Author: Kesava Vinayagan
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 06, 2009
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=307&page=28
An effective way of rural women empowerment
Self-Help Group (SHG) is a programme implemented
in Tamil Nadu about 12 years back by Sewa Bharati. After a decade it has become
a silent revolution of economic empowerment and socio-political system of
the State. Since 1999, Sewa Bharati has been working in this micro credit
delivery system, which has attracted the attention of the entire nation. To
start with the scheme was introduced for women but now it is getting popularity
among men too. Sewa Bharati alone is guiding more than 4,000 women SHGs and
400 men SHGs throughout the State.
The scheme
Shg is nothing but a small cooperative unit
comprising of 20 or lesser number of people. They are organised in a group
with a name and three office bearers who manage the group and maintain the
accounts and bank operations. Each member is made to save money on a regular
basis and the collected saving money is given as loan to the members at a
nominal interest. The entire transaction is transparent and properly audited.
Members are eligible for financial assistance from banks or any other financial
institution. The interest on this financial assistance is very low so that
the members of the group get rid of their high interest borrowings. The members
of groups are encouraged to start their own business or production units so
that they can earn profit. For this purpose banks are readily extending advances
with appropriate subsidies.
It has become a regular scene in almost every
village in Tamil Nadu. The remotest Vanvasi village in the Western Ghats is
not spared. Women sitting in a circle as if they are playing the famous "Passing
the parcel" game. It is nothing but the weekly meeting of women SHG,
held on the same day of every week, mostly held in the afternoons. For the
members of the group the meeting is more important than their favourite TV
serials, because it is a path to self-reliance. All the days of dependence
have gone and the SHG women have regained the glory of Vedic period. For,
the SHG scheme is like a Kalpataru-the epic tree that is capable of giving
everything the owner needs. The coming generations will never fail to worship
the inventor of this twenty-member "wonder machine".
Economically described as "the micro-credit
delivery system", the SHG scheme is a system, leading to the best form
of savings one could have, the best loan facility one could avail, and the
best way to improve economic esteem. The interest, the members of the SHG
pay for their loans, is the profit they get when the group ripens. In addition
SHGs empower women, enlighten them intellectually, and organise them to avail
the advantage of functioning as a group. Without SHGs these women might not
have excelled the techniques of banking-depositing and withdrawing money and
dealing with the negotiable instruments like cheques, promissory notes, etc.
The SHG scheme has emerged as an invincible programme to reap the best out
of even an uneducated rural or Vanvasi woman, and has attained a culminating
point even exceeding the forethoughts and visions of the founding fathers
of the scheme.
In a village called Thirparappu, SHG was formed
by Sewa Bharati, which comprised of 18 women belonging to one particular caste
and two members from another caste. The caste association of that village
advised the women of their caste to remove the women belonging to the other
caste and run the group. They refused bluntly and firmly. The caste association
tempted them with an interest-free loan of one lakh rupees to the group to
remove the two women belonging to the other caste. The SHG members turned
down this offer and defied any discrimination in the name of caste among them.
This trend is getting momentum among the SHG members with amity and benevolence.
Organised mode of operation strengthens the
society. It has always been a difficult task to organise women of the society
but the SHG scheme has made this dream come true. In a remote Vanvasi village
called Kodithuraimalai, SHG women resolved to execute a noble idea. After
every weekly meet all the members gathered to work in the farm of one member
of the SHG without any payment. The owner of the land offered them lunch and
evening tea. The next week the same activity happened in the farm of another
member. This rotation of work is carried out in the farm of all the members
in a regular turn. The resultant yield of self-reliance is promising both
materialistically and socially.
Alcoholism is a menace in our society and
it is very difficult to do away with it. The SHG women achieved a few victories
in this field too. In a village called Thenkarai a liquor shop was situated
near the only pathway leading to the village. This resulted in a lot of hardships
to the school going girls returning from the school in the evening. The women
returning from their workplace were put into trouble by the behaviour of alcoholics
who used to come to the shop in a large number especially in the evening.
The villagers took up the matter with the authorities concerned, several times
directly and through various associations, but the shop was not shifted from
the place. The SHG women of that village informed about the difficulties caused
by the liquor shop to Sewa Bharati activists. The women were advised to present
the matter before the District Collector under the SHG banner in person. The
gravity of the problem expressed by the SHG women was appreciated and the
District Collector ordered to shift the government-owned liquor shop to another
place. And it is no more an arduous task for women to approach the bureaucratic
systems, to derive the needed results in order to eradicate social evils afflicting
the society.
