help Groups in Kolwan Valley
Sulekha was a girl from the valley who was married off in Mumbai and had to face a lot of mental harassment from her in-laws. Unable to withstand the oppression she finally returned to the valley with her two children to her parent’s house. Years of torture had reduced her to a subdued and destitute woman lacking self confidence. Becoming part of a SHG helped her to regain her self confidence. She moved out of her parent’s house and set up her own house. With financial support from the SHG she started cultivating her land, and became financially independent. Her son recently passed his matriculation exams and this has motivated her to ensure that her daughter does the same. Her relationship with her husband has improved and her in-laws also now treat her with respect. This is the kind of social change that the SHG’s have been successful in achieving.
Of the approximately 5000 women in Kolwan valley, majority are housewives, who manage the household activities. In 1995 when Gomukh Trust started work on the DPAP project in Kolwan valley, baseline surveys indicated that women were the most deprived group in the society. A social transformation was possible only if women were empowered based on the principles of equality, self-confidence and dignity. It was hence decided to start women's organizations in the Kolwan valley.
Project Objective
Although the overall objective is Women's Empowerment, the aim of forming Self Help Groups (SHG) was not only to provide economic empowerment but also to provide a social and psychological support group to develop complete self-reliance among the women.
Project Activities
SHGs consist of 20-25 women members who form an appropriate medium for initiating saving activities, building awareness and self confidence, nurturing local leadership and organizing people to express their demands jointly. The SHG system has been understood nationally, and has a hierarchical pattern that needs to be established as the number of SHGs grows. Once there are more than ten SHGs, a cluster (Vibhag) is formed, which is allocated into three types: (a) social, (b) financial and (c) educational, such that each SHG is given a responsibility of either social, financial or educational development of the village. Representatives of these clusters then form a Sangh and a Mahasangh consists of representatives of these Sangh or SHG network at the taluka level.
Around 1998, Gomukh Trust's Social worker Kalpana started the formation of Women's Self Help Groups in the Kolwan valley. The first two years from 1998 to 2000 were spent in motivating the women of the villages, informing them about the SHG concept and its functioning, encouraging them to overcome their inhibitions and mobilizing them. These activities were mainly concentrated in the villages of Hadse, Chale, Kule and Nanegaon. By the end of year 2000, thirty-four SHGs were formed within the 17 villages of Kolwan valley. Through the SHG, members could get a loan of about Rs. 2000 to Rs.3000 at
2 % simple interest. However, this amount was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the women. The SHGs therefore proposed forming a federation called 'Mahasangh' (MSG). Each SHG member contributed Rs 1011 to a common corpus. This now allows the women to get a larger loan from the Banks.
By 2002 a total of 75 SHG groups were formed in the Kolwan Valley and women and villagers from villages outside the Kolwan valley had started approaching Kalpana for formation of SHG's in their villages. Gomukh Trust took a decision to expand this work, and since 2003, has been working in various villages of the Mulshi taluka. It now has a total of 200 SHG's formed within 45 villages of Mulshi taluka. Of these 70 are currently members of the Mahasangh and can procure loan to the amount of Rs. 300,000 from banks. Gomukh Trust routinely organizes various training programs to teach the women income generating activities as well as programs on health and hygiene and other social issues. Through the micro-credit scheme, 300 LPG gas cylinder connections were given to the various women members of SHGs. The Savitree Milk Project was established by Gomukh Trust as one of the major income generation activity in Kolwan valley. Employment generation activities initiated by SHGs are varied, and include dairy processing plants, endogenous tourism initiatives, enterprises like grocery stores, goat farming, vermicompost, energy production from biomass, packaging and selling of rice, manufacture of office files & stationery, cooking food for aanganwadis, etc.
Gomukh Trust's day to day work involves attending and if necessary, organizing the meetings of the various SHGs, assisting the SHGs with loan programs from the banks and mobilizing women for the formation of additional SHGs. Gomukh Trust has recently employed two assistant social workers to assist with the additional workload.
Today, the SHG movement has spread to eight districts, with a total of about 2000 SHGs (out of which about 440 SHGs were formed by women below poverty line), covering a total of nearly 20,000 women. We are now focusing on capacity building and nurturing of these SHGs.
Funding
These activities have been funded through the Watershed Plus activities of Gomukh Trust, NABARD, DRDA (SGSY), and OBC finance Corporation (New Delhi).
The Suraj Self Help Group from Kolwan Valley was the proud recipient of the Rajmata Jijau Self Reliance Award 2006 for its excellent work. The award was given by the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of Maharashtra.
For more information, please write to: gomukh@vsnl.com |
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| Soil & Water Conservation |
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| Integrated River Basin Management |
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| Urban Water Management |
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| Water & Sanitation |
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| Equitable Water Distribution |
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| Women's Empowerment |
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| Capacity Building & Environment Education |
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| Sustainable Livelihoods |
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| Lobbying and advocacy |
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