Self help group

- formed under the Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY)

Chaitra revenkar Deepti T Jagruthi Bafna Medha H Neha Shetty Nidhi Ostwal
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 SHG is a holistic programme
of micro-enterprises covering
all aspects of self-
employment, organization of
the rural poor into self Help
groups and their capacity
building, planning of activity
clusters, infrastructure build
Self-Help Group refers to self-governed,
up, technology, credit and
peer controlled, informal group of people
marketing.
with same socio-economic background and
 It lays emphasis on activity
having a desire to collectively perform
clusters based on the
common purposes. Here poor people
resources and the
voluntarily come together to save whatever
occupational skills of the
amount they can save conveniently out of
people and availability of
their earnings, to mutually agree to
markets.
contribute to a common fund and to lend
to the members for meeting their
productive and emergent needs.
A self-help group (SHG) is a village-based financial
intermediary usually composed of 15–20 local
women.
Most self-help groups are located in India, though
SHGs can also be found in other countries, especially
in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Members make small regular savings contributions
over a few months until there is enough capital in
the group to begin lending.
Funds may then be lent back to the members or to
others in the village for any purpose.
In India, many SHGs are 'linked' to banks for the
delivery of microcredit.

Why SHGs ?

• To Organize Women association.

• Enhance Participation Level
• To inculcate saving habits
• Suitable Platform for women to indulge in
investments.
• Enhance capital returns and investments by
Women
programmes and schemes to address the issues of poverty and
unemployment prevailing in our country were formulated:
Among the various programmes “Swarna Jayanti Grama Swarojgar Yojana”
(SGSY) is an important one.
This programme was launched on 1st April, 1999, costs sharing between
Central and State Governments.
The main objective of this programme is to bring the beneficiaries above the
poverty line by providing income generating assets to them through bank
credit and government subsidy. The Self-Help Groups (SHPs) are the major
component of this scheme.
 Benefits of Self Help Programmes
Two types of claims are made about the benefits of self help
programmes :-
• First, it is suggested that self-help empowers its participants
more so than other externally directed or implemented
programmes.
• The second less vocal claim is the compatibility of self-help
with cost-reduction strategies: both in terms of material costs
and costs to the prevailing social and economic structure.
Objectives of SHG

To inculcate the savings and banking habits among members.

2. To secure them from financial, technical and moral strengths.
3. To enable availing of loan for productive purposes.
4. To gain economic prosperity through loan/credit.
5. To gain from collective wisdom in organising and managing their own
finance and distributing the benefits among themselves.
6. To sensitize women of target area for the need of SHG and its relevance
in their empowerment.
7. To create group feeling among women.
8. To enhance the confidence and capabilities of women.
9. To develop collective decision making among women.
10. To encourage habit of saving among women and facilitate the
accumulation of their own capital resource base.
11. To motivate women taking up social responsibilities particularly related
to women development.
12. It acts as the forum for members to provide space and support to each
other.
Microcredit :- Microcredit is the extension of very small loans
(microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack
collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history.

Microfinance :- Microfinance is a form of financial services for

entrepreneurs and small businesses lacking access to banking and
related services.
Stages of SHGs

Thrift & Credit Micro-enterprises

Social Oriented

ILLUSTRATIONS:

Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP)

 Self Employed Women’s Association

• The Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) is

a trade union for poor, self-employed women workers in
India.
• It was founded in 1972 by the noted Gandhian and civil
rights leader Dr Ela Bhatt.
• It's main office is located in Ahmadabad, Gujarat, and it
works in several states of India.
• SEWA members are women who earn a living through
their own labour or small business.
• They do not obtain regular salaried employment with
welfare benefits like workers in the organized sector.
• They are the unprotected labour force of India and are
workers of the unorganized sector.
 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme

• The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP)

was founded in the early 1980s in what is now Gilgit
Baltistan, Pakistan.
• Created by the Aga Khan Foundation, it worked on
agricultural productivity, natural resource
management, small-scale infrastructure and
forestation.
• Its purpose was to improve agricultural
productivity and raise incomes in a very poor,
remote and mountainous part of Pakistan.
• The first GM of AKRSP was Shoaib Sultan Khan who
later on founded several Rural Support Programmes
in different geographical locations of Pakistan and
similar initiatives in several South Asian Countries
such as India, Bangladesh, and others.
ADVANTAGES
• Responsibility
• Ownership
• Capacity Building
• Initiative
• Mutual help
• Access to larger pool of resources
• Channel of functioning
Advantages :

An economically poor individual gains strength as part of a group.