The village called Maruthancode witnessed
a unique revolution. The SHG women ruined one production unit of spurious
liquor under the banner of Ayurvedic medicines established in their locality
by some anti-social elements thereby manufacturing large quantities of intoxicating
drink called Arishtam, which was sold at a cheaper price. The drink worked
as a slow poison for the persons who consumed it resulting in incapacitation.
Some persons even died of various unknown ailments caused by it. Since the
unit was situated near a temple and a bus stop, it was creating a problem
to the women going to the temple and waiting for a bus. Sewa Bharati SHGs
for women in the village decided in one of their weekly meetings to root out
the menace of the spurious liquor-producing unit. All the members rounded
up the unit and staged a demonstration. The owner of the unit locked the building
and ran away. The crowd was persuaded by Sewa Bharati organisers to disperse
and a complaint was lodged in the Police Station concerned. The police were
reluctant to take any action on the ground that the owner possessed a license
for the unit. The SHG women with much perseverance and belligerence knocked
the doors of local court and filed a law suit, to unravel the mysteries and
mischief in issuing such licenses, and proved the violations of the terms
of the license by all such license holders in black and white and managed
to get a decree in their favour. This judgement proved to be a yardstick for
the entire State of Tamil Nadu. During the entire process the goondas hired
by the owners of the unit threatened the women. Now the village is free from
the menace of the spurious liquor, thanks to the efforts of the SHGs and Sewa
Bharati. The women are up in arms to fight the social evils. The owners of
such units presented the details of this case and a paper regarding the menace
of Arishtam before the Madras High Court where the criminal petitions were
filed against the District authorities to get a judgement banning the production
and sale of Arishtam throughout the entire Kanyakumari district.
In the suburbs of Nagerkovil town there is
a small village called Sarakkalvilai, wherein one Shanthi aged 23 years who
is a widow having a three-year-old female child happens to be the daughter
of a member by name Bhathirakali belonging to Buvaneswari SHG. The SHG members
took into consideration the future of Shanthi in one of their weekly meetings
and decided to arrange for her remarriage. Everything was planned and executed
in a fantastic way. Shanthi entered a new life with an understanding partner
Somalingaom. The SHGs funded and organised the marriage function. The people
of the village were astonished by this activity of the SHG and extended all
their support. During the visit of the Sewa Bharati office-bearer the mother
of Shanthi, Smt Bathirakali, was in tears while describing the incident.
In a village called Aramannam near Kulasekaram
the incident was even more appalling. One widow lived in Aramannam working
as an agriculture coolie and her two adolescent daughters, namely Kalarani
and Anitha, worked in a private firm in Andhra Pradesh. She died of cancer
leaving behind the two daughters as orphans after spending all her earnings
on her treatment. The two daughters who came to take care of their mother
in the hospital were left with nothing but the corpse of their mother. There
was nobody to help even for the funeral. The Sewa Bharati SHG members took
the initiative and arranged for the funeral after performing all the last
rites. They arranged for a safe place for their livelihood with suitable jobs,
and took all initiatives to arrange for their marriages. One Panchayet member
of the locality took the lead and with the generous contributions from all
the SHGs across the District and various other organisations the marriage
of Kalarani was arranged with Iyappan.
Helping the needy is another important social
change that is happening almost everyday in the district through SHGs. Financial
assistance for the sick persons, accident victims, victims of calamities like
fire accidents, have become a normal routine for the SHGs.
These are a few examples of the social engineering
that has been possible in the name of Self-Help Groups. Similar incidents
are a routine where Sewa Bharati SHGs are functioning. The SHGs have contributed
to the service projects carried out by the Sewa Bharati especially in the
case of Anbu Illam (an orphanage), which was inaugurated on 02-05-2004 and
accommodates 18 children now. Sewa Bharati SHGs have become the 'rice bowl'
for the poor and the needy by which these women contribute rice exclusively
not only to Sewa Bharati Anbu Illam but also to four other orphanages functioning
in Kanyakumari district. This rice comes as a share from the rice taken for
cooking by the SHGs woman members everyday which is collected at the weekly
meets and the scheme is named Sharatha Devi Pidi Arisi Thittam.
In short, the wonder that is Self-Help Group
is creating a niche for itself to attain gender equality, empowerment and
justice preserving our cultural and traditional values.
- The writer is general secretary of Sewa
Bharati, Tamil Nadu
