Women and em-powerment

Women are an integral part of every economy. All round development and harmonious growth of a nation would be possible only when women are considered as equal partners in progress with men. Empowerment of women is essential to harness the women labour in the main stream of economic development. Empowerment of women is a holistic concept. It is multi-dimensional in its approach and covers social, political, economic and social aspects. Of all these facets of women’s development, social empowerment is of utmost significance in order to achieve a lasting and sustainable development of society. 

The Government is much more on economic and political empowerment of the women. But till the women are not socially empowered nothing is going to change. If we see the condition of women sarpanch we all are aware that their male counterpart only take all the decisions. same is the condition when the women member take a loan from the SHG. The same men who were dead against their wives to join SHG decides how will the loan money be used. In both the condition the women feel helpless because they are not socially empowered. Social empowerment means to change the socialisation process, education system, religious values, cultural rules etc. Are we ready for such change? How will the change take its shape? What will be its methodology?

Come let us think on it...

Sharing on the Recent Assembly Election in Three States

My dear friends, last evening I was watching news in TV and found that the congress party has won the three assembly elections in three states (Arunachal, Maharastra and Haryana). People have chosen the same party which were ruling the states for last five years. Congress party is very happy. They are ready to form new government in these states. But few reflections:

1. The way the election was won in Arunachal is really alarming for the democratic spirit of India. According to some news channel before the day of election some political party has been alleged to have distributes goods like motor bike to owe the voters. Is this the way a election should be won? why are the political parties so insecure of their win if they are "confident to win"? Where is the civil society to protest against it? Are we so materialistic?
2. Will the poor people of Maharshtra get 24 hours electricity now? Will the people be still burnt alive in the name of caste and region? 
3. Will the farmers of Haryana see a good infrastructure in the area of agriculture? 
4. Will our leaders now really work for the excluded people of the society and not just go and stay in their house for one day? 
5. When will the civil society stand against the people who divide the society in name of religion and region? Election is the only means by which we can show our power, when will we exercise these power properly? 

One need to understand that people are not the same as they were ten years before. The people have now understood the dynamics of the political leaders. I do believe that people need to be sensitised more in order to choose proper leader for the governance. 

Our Neighbours... Let us be United.

India's Foreign policy towards its neighbours need to be seen with more seriously. All our neighbour's politics are based on anti- India sentiments. I was in Nepal for one full year. I strongly felt that nepalese people have a anti-India feelings in their mind. They love an individual Indian and respect him/her. They love hindi movie and hindi songs but they do not like "India". The polticians there have played a great role in cultivating the anti Indian sentiments among the people for their own political interest. This is similar with other neighbours also, like Bangladesh, Pakistan, China adn even Sri Lanka. Our neighbours love Chinabut not India. Why is it so? I do not say that they should hate China but at the same time it is also true that anti India feeling is also not encouraged. I feel that Indian Government should take it seriously and act politically. As a Indian I feel that we all (Indian and our neighbours) should live peacefully. India should create an environment of brotherhood and peace among our neighbours. 

We are all the part of the same sub-continent. We share the same history and same root. we have same culture and spirituality. So why to fight? We can work in harmony to combat the terrorism, poverty and corruption that stands like a shameless  scar in our face. We have lot of similar problems which can be handled with strong fist. United we stand and divided we fall.

Its my earnest request to all the heads of the country to work in collaboration and cooperation. We have a good platform to strengthen our ties and that is SAARC. Let us use this platform. Truly speaking the common people of these countries love each other. It is the politicians who destroys this feelings with thier vermonous act.

SHG

SHG or Self Help Group are mainly women groups formed inorder to facilitate economical and social empowerment.

My recent visit to few SHG showed me that the SHG are being pushed into financial crisis both by the banks and the micro credit agency. Above all in this time of acute financial crisis their family members are not beside them. The women are left alone to handle it. One cannot imagine the amount of stress and depression they are going through are pathetic. I feel that it is the worst situation that they are going through.

