Generated by Unregistered Batch DOC TO PDF Converter 2011.3.1006.1517, please register! MANAGING MICRO ENTERPRISES BY WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS: A STUDY IN DHULE DISTRICT OF MAHARASHTRA (INDIA) V.M. Rao1 Background Late Shriram Ahirrao Memorial Trust, Dhule (Maharashtra) was started in 1986 with a view to find out root causes, treatment, and rehabilitation of HIV/AIDS victims. Area of operation of the trust is spread over Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon and Nasik districts. The trust has qualified doctors and staff for treatment, and counseling and rehabilitation centres. It has tie up with local civil hospital who advices patients to be admitted in trust’s rehabilitation centres. Treatment is provided to patients under close supervision and monitoring of district administration. It has implemented number of programmes in this direction. Trust has also been involved in organizing self-help groups, linking groups with banks, providing capacity building measures, and helping women to take up micro-enterprises. Objective An attempt is made in this article to analyze working of women self-help groups (SHGs) organized by Late Shriram Ahirrao Memorial Trust and their impact on women beneficiaries. Methodology Trust has organized 88 SHGs with a membership of 640 spread over 35 villages2. Analysis is based on 160 women members drawn from 22 groups located in Sindhkhed block (Dhule). Multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select groups and respondents. Data were collected through pre-tested schedules during January-March 2011 and simple 1 Professor and HoC, Centre for Research and Publications, Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, University Road, Pune 411007, email: [email protected] 2 Though activities taken up by these groups varied substantially across space, there is no dormancy. statistical tools were used for analysis. Based on the involvement of members in group’s activities, they were divided into ‘internally’ and ‘externally’ managed and comparisons are made accordingly. Treatment to HIV/AIDS3 patients A baseline survey was done by the trust to combat HIV/AIDS on highway (NH 3). The entire baseline survey focused on identifying different spots on highway, where generally truckers rest and also seek entertainment. This was mainly done because at such points truckers not only look for food and rest, but also for commercial sex workers. Accordingly, data were collected and documented so that it could be used for future work. It was found that within a patch of 100 kilometers, 462 points, hotels, and dhabas (road side hotels) existed. Maharashtra state AIDS control society, Mumbai sanctioned a sexually transmitted infections clinic at village Songir (Mumbai-Agra highway, N.H.3) in 1998, and at Awadhan on the same highway in 2003. These two centers have been providing clinical services at various dhabas, petrol pumps, etc. on the highway. Further, Trust has been arranging a flag march with "Chitra Rath" (float presentation) displaying posters and other educative audio-visual literature regarding the HIV/AIDS during AIDS week. Besides above, the trust also organizes various training and awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS including workshops for private medical practitioners, representatives of village level organizations, women, college students, dhaba 3 Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) remains a global health problem of unprecedented dimension. Unknown around thirty years ago, HIV/AIDS has already caused an estimated 25 million deaths worldwide and has generated profound demographic changes in the most heavily affected countries. There are two challenges facing almost entire affected nations. First is to address fundamental, health related, and social (gender inequality) and economic (poverty and income and asset inequality) factors which have created ideal conditions within which HIV can be transmitted. Second is to seek to create a national awareness of the risk that HIV/AIDS poses. 2 workers, transport workers, like drivers, cleaners etc., mill workers in industrial areas, de- addiction, etc. Keeping in view of its contribution, AVERT (Mumbai) has given financial support during 2003-06 for conducting a Community Care Center (CCC) for the effective follow-up program for HIV affected patents. Many village level functionaries like Community Based Organizations (CBO), Non governmental Organizations (NGO), private medical practitioners etc. receive help in registration and treatment of patients in these centers, and in other STI clinics on highway. Community care centres Affected persons are admitted for a period of 15 days in the CCC for treating potential diseases, providing nutrition, inculcating yoga, meditation, and several other mind therapies for leading a life with a positive mindset. Even relatives of affected persons are counseled by counselors for accepting the reality. The basic objective is to provide treatment for opportunistic infections, assisting people living with HIV aids to cope up with HIV/AIDS, ensuring better quality of life within the family and community, as well as providing psychosocial support to cope up with physical stress and mental agony. Besides above, the trust is also involved in organizing women in to self help groups, arranging capacity building, linking SHGs with banks, imparting training on micro-enterprises, and marketing. An attempt is made in the following sections to analyze performance of SHGs organized by the trust and its impact on beneficiaries. 3 Self help groups SHG is an informal group of 10-20 people from homogenous (in terms of socio-economic conditions and levels of living) class who come together voluntarily for addressing common problems. Members are encouraged to make voluntary thrift on a regular basis which is used to make small interest bearing loans. It crates an ethics that focuses on savings. The process helps in imbibing essentials of financial intermediation including prioritization of needs, setting terms, and conditions and keeping books of accounts. It also builds financial discipline and credit history which encourages banks to lend to them in certain multiplies of their own savings and without any demand for collateral security. Cultivating habit of regular savings and ability to access them when required through credit not only reduces vulnerability of livelihood base of poor and their dependence, it also enhances human development. Working of SHGs An overview of selected SHGs is provided in Table 1. These groups, on an average, completed 4 and ½ years with a membership of 13/group. It was noticed that banks are located 10-12 kms. away from the villages and thus women are put to difficulty in approaching financial institutions. In general, women from ‘internally’ managed groups are well educated, recovery is more, involved in various community activities, took up micro enterprises on larger scale, leadership is rotated, regularity in meetings, maintained up-to-date books of accounts, pro-active, and involved themselves in social and cultural activities. Thus, women from internally managed groups are better of compared to their counter parts in externally managed groups. 4 As indicated above, these members collected regular savings and used the same for internal lending. Purposes, amount, duration, rate of interest, etc. are decided by the members themselves. Depending upon the priority, women sanctioned loans for the neediest members without collateral security. Peer pressure acted as collateral. Loan (small and big), amounts sanctioned and per capital amount are provided in Table 2. Internally managed groups, on an average, sanctioned 126 small loans during the last 4 and ½ years and distributed Rs. 2.19 lakhs and 192 big loans amounting to Rs. 12.40 lakhs. In all, 318 loans comprising Rs. 14.58 lakhs were distributed. Each member, on an average, received 5.7 loans with a per capita loan amount of Rs. 26041. Loans varied between Rs. 1000-Rs. 24000. Externally managed groups, on the whole, sanctioned less number of loans with lower per capita loan amount. Recovery performance during 2007-11 revealed excellent results in both the groups, though performance is much better in internally managed groups. It is to be mentioned here that the recovery performance in cooperative credit institutions is just over 40% while groups reported over 92%. On any standards, this is an important achievement of the groups. Livelihood Livelihood means supporting one’s existence, especially financially or voluntarily. A person’s livelihood refers to means of securing necessaries of life. It has been defined by several scholars (Chamber, 1989, Redelift, 1990, Chamber and Convey, 1992, Long, 1997, Complain, 1998, Ellis, 2000, and Huq, 2000) as an adequate flow of resources (both cash and kind) to meet basic needs of the people, access to social institutions relating to kinship, family and neighborhood, village and gender bias free property rights required to support and sustain a given standard of living. This may involve information, cultural knowledge, social networks 5 and legal rights as well as tools, land and other physical resources’. The livelihood systems are made up of very diverse elements which-taken together-constitute physical, economic, social and cultural universe where in the families live (as quoted in Hiremath, 2007). Livelihood (a person’s economic activity) is important to SHGs. The loans that SHG members receive are intended to improve their livelihoods so that they can receive greater