Snehal Mahila Bachat Gat, Bharatgaon (1999)
In Bharatgaon village in Daund taluka of Pune district, this Self Help Group is one of the earliest groups to be established. As the activities of this group progressed from self development to development of their families, a need arose to address community level issues. However, in the absence of any representation in the local governing body, it was not possible for these women to take up complex issues related to the community. Hence, when elections to the Gram Panchayat were announced, the group decided to support their member, Durga Temgire. With the encouragement of the other members of her group, she went through the entire rigmarole of elections, which was altogether a new experience for her as well as her group. Durga was announced elected to the Gram Panchayat in the year 2000.
Thereafter, the women members of this group motivated Durga to attend the meetings of the Gram Panchayat and to place their needs before the members. Their needs included drinking water, establishment of a building for operating an Anganwadi, sanitation facilities and other government schemes. Although, not a very active and enthusiastic member of the Gram Panchayat in the beginning, slowly her attitude began to change due to morale support from the other members of her group and her family, and she started taking interest in the activities of this local body. Active participation in the functioning of the Gram Panchayat resulted in Durga being elected as Sarpanch for the remaining tenure of the Panchayat. Today, her priorities are very clear and focused. 10% of the budget of the Gram Panchayat should be reserved for women and children of Bharatgaon village and construction of a building to operate an Anganwadi. Women like Durga and the other members of this group have ably demonstrated that women too can play a significant role in local politics leading to community development and their empowerment. This particular case has become a learning experience for the other Self Help Groups in Bharatgaon as well as neighbouring villages, as it has been well demonstrated that inspite of lack of formal training to take up such responsibilities, socio-economically depressed women can take up leadership and there is hope that other women will also be motivated to participate in larger numbers in the Panchayat.
Saraswati Mahila Bachat Gat, Koregaon Mul (2000)
This group hails from Dasavegaon in Koregaon Mul village in Haveli taluka of Pune district. During a discussion on various issues in their hamlet, the women highlighted the lack of educational opportunities for small children in their village. There being no balwadi in the hamlet, many children could not attend school. A few who did attend school had to walk up to the gaothan located 2 Km away from the hamlet. Realising the plight of the children, the members of this self help group prepared a list of all the small children in their hamlet and discussed about the possibility of setting up a balwadi. They decided to allot a place for the balwadi to function in their hamlet and they also began their search for a trained teacher to teach the children. It was decided that the expenses of the balwadi would be borne by the parents and all the support required for its functioning would be provided by the group. This decision was appreciated by all the villagers in the hamlet. The role played by this group in initiating the balwadi in their village demonstrated their capacity to identify and solve problems and the scope for ensuring good quality education at the doorsteps of the rural poor families. Based on their success, this group was effective in establishing additional three SHGs in their village as they are keen to spread this movement and guide women from time to time.
In the year 2001, Koregaon Mul had more than 6 SHGs functioning with a common objective. The concept of cluster formation was introduced. All the groups started assembling together once a month to share their experiences and to learn from each other. Saraswati Mahila Bachat Gat played a leading role in mobilizing other groups to start this association. After being trained, all the groups formed a cluster association in the year 2001. This concept helped in developing continuous interaction among all the groups and brought the members close together. This group has played a significant role in helping the cluster association to work smoothly and they are also inspiring women from neighbouring villages to take up group formation and build their confidence.
Indira Mahila Bachat Gat, Nyahale-Khurd (2001)
Within six months of their formation, this group from Nyahale-Khurd village in Jawhar taluka of Nashik district started a small enterprise with the objective of preparing and packaging herbal medicines and medicinal oil. The members realized that the necessity of operating from a work-shed as it was not practical to start this activity in one of their houses due to the problems of grease, soot and hazard of fire. The first obstacle in their path was funds. On discussing this issue with progressive villagers in their village, the latter filled up an application to highlight their need to the local Member of Parliament who visited the village and was impressed with the committed work of the self help group. A sum of Rs 2 lakhs was donated from the Member of Parliament Fund to initiate the work. The next obstacle was land for the workshed. The group was allotted a small piece of community land by the enlightened villagers which led to the construction of the workshed with the cooperation of the Gram Panchayat and supervision of the members of this group. The group was also successful in obtaining electric power supply and started the activity of preparing and packaging of medicinal oils and herbs.
The group was also successful in obtaining sanction for Rs one lakh from the State Bank of India with which they could start the operation of a flour mill with a chilli pounding machine and a rice husker. These activities are being efficiently managed by the members of this group. The group is experiencing success in all their endeavours and the ownership of the work shed has also been transferred in the name of the group.
Mahila Jagruti Bachat Gat, Faralepada (2002)
As per the tradition prevalent among tribals, the family of the bridegroom has to serve liquor to all the villagers during the marriage. This results in an expense of Rs 3000 for a hamlet with 50-60 households. Not only does their custom call for serving liquor to all the invitees but also as an offering to the deity. This self help group formed at Faralepada in Dhanoshi village near Jawhar focused on undue expenditures during marriages. Babytai Kurbude, a member of this group conducted discussions with the men and youth in the hamlet and tried to impress upon them the ill-effects of consuming liquor. After several sessions, Babytai was successful in convincing the men and youth that they could offer only one bottle of liquor to the deity and they also managed to convince the families about not giving away their daughters in marriage before 18 years of age. Another prevalent custom in this hamlet was the practice of borrowing bridal finery from the local money-lender, entailing additional expenditure. Determined to do away with this practice, the self help group disbursed loans to women members to enable them to meet this expenditure. With all these curbs, this group has been able to reduce financial expenditures during marriages by half.
