Sa-Dhan Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 2

Community Based Organisations

roles perform by the village organisation includes monitoring

Diagram: 3. Nested Institutions Model of Dhan

and evaluation of SHGs, auditing of accounts preparation of

Women's savings & credit

household investment plans and identification of the required

groups (Primary Groups

services, accessing of loans from banks and development of

Local

at village level) 15-20

projects, linkages with government line department and Ngos

members

for services. Finally, financial services such as savings credit

Cluster

development

social risk management and social action at the village level

Association (15-20 groups)

are other important roles played by village organisations.

4-5 near by villages

The role of SHGs according to him includes thrift & credit,

Federation of Groups 150-

Groups,

clusters

and

individual micro Issues, needs assessment and identification

200 groups (At the Block

federations promoted as

of issues, micro level planning and to act as a forum for

level)

independent organizations.

collective learning.

These are promoted as

nested  institutions  with

While concluding his presentation, he explicitly mad it clears

interdependency rather than

a  'three  tier'  type  of

that financial intermediation should be taken up at the village

organization.

VO level while Mandal Samakya should act as catalyst for

social change and focus on strengthening the VOs & SHGs.

He however, cautioned that networking has its distinct

advantages and disadvantages. It is desirable that the processes

Diagram: 4. Swakrushi Cooperatives Model of CDF

for the formation of federation do not arise from the promoting

(Separate Structure for Men & Women)

institutions. This idea should come from the community as

a result of a felt need of the members through a process-

ATC

oriented approach. He also said that the promoter needs to

(Association of Thrift Cooperative)

have long-term vision in order to for build sustainable

institutions of the poor. To him building such institutions are

complex, time consuming and resource intensive; even more

challenging is, if these institutions are to be owned and

Thrift Coop (TC)

Thrift Coop (TC)

managed by the poor women. This processes and systems

JLG

JLG

JLG

JLG

would eventually result to development of self-managed and

people's own institutions. For this to happen, perpetual

JLG

JLG

dependence on the promoting organization is not desirable.

The gap will could be met by finding alternative means and

ways and this could be achieve by using committed

MEMBERS

professionals to help communities in the process of building

federations.

According to him the emerging structure of federation is a

He cautioned that offering various savings products might be

three tiers structure namely, Mandal Samakya, Village

thought of carefully after considering the complexities and

Organisation and SHG which has different roles. He said that

capacities involved in it. He also said that attendance needs

the role of the Samakya is on that broad social & macro

to be improved to > 95% at all levels

issues while for village organisations and SHGs are financial

PRADAN'S EXPERIENCE ON NETWORKING OF

intermediation and saving & Credit and other micro issues

SHGS

respectively.

The broad social and macro issues includes to those areas

Mr. D. Narendranath shared the perspective of PRADAN on

related to context specific social issues like child labour,

the primary unit and functioning of SHG. PRADAN as an

disability, discrimination (run institutions); social risk

organization firmly believes in the concept of small is

management; advocacy at the mandal & district levels.

beautiful. It considers the panchayat level forum to be more

Institution Building such as the capacity building of Village

useful. Its personal experiences have showed that networks

organisations & SHGs, networking & Promotion of Village

were not very effective in handling financial intermediation.

Organisations and grading, internal auditing and management

Financial discipline of the group is strictly looked at (issues

of human resources are other macro issues which the Mandal

like credit). Understanding the group dynamics is of utmost

Samakya dealt with. Further linkages with Govt. programs

importance. However, PRADAN as an organization does not

and Livelihoods like market linkages & Business Development

involve itself in financial intermediation.

Services (BDS), promotion and development of commodity

As far as the PRADAN's approach to SHG-Microfinance is

cooperatives and facilitate Fund mobilisation. In short, Mandal

concern, he said, "SHGs of rural women are the building

Samakya is to run its own institutions.

block for livelihood promotion". Hence, PRADAN looks at the

bank linkage as the major source of credit for livelihoods and

The role of Village Organisations  (VOs) is to build its

therefore, gave great or crucial emphasize on the importance

institution within. The role and functions includes internal

of building the capacities of the SHG to undertake large-scale

auditing, promotion of new SHGs, capacity building and

bank linkage. The reason for greater emphasize on the

monitoring and evaluation of SHGs including grading. Other

11