Strom Center Blog

SELP HELP GROUPS-THE RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

The rural women are the marginalized groups of our society. Due to the presence of socio-economic constraints in the rural areas, women’s potential for development remained far from fully utilized and they have been pushed further back into the social hierarchical systems. To bring the rural women to the fore, SELD HELP GROUP play crucial role in rural and urban marketing by manufacturing and selling the rural product.

Marketing the product made by the SHG is an important and most difficult one as the product has to sold through the rural marketing concept to the rural people themselves. And as such marketing in the urban area is much more difficult. The SHG people have to emphasis on the quality, of the product and affordable price to enhance the sales. Therefore SHG have to explore the ways and means of providing products and services that meets the needs, aspiration and attitude of rural consumer and evolve appropriate communication strategy and market promotion.

According to the draft declaration of the third preparatory committee, New york 1995, Empowerment of women is focused, as that empowering women to strengthen their capacities is the main objective of development and its principal resources. Empowerment requires the full participation of people in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of decision that determine the functioning and well-being of our societies.

The Concept of “SHG” mould the women as a responsible citizen of the country achieving social and economic status.  SHG in our country has become a source of inspiration of women welfare. Now- a- days formation of SHG is a viable alternative to achieve the objective of rural development and to get community participation in all rural development programmes.

A Self help group(SHG) may generally consist of 10-20 persons. However, in difficult area like desserts, hills and area with scattered and sparse population and in case of minor irrigation and disabled persons, this number may be from 5-20.The difficult  areas have to be identified by the state level SGSY committee.

Self help group is a small voluntary association of poor people, preferably from the same socio-economic background. They come together for the purpose of solving their common problems through self-help and mutual help. This common fund is in the name of the SHG.Usually, the number of members in one SHG does not exceed twenty peoples.

]]>

The Self help group generally has members not exceeding 20 and each group selects among its members a leader called “Animator”. The Animator conduct 2 or 3 meeting in a month. The group member saves a regular amount of Rs 20 to Rs100 and more everymonth.The group rotates the money to the need members for various purposes at a specified low interest rate. This activity also paves way for socio-economic empowerment of women and builds confidence in them that they could stand on their own.

Group training is held regularly at least 3 modules each of 2 days this phase would enable all to participate effectively, especially the weaker member to build group culture and to develop further self-confidence in private and public life to help members.

SHG concept, roles of animator, representative and members. Savings-needs, how, where, frequency, type, amount. Type and repayment of loans, accounts books. Characteristics of a SHGs annual action plan. Grading of SHG Linkage and activities for village. Group reserve fund, insurance and common fund.

SHG membership should be resident in the same area, be homogeneous and number at least five persons. SHG should promote savings mobilization. Savings should be linked to credit: Savings first, credit next. SHG should begin with simple book keeping system. SHG should hold regulars meetings (once a week if possible) Group leaders should be elected by the members, with group function or position being rotated among the members. Transaction costs should be kept to a minimum through simplified group procedure and control.

The SHGs comprise very poor people who do not have access to formal financial institution. They act as the forum for the members to provide space and support to each other. It also enables the members to learn to co-operate and work in a group environment.

The SHG-bank linkage programme is targeted to reach the poorest sections, which are by passed by the formal banking system. Therefore, it is essential that only the very people be considered as the target group for the SHG-bank linkage progarmmes

An SHG can be all-women group, all-men group, or even a mixed group. However, it has been the experience that women’s groups perform better in all the important activities of SHGs. Mixed group is not preferred in many of the places, due to the presence of conflicting interests.

Members come together due to felt need, on platform of affinity and commonality of problem. SHGs are savings led and act as adhesive. They are characterized by collective and participatory wisdom. They offer interface with the banking network. They offer platform for women’s empowerment.

Subsidy under the SGSY will be uniform at 30% of the project cost, subject to a maximum of Rs7500/-.In respect of SC/ST and disabled person however, these will be 50% and Rs 10,000/- respectively. For group of  SHG , the subsidy would be 50% of the project cost subject to per capital subsidy of Rs 10,000/- or monetary limit on subsidy for irrigation projects.

Self help groups have been shown to be a cost effective way to help and meet the social and emotional needs of individuals and families dealings with the problems in living. Self-help groups in rural areas may be particularly valuable and needed community resources for promoting human and family development. Thus, Self-Help groups may have the potential to contribute significantly to human and family development in rural areas.

Manuals-District Rural Development Agency,Tamilnadu triennial report (2003-2007)

Manual on SHG or field level workers, Ministry of rural development,Government of India.

Source: ArticlesBase.com