C H A P T E R - 4 W om en’s Em powerm ent through Participation In Self-Help G roup M y own vision is that the com ing age w ill be the age of women. M an has tried for five thousand years and has failed. Now a chance has to be given to the wom an. Now she should be given all the reins of pow er. She should be given an opportunity to allow her fem inine energy to function. M an has utterly failed. In three thousands years, five thousand w ars — this is m an's record. M an has sim ply butchered, killed, m urdered; he has lived as if only for w ar". - from Dham m apada : the ways of the Buddhas CHAPTER - 4 W OMEN’S EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN SELF- HELP GROUPS 4:1) INTRODUCTION: In this chapter, we will explore the processes of empowerment through self-help groups. W e w ill examine how participation in self-help groups empowers m arginalized groups and communities. We w ill move from the previous case study of technological development approach to organic leadership perspective, which encourages participatory strategies for sustainability and empowerment. The earlier case study was the example of technology transfer, where external or outsiders implement the intervention to achieve the desired goal. In the soil and water conservation project, participation w'as used to harness the existing physical, economic and social resources of rural people in order to achieve the objectives of development programmes and projects, the case features reflects pseudo-participation, which is discussed at length, in the first case study. The present case study is directed to wom en's empowerment through self- help group. Self-help group activities demand real participation, where the stress is on the importance of the act of participation rather than on the achievement of predetermined goals. Without full participation of SHG participants, the goal cannot be achieved. Self-help group formation is an 'organic' process, wherein people come together to influence their capacity to initiate action to enhance their quality of life. In this process, the participation be voluntary and must include the ability to change the existing environment. The notion of participation as an exercise of empowering rural people has gained wider support. The basic assumption of empowerment is that the process of people's development is not likely to strike deep roots unless the target groups themselves are part of it. Therefore, peoples’ participation in development programmes from decision making to implementation and if necessary, in monitoring and evaluation of the programmes could lead to successful and sustainable developmental. In general, it can be stated that community participation implies development by the people, and not just for the people. Participation involves bringing people to the core from the periphery, to activeness from passiveness, and to help them to be decision-m akers and participants, rather 106 than mere acceptors. In this sense, a self-help group (now onwards SHG) can act as a better strategy for participation and a tool for empowerment. The mechanics of self-help groups are micro credit, loan facility and training and m obilizing the people to empower themselves. It is a bottom up approach. SHGs also focu.s on gender issues. O rganization of Case study This case study is divided into four subdivisions. The first section focuses on the concepts, historical background, methods and techniques of data collection. T h e second section deals w'ith N G O 's background and the structure, nature and modalities of SHG programme. The third section focuscs on courses of events. T h e last section is analysis and conclusion. SECTIO N - 1 4:1:1) CONCEPT OF EMPOW ERMENT The basic assumption of participatory development is that it stresses importance of primacy of people, people’s knowledge and wom en's involvement. In this section, the crux of participation is related to explore empowerment processes. The broad aim of participatory development is to increase the involvem ent of socially and econom ically marginalized people in decision-making about their own lives. The assumption is that participatory approaches empower local people with the skills and confidence to analyze their situation, reach consensus, make decisions and take action, to improve their circumstances. The ultimate goal of participatory development is more equitable and sustainable development. Equitable participatory development means including women along with men, which in many cases requires examining gender relations and changing entrenched forms of social organizations. In most of the developmental activities, some .sections of the population — notably women, poor and the indigenous people are often left out. Many organizations claim to seek gender-balanced participatory development; but they often lack long-term commitments. There are very few projects which are directed to gender issues. The reasoning goes, "'there is iu> need to look at i^ender issues sepLirately, they are autonuiticaliy taken care of throui’h participation” ( O a k la y . 1991. p. 18). 107 Besides this, there are obstacles such as cuUurally defined roles of women. Building rapport with women is time consuming, seemingly due to lack of support from men folk, workload and household responsibilities. The moral superiority, w'hich accompanies the word participation, has allowed a way out of discussing and addressing the more controversial and radical notions of gender relations and wom en's oppression (M ayoux. 1995). W ellborn (1991) suggests that participatory development means the equal inclusion of all sections of a typical stratified com m unity; women, men, older, younger, better off and worse-off. This means being clear about what assumptions participants are making about the local, social, economical and political processes through which they think empowerment can take place; and understanding the practical condition that can make or break women's involvement. An cmpon'enueiit process can mean cm i/iiticil focus on women’s practiccil needs and then moving towards niore structured discussion and clicmges. Empowerment is a complex term and carries an inherent contradiction, namely, the notion that 'some can act on others to give them pow'er or enable them to realize their own potential’ (Nelson and Wright, 1995). If the power is es.sentially about the 'transformative capacity’ of people or group, then empow'erment involves increasing people's capacity to transform their lives. It is more than inviting people to partake in the assessment of needs or a decision­ making process (Giddens. 1984). With this clarity and following David Deshlcr’s framework of participation, the case study will study hou women play an important role in development activities. It is proposed that empowerment could be analyzed by classifying the nature of participation that occurs during development activities. 4:1:2) Historical Background of Self Help (Jroup The seeds of one of the grassroots programmes, which became universalized and centered on SHG. originated in Bangladesh. Prof. Mohommad Yunus began the mici'o-finance programme folloued by Grameen Bank that really swept the world like storm for organizing the poor under local institution of micro finance. Forty countries in the world arc today replicating the Grameen Bank Model. In Bangladesh, 37000 of their 68000 \ illages have Grameen m icro­ finance activities and their total financing in rural areas of Bangladesh exceeds that of the entire formal banking sector (Indira M isra. 1997). 108 This innovation is also being tried out and spread in the field of rural credit in many developing countries, including India, to help the rural poor, especially women, to gain better access to credit facility. In India, formal rural financial institutions like commercial banks and regional rural banks are engaged in the promotion of SHGs as a part of NABARD's(National Bank of Agricultural and Rural development) new policy of improving the institutional credit delivery system for rural poor through adopting innovative practices (N ABARD report, 199,‘i). There is also now a big push from the government for formation of SHGs. The union budget for 1998-99 proposed creation of about two lakhs SHGs covering 40 lakhs families within five years. NGOs are playing a leading role in forming SHGs as a part of their strategy towards creating alternate ‘people’s institutions’ that can help supplement their developmental activities as well as help them attain bigger goals like poverty alleviation and empowerment of women (Fernandez, 1994). Goetz and Gupta (1996) found that NGOs perceive SHGs as instruments that can help them to achieve objectives like women empowerment and gender equality. Most SHGs have been able to successfully promote a regular saving habit even among poor households (Fernandez 1994; Rajashekar 1994). Initially, in the 1970s. the concept of micro finance gained recognition in several pockets in India. SEWA of Ahmedabad facilitated rural credit in several districts of Gujarat while Working Women's Forum (WWF) followed similar activity in urban areas of Madras (now Chennai) and Annapurna Maliila Mandal in Mumbai. These organizations started making their impact and their example was being followed by several other budding NGOs. These initiative now increasingly receives support from development banks, com m ercial banks, private sector and institutional donors. However, much of the initial progress seems confined only to a few states like Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andra Pradesh, and Orrisa. Maharashtra, the formal financial sector, after years of experience with a top down model of credit to the poor, is now reorienting it.self to reach out to poor people. The SHG linkage programme of N ABARD initiated in 1992, and the Rashtriaya M ahila Kosh are example of this of this bottom-up approach. Another programme initiated by Maharashtra state was Maharashtra Rural Credit Programme (M RCP).