Besides, financing through SHGs reduces transaction costs for both
lenders and borrowers.
While lenders have to handle only a triple SHG account instead of a
large number of small-sized individual accounts, borrowers as part of
an SHG minimise expenses on travel (to and from the branch and
other places) for completing paper work and on the loss of workdays
in canvassing for loans.
•Where successful, SHGs have significantly empowered poor people,
especially women, in rural areas.
SHGs have helped immensely in reducing the influence of informal
lenders in rural areas.
SHGs help borrowers overcome the problem of lack of collateral.
Women can discuss their problem and find solutions for it.
 Approaches

The SHGs broadly go through three stages

of evolution such as:
I. Group formation.
II. Capital formation (through the revolving
fund).
iii. Skill development and taking up of
economic activity for income generation.
SHG’S STATUS IN INDIA BY WCD
2,53,837 SHGs Formed (Since 1997-98)
92,845 SHGs Verified to be Functional.
6,349 SHGs Linked with Market (Since 2014-15)
1,84,589 Credit Linkage (Since 1997-98)
 Rs 813 Cr Disbursed as Loan (Since 1997-98)

SHG’S STATUS IN INDIA BY RD

40,000 SHGs Formed

 4.55 Lac Households Benefited
 29,337 SHGs availed Revolving Fund
 17,113 SHGs availed fund of livelihood (Linked
with Market)
 8,658 SHGs Credit Linkage
Successfully functioning self help groups:
 Case Study: Self-Help Group at Gujarwadi
Gujarwadi is one of the villages where Ashankur started working with women four years ago. It consists of 1100
people.

 The village leaders had invited Ashankur to organize women.

 The first meeting was held in the evening on open ground in front of one house.

THE IMPACT OF THE WORK ON THE VILLAGES

 Because our groups are based on economic homogeneity and not on caste/religion structures, the members of
the group come from across the religious community. This has enhanced communal harmony. The literacy classes
helped to bridge caste-based misconceptions among women.
 Women themselves have realized that due to literacy and information there is much more respect for them in the
family.
 In many families, the relationship between mothers and daughters-in-law have improved and there is more
mutual support.
 Families are now getting used to women going for overnight training sessions.
Wife beating is decreasing in some villages.
 Awareness of the need for the education of girls is stressed.
 Groups are beginning to think about the dowry system, and related problems are now brought up for discussion
 Women are now accustomed to visiting Gram panchayat or government offices and are able to demand their
rights.
 Men have started commenting that because of the women's organizations in their villages, Panchayat Samitee
(Local self-government) has begun to link their programs with the villages, and the quality of life in the villages is
improving.
 The overall community attitude towards women is changing positively.
PERFORMANCE STATISTICS OF OUR WORK IN 2008-09
 We worked in 22 villages of building awareness among women of their basic human rights.

 16 new SHGs were initiated.

 300 women continued their income generation activity with our support.

 Another 160 women have taken up various income generation activities.

 At the main centre, 87 young girls completed their residential vocational training in Nurses Aid, Computer
literacy, Dress designing, and Electronics.

 22 NGOs from Maharashtra and Gujarat were supported by the capacity building program under the EC
project.

 1250 school drop-out women/youth were trained for various skills training, through partner NGOs. Ongoing
coping-skill sessions and seminars on personality development were part of this program.

 56 widows, who do not own any land or fit into the Government pension scheme, were given a goat each to
provide support.