The banks have rendered loans upto one lakh to each SHG without proper assessment of the members regarding their utilisation capacity. No viable IGP is being showed to the SHG members. It was the duty of DRD cell.

The women were happy that they got a loan and the banks as well as DRD cell of West Bengal government were glad too, as they could fulfill their target of credit disbursement. But for the long run they had planted the seed of economical crisis for the women. In between the panchayat election came and some political parties for securing their votes in the ballot box (now EVM) announced that their loan has been pardoned by the government. (I do not know why they said so or what did they mean.) But the immedicate result was that SHG members stopped repaying their loan. It is now one year that the SHG members have stopped paying back their loan. (One can imagine the amount of interest and principal amount that have cumulated)

Suddenly after one year the bank woke up from their deep sleep and organised a meeting with the panchayat and ordered the SHG to start repaying their loan as it has not been pardoned. Now the women are in a great problem.



When I talked with the members of SHG I found that each of them are indebted with more than Rs. 20,000 loan. They have not only taken loan from SHG but from several micro credit agency for their own valid reason. But one thing is common that the loan money has been utilised for unproductive purposes like building houses, repairment, buying mobile set, TV, DVD etc... Few of them have bought cow but all of them died (the reason for death lies somewhere else - use of excessive chemical fertilisers in their field).



Now the women are puzzled as how to pay back the loan. Above all the utilisation of loan money has been decided by the men flok (women's husband). But now during the repayment the men folk has shown their back. Everyone form the bank to the micro credit agency calls the women and force them for repayment. The women are really stressed and are standing helpless. One cannot imagine the extent of impact this indebtedness has on the life of the women. The impact can be seen through the amount of domestic violence that has increased in the area among the husband and wife, high blood pressure, child labour, excesive malnourishment, tension and so on....



What can be done....

Who is responsible for this....

Who should help them.....

Who stands accountable....

What are the ways to help them...

The women cannot pay back the loan till they get some work. But the hurdle in it is the patriarchy scoiety which do not allow the women to go out for work. The less opportunity in the village. What should the women do now.... migrate or do suicide????

My Reflection

Are our children safe? This was the question that prop into my mind, when I saw a boy (of my village) walking back to home with a frustrating face. I saw him talking with his father. I heard his father using abusive languages to rebuke him (for some unknown reason). This particular scene is very natural from a family point of view. But I feel that it has a great and deep significance in the child's life. The child learns a lot and absorbs a lot from all sort of such incidents. The child grows up and repeats whatever he/she has seen and learnt from his/her family members.

I have seen many children in my village are growing up amidst violence, lust, alcholism, domestic viloence, greed, materialism, individualism and many such odd environment. After looking at this situation of a helpless child, I feel frustrated.... I feel that something need to be done.

Can't we do anything? Are we disbaled to change this situation?

I do not know, I have no answer. But from my part I am trying my best by organising this children and giving them an alternative perspective that one can stay without using violence and abusive langauage. One can stay without being materialistic and individualistic.... One can control his/her lust and greed. But the opposite current is so strong that it seem so hard... but definitely not impossible....

Come on let us join this campaign of saving our children..... a abusive language free world at least...

SELF HELP GROUP AND DEVELOPMENT

SELF HELP GROUP AND CONCERNS

Introduction

An SHG has 10 to 20 people from a homogenous class. They come together for addressing their common problems. The SHG approach is founded on the following two principles:

• Every human being has tremendous potential in her/himself. This hidden potential in the poor can be unleashed if the right environment is provided.
• As an individual, the poor are voiceless, powerless and vulnerable. By bringing them together as a homogenous collective, they have tremendous strength.

