Sampark- Empowering women through Self-Help groups

 A few months ago, a group of women in the Koppal area of Northern Karnataka managed to shut down an illegal alcohol shop in their neighbourhood. A decade ago, these women may not have had the voice or the means to do such a thing. Living in one of the poorer districts of Karnataka, women in Koppal have been in poverty for long. Land is arid and agriculture is heavily dependent on rain. In the name of the Devadasi system, many young girls continue to be pushed into a lifetime of servitude and disempowerment. With no legal sanction for their children or themselves, most of these women were also cut off from government welfare schemes.

However, disadvantaged populations like these have the potential to become self-reliant; provided they are given the opportunities and the know-how. It was with this thought and goal in mind, that in the year 1991, Dr. Smita Premchander, founder of Sampark, a Bangalore-based NGO, decided to reach out to these women. At a time when many social outreach programmes focused on areas surrounding Bangalore, the need for intervention was high in Northern Karnataka districts and very little work was being carried out. With years of experience in banking and social outreach, Smita also understood the financial and social needs of women like these. Since the formation of Sampark, she and her team had gained the experience of training and supporting the work of rural artisans, enabling them with market knowledge, training and business support. Egged on by this experience, Sampark set out to work with the women of Koppal, identifying those who needed support through grama sabhas, social mapping, wealth ranking, amongst other methods. 

The idea of a Self-Help Group (SHG) was introduced to them as a means of building stability to their lives. But not all good initiatives are met with equal enthusiasm right away. Building the trust of these women and assuring them that their money will not be swindled took time. Building motivation, and inculcating the discipline of maintaining a group also took time. But over a period of sustained facilitation, the impact of creating and nurturing these SHGs is for all to see. What began as a few savings groups of 10 -15 women each, has grown in numbers - 1400 independent, and ably functioning SHGs in the villages around Koppal. There has been a healthy evolution of where funds are being used too. While initial months and years saw women drawing out loans primarily for emergencies, as confidence and cohesiveness built in these groups and as the corpus amount began growing, loans were taken for income generating activities. From seeds for agriculture to a tailoring machine or raw materials, these SHGs strengthened and provided access to finance that was not available to these women a few years prior. Today, income generating activities are a mix of urban and rural businesses -poultry, dairy, agricultural produce, toy manufacture, food and more.

As these groups strengthened, Sampark saw the potential to empower these groups further by way of encouraging them into the next level of federation. Around the year 2007-08, clusters of SHGs came together to form credit Co-operatives. While responsibilities and accountability increased, a Cooperative provided the SHGs with the advantage of allowing greater access to capital and loans.

While Sampark's involvement continues with the women of Koppal by way of guidance and support, success stories have a way of travelling. The need to use the experience and learnings from Northern Karnataka were felt in the Chiraigaon block of Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh. While one assumes that it