Briefly explain the importance of women's self-help groups
Answers
More than 60,000 women spread in 2 Blocks of Ariyalur District belong to the ‘Below poverty line’ category (ie. their annual income is less than Rs. 24000 (=$500)). These women are from different caste groups such as Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), most backward Caste (MBC) backward caste (BC) and minority groups (Muslims).
Most of them are illiterates/semi-literates. Only 15 percent of this population own economic assets, such as weaving looms, cows and goats, or a petty shop business.
If they need money, they cannot go to a bank to get a loan, so often their only choice is to get a loan from a local money-lender, who usually charges outrages interest rates (sometimes more than 100%!). Often such debts cannot be paid off in time, and the individual or the family gets in deeper poverty, and sometimes leads to suicide. The situation is especially poor for women, because they have often little or no economic status, and especially when their husband is working elsewhere, they have to face severe financial hardship.
Occupation-wise they are landless laborers, agricultural laborers, construction workers, weavers and contract weavers and daily wage labor (coolie workers). The job availability in the agricultural sectors is roughly for 3-4 months a year and the rest of the period they travel usually to nearby areas for coolie work. They try to support their families with their little income.
These women and men can be organized into Self-Help Groups (SHG). The goal of this program is to promote savings- and credit activities, and to promote micro-enterprise development. This can lead to a strong and permanent improvement of their socio-economic conditions in a number of ways:
Initiation of savings and credit activities, and promotion of income generating programs in these self-help groups will bring more economic development and independence to these women and their families. Because of the better welfare of these families, more children will be able to attend school instead of being forced into agricultural child labor.For the first time in their life, these disadvantaged rural women and men become organized into groups. The formation of these self-help groups will facilitate discussion of many issues pertaining to their socio-economic, educational and health status. Thus, the formation of this group provides a forum to initiate many participatory activities (including training and awareness camps).This process will also lead to increased confidence and social status, especially for women, in their communities. This will encourage these women to participate and contribute in general social and political matters in their respective villages, including women's rights. Examples include the use of these women as HIV peer educators in our HIV programs (Perambalur Education and Prevention Program).