The members are encouraged to make voluntary thrift on a regular basis. These resources are then pooled to make small interest bearing loans to their members. The process helps them absorb the essentials of financial intermediation including prioritization of needs, setting terms and condition, and accounts keeping. This gradually builds financial discipline in all of them. Beside this the SHG approach is also based on the understanding of poverty not just as material deprivation but a continuous process of “dis-empowerment” that includes denial of choices/rights/opportunities, discrimination, disparity, domination, displacement, and de-humanization. SHG’s understanding of development may not be explicitly stated. Yet, it is implied in the approach that development is transformation of people into agents of their own development, about building peoples own initiatives, and about addressing the injustice behind the exclusion, deprivation, and disempowerment of the poor. Thus WBCSSP was trying for inclusive development through strengthening SHGs in their initiatives.

The role of SHG is vital in determining the inclusive growth and the quality of growth. The World Bank has stressed the role of institutions in its Report of 2005 as institutions for poor. Till 90’s the policies of developing countries were concentrated only on raising the income rather than raising the standard of living of the people. This has resulted into exclusive growth which created island of prosperity in the midst of the abject poverty. The SHG formation in the village has given the poor women their right to access credit. The experience of SHGs has shown that although they have provided improved access to credit it is not reasonable credit. But the concern is that the poor women access credit mainly for crisis and consumption purposes only (mostly food, health and education). Although participation in SHGs has meant opportunities related to mobility and a legitimate space in the public realm for leaders of SHGs, the overall picture is one that raises several critical concerns related to gender justice and livelihoods. It cannot be limited to merely forming of SHGs and providing access to credit. It cannot replace with the role of development and growth in other sectors and cannot be an excuse for reducing state expenditure on social sectors. By projecting the SHGs involved in savings and credit activities as the most effective way to deal with poverty the burden of poverty removal falls on women.

Some of the important concern and the challenges:

SHG members have little control over financial resources. There continue to be serious stumbling block faced by women when they want to access credit from banks. The nationalised banks never creates any hurdles for the loans to purchase motor byke. (I have not done any research or came across any such research that shows the distribution of loan by the nationalised banks. I mean to say that how much money has the nationalised banks given to the poor women and how much for the rich corporate people. If any research done I am hopeful that one would find the imbalance as well as the balance tilted towards the rich people. Why is it so?)

The income generation programmes undertaken by the SHG have been unviable. It is only due to the lack of infrastructure, marketing and capacity building. Low levels of credit absorption capacity, low skill base and low asset base have been challenges to the SHG movement, which are yet to be addressed. (My own experience tells me that the loans are given to the SHG by the nationalised banks only to fulfill their targets and DRD Cell of the districts, responsible for the growth of SHG never plays its role properly. Hence the burden of the debt on each SHG and the member at the grassroot is increasing day by day. The government lacks political will as well as vision. Why is the Government not able to come up with proper strategy?)


The basic livelihoods concerns related to the existing economic realities (such as those related to agriculture or natural resources) of poor women’s lives remain largely unaddressed in the process.

The rapid growth of SHGs combined with inadequate support being provided to them has meant that a large number of groups are non-operational and exist only on paper. The pressure of targets has meant that there are multiple claims being made on SHG members by different sponsoring agencies, thereby exaggerating the number of women being covered by SHGs.

The agenda of SHGs most often fails to include social justice and equity issues.

Members of SHGs are also making demands from governance institutions often without success.

Although it is recognized that literacy is an important factor, capacity-building inputs to develop literacy skills are very limited.

Women experience invisible barriers to entry in economic and political spheres.

SHGs find that the existing governance systems are not accountable to them when they really needs help. Most often the government programmes tend to challenge the Panchayati Raj Institutions from where the SHGs could potentially seek redressal of their grievances.

While SHGs serve the interests of numerous institutional players such as the State (including in the delivery of development messages and schemes), banks and corporations, there is grossly insufficient ploughing back of any resources for the women themselves, either for crisis support or for their capacity building. This is despite the fact that information, skills, attitudinal change and perspective building are corner stones of empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Amongst SHG members it is group leaders (who are the more educated) who are receiving inputs.

When issues related to gender are included in the group leader trainings, they receive only tokenistic attention.

There is no subsitute of SHG at present as I always feel that we cannot go on replacing one model with another but work together to make present model work effectively. Let us discuss on this and influence the government. Who ever reads please share....