10
Sa-Dhan Patrika
Volume 7,
Issue 1, September 2006
balance of the group and the member-
to carry out their task of livelihoods
wise balances of savings and loans was
promotion. The road map that PRADAN
produced.
has prepared for the growth of an SHG
deems that the group be free of any
The PRADAN staff kept track of the
assistance from PRADAN, even for
transactions in the groups through a
getting loans from banks, in about one-
carbon copy of the regular meeting
and-a-half to two years. This requires
transaction statement (RMTS) and the
that for routine maintenance functions
month-end trial balance. A professional
such as accounts and management
accountant consolidated the trial
information systems (MIS), the group has
balance figures to prepare the MIS
to be on its own within the first three to
reports for the project.
five months.
A major principle of developing an
Need for strong systems
accounts and MIS system for the SHGs
is to keep it simple and easy-to-
If the SHGs have to be on their own for
comprehend for the SHG members.
routine maintenance functions, it
Equally important is that the groups are
requires that they are equipped with
able to get updated information on the
strong, yet simple and user-friendly
financial situation of the groups, again
systems, especially for accounts and MIS
in a simple and understandable format,
because they are the most important
and on time. In no way should the
ongoing function in the SHG. But, as can
groups be dependent on the PRADAN
be expected in many of the backward
staff for accounts consolidation and
areas that PRADAN operates in,
reporting because accounting
rampant illiteracy and remoteness
information is a basic requirement of the
makes SHGs dependent on PRADAN for
group. If they had to depend on
data processing and analysis. Therefore,
unreliable outsiders for this service on
decentralised/locally-based
whom they have no control, they would
mechanisms are needed for accounts
never be truly autonomous.
and MIS so that the SHGs are
autonomous on that count.
Therefore, as per the above methods,
PRADAN's systems (before the SHG
The manual accounting system
accounts
computerisation
was
initiated) did not develop as desired. All
The manual
accounting
system
the SHGs actually did have group
consisted of:
accountants who were capable of
maintaining the basic daybooks. But in
A regular meeting transaction
●
most cases they were not capable of
statement (RMTS) book or a cash
posting data under different ledger
day-book
heads and produce consolidated
An on-time repayment tracking
●
financial statements, leave alone
calendar
analytic reports. The SHGs therefore
A
meeting
minutes
and
●
demanded these services from
attendance book
PRADAN. Since the monthly statements
were also the only source of PRADAN's
Member pass books
●
MIS, the professionals got engaged in
Bank pass books in groups that
●
preparing SHG financial statements.
have bank accounts
Thus the system, even though
conceptualised as a simple and user-
Formats for statements such as Trial
●
friendly one, in practice relied heavily
Balance, member savings and
on PRADAN for processing and
loan balances, and balance sheet
analysing.
Formats for year-end profit
●
distribution among members
If they had to
The Computer Munshi (CM) System
depend on
unreliable
These books (except the bank pass
Keeping the set of fundamental
outsiders for this
books) were maintained by a group
principles such as simplicity, user-
service on whom
accountant on a meetingto-meeting
friendliness and timeliness in mind, and
they have no
basis. The service charge for the
the practical realities, PRADAN then
control, they
accountants for the work were paid for
proposed to computerise the SHG
would never be
by the SHGs out of their income. Once
accounts completely. Along with the
truly autonomous.
in a month the data from the weekly
process of computerisation of accounts
meetings was consolidated and the trial
