Sa-Dhan Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 2

Community Based Organisations

rupee but the amount has gone up to Rs 100 per month. The

BPL category is itself a matter of concern". The impacts of the

total financial turnover of the federation has increased to

SGSY programme however, varied from region to region,

about Rs 3 crores at present, she said. Margdarshini has a

depending on the governance capabilities of the state.

separate set of account books and bank account, said

Gajalakshmi. It mobilized around Rs 25 lakhs from the SBI,

According to her, although banks were supposed to play a

and around Rs 37 lakhs under the Swarn Jayanti Swa-Rojgar

major role -- from identification of the beneficiaries to

Yojna (SGSY). The federation provides credit to member

assessing their eligibility to receive revolving funds and

SHGs for income generation activities, she said.

subsequently, training including identifying projects -- this

has not been successful in most parts of the country. Lack of

The sharing of the experiences of community-based

rural orientation and understaffing could be one of the

organizations was followed by the presentation of the key

reasons. However, in the southern states, banks are doing

findings of the Sa-Dhan study. Vinod Jain, who presented the

well. The SGSY programme has also taken off in south India.

study findings , said there are four types of financial

She also mentioned that in India's poverty belt - Uttar

federations: finance and low member managed/controlled

Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, West

federations-Q1; finance plus and low member managed

Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan, and also to some extent the North

federations-Q2; finance only and high member managed

East States - there has not been even a dent. These states have

federations-Q3; and, finance plus and high member managed

not been able to utilize the funds, possibly due to lack of

federations-Q4. Federations of different typology were analyzed

good governance. NGOs from other parts of the country have

for group action and stable group conditions using Doharty

not made inroads in these areas, and if they have, they are

V. S. and Jodha N. S. The Q1 and Q4 federations (with loose

very few, and concentrated in small pockets. As many as 60%

links with promoting organizations) were found to be

of the poor are in these states. Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar

institutionally more stable. Q1 federations were "instrumental"

Pradesh and West Bengal alone account for 42% of India's

in providing financial services but achieve wide reach. Q4

poor. The biggest challenge was how to take either government

federations require intensive processes for the leader, and

programmes and/or micro-finance to the poor in these areas.

member education in diverse skills. They could become true

She identified it as a problem of lack of good governance and

people's institutions. In addition, non-financial federations

improper implementation of the programme in the BIMARU

(non-finance low member managed federations- C1 and non-

states.

finance high member managed federations-C2) were likely to

take up financial functions for functional identity and stability.

According to her, around 1 million SHGs have been formed

The process needed to be encouraged.

under the SGSY since 1999, and one tenth of these were

credit-linked and put on to the micro-enterprise stage. The

Commenting on the study, V. K. Chopra, Executive Director,

number of Swarojgars (self-employment) assisted through

Oriental Bank of Commerce, and the Convenor of the Informal

micro credit, including the individual beneficiaries, was 30.7

Group on Funding Issues set up by the RBI said it was now

lakhs. The total credit disbursed, as of now, is Rs. 4023 crore

up to the banks to concentrate and focus on the micro-finance

out of which Rs. 829 crore has gone to SHGs. Under the

sector. Banks would have to change their policies, he said.

NABARD-SHG linkage programme, 60% of the groups assisted

Conditions need to be created to make rural postings attractive

are in the southern states, while the remaining 40% are

for Branch Managers. They will have to make special efforts

dispersed to other states across the country.

to ensure that the credit delivery to the lowest strata of people

improves.

The opening speech by Asha Swarup was followed by

Mathew Titus's speech in which he introduced the SHG

Following a brief question and answer session, Shashi

federation study. He said one of the issues revealed was that

Rajagopalan, Chairperson of the session made brief comments.

SHGs in different parts of the country had their own "emerging"

She said, "What has not emerged in the study is the role of

model. The practitioners who went to the field have written

federations in ensuring the security of savings of the poor

the reports, and most interestingly, each of these reports has

over a length of time. Also, whether leadership of a federation

a very different angle, as each federation represented different

is a position of "privilege", as in most institutions in India,

models, he explained. He called on the workshop to bring to

or a position of 'responsibility". For the purpose of

the notice of the study team any critical gaps that have not

sustainability these are important considerations and must be

been addressed adequately. "The study still has a few more

looked into, she pointed out. Shashi Rajagopalan also

stages to go, before the report is finalized", he adds.

wondered if the difference in reach between the Q3 and Q4

types was due to the absence or presence respectively, of the

Leaders of three federations - Emarti Devi of Sakhi Samity,

promoting organization?

Alwar, Rajasthan; Alkawati of Grameen Mahila Swayam Sidha

Sangha (GMSS), Rajguru Nagar, Pune; and, Gajalakshmi of

M.A. Krishnan, Chief General Manager (Development Banking)

Margdarshni Federation, Hussur, Tamil Nadu - shared their

SBI chaired the next session in which Dr. Sanjiv Phansalkar,

experiences as leader of community-based organisations.

spoke on the 'Role of federations and emerging role of

Emarti Devi said Sakhi Samity has 205 groups comprising

facilitating institutions' by using the data that was generated

2755 women members. Some 185 groups are linked to the

by the study. According to him, promoting institutions

banks generating loans of Rs 75 lakhs, she added. According

performed a range of tasks, services and roles and they

to Alkawati, the women started with a weekly saving of one

exposed federation leaders to other federations and SHGs or

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