These groups have well demonstrated their capabilities to transform the lives of rural communities and hasten the process of socio-economic development in the countryside. Inspired by these groups, more than 6000 self help groups are operating in our project areas with considerable success.
Ansari Women’s Self Help Group (2003)
Uttar Pradesh is not only the largest state but it has also earned the reputation of being a backward state. The women are suppressed. Women from the Muslim community are the greatest sufferers, given the dogmatic beliefs of their sect. Under these circumstances, the struggle and success story of Ansari Women’s Self Help Group from Ansari hamlet in Rastipur village, Raniganj cluster of Pratapgarh district has been inspiring. This group has demonstrated qualities of unique leadership and self-esteem inspite of adverse situations in their journey towards self-reliance. They have brought a significant improvement in the quality of life of their members.
Four years ago, inspired by the achievements of a self help group from a neighbouring village, 20 members from a minority community in Ansari hamlet came together to form a group - Ansari Mahila Swayam Sahayta Samuh which turned out to be a turning point in their lives. These women hailing from landless families decided to remove their veils and step out of their houses to play a meaningful role in the community. Although 6 of these women had to leave the group in the wake of resistance from their families, the rest never turned back.
Khalikun Nisha, the President of the group is a confident woman. Today, most of the members can make their signatures. Starting with a teak nursery on a barren piece of land, 5 of these women developed the art of working together. Motivated by their success, they decided to raise a nursery of onion seedlings with a condition to share the profit with the land owner. Tasting success in this venture too, they moved on to cultivate onion on the field of a neighbour. A good harvest helped the members to earn a good profit. They opened an account in the Central Bank and started depositing their earnings.
Every success motivated them to take greater risks and new challenges to progress further. Procurement of ration cards for all the members in spite of deliberate delay by the officials was another milestone. They rescued a member who was being harassed by the village headman for constructing a house under the Government scheme and finally, the house was built. These women are operating a business of readymade garments. The clothes and accessories are purchased from Kanpur and Mumbai and the individual members also take up the work of stitching the clothes. They carry out retail selling in the weekly market days and also through a retail outlet, Shakti Mahila Stores. This group has a close interaction with other women groups in the village. The group has mobilized Rs 1.89 lakhs and loans amounting to Rs 1.36 lakhs have been disbursed for productive and Rs 49,700/- for consumptive purposes. A bank loan of Rs 1.25 lakhs taken for their business has nearly been repaid.
Their present sources of income are from sale of teak and papaya saplings, rearing and sale of goats, backyard poultry and sale of eggs, sale of vegetables grown in their backyards, cosmetics, repair of cycles and locks. As a part of the Sustainable Development project funded by European Union, BAIF is supporting this community to organize a jachha baccha mela, where family planning, ante-natal and post-natal care are highlighted. Family planning measures have been adopted by the families with encouraging results. Cases of women suffering from leucorrhoea were treated. Awareness on weaning and colostrum feeding has increased among the families. Tuberculosis is being tackled and suspect cases have been identified by this group. Cataract operations have also been conducted with good success.
Their ambitious plan is to purchase a piece of land for production and marketing of herbal medicines, Anola products, vermicompost and fashionable clothes. All the children in this hamlet are attending school and girls’ education is being emphasized in a big way. The group constructed a drainage system to cover the entire village, with the project support. 39 family toilets were also constructed in a record time of 3 months. Many of them have constructed bathrooms and soak pits. Chlorination of open wells has been undertaken regularly. This has had a significant impact on the community health. Smokeless chulhas have been constructed by every family. They celebrate various religious festivals such as Diwali and Id I-Milan jointly by inviting all the members of the various groups involving all the 125 families in the hamlet, irrespective of their castes. This is a giant step towards communal harmony.
These women who were not too long ago, cut off from the outside world and who had become aloof from their own community, have now changed for the better. Their contribution to the society has been very well recognised by all the members of the community. Ansari Mahila Swayam Sahayta Samuh has truly entered the mainstream society and demonstrated women empowerment in a big way. In recognition of their leadership, Ansari Mahila Swayam Sahayta Samuh was awarded the Dr. Manibhai Desai Gaurav Puraskar for 2003 at the hands of Shri. Balasaheb Thorat, Hon’ble Minister of State for Irrigation, Government of Maharashtra.
So impressed was our Late Trustee, Shri. B.G. Deshmukh hearing the heroic efforts of this group to come out from a cloistered existence and to join the mainstream of society, that he announced a generous donation of Rs 51,000/- to this group on this occasion which met with thunderous applause and tears of joys in the eyes of those who have been involved in the development of this group from the beginning.
Kasturba Mahila Mandal (2004)
“More than economic benefit, it is the social benefit which is of prime importance to us, as cleanliness in the village and at home is being realised by all the villagers, stated Madhubehn Chaudhary, Secretary, Kasturba Mahila Mandal from Isar village in Mandvi taluka of Surat district of Gujarat and recipient of ‘Dr. Manibhai Desai Gaurav Puraskar’ for the year 2004. Narrating the experience of the group comprising of 16 rural poor women in tackling communal riots successfully in their village by peaceful means and establishing harmony among all the communities, Madhubehn shared their experience in improving their income by taking up preparation of coloured beads whcih has yielded income worth Rs 1.42 lakhs. Vermicomposting which has yielded an income of Rs 3.11 lakhs, has changed the prospects of landless rural women, Madhubehn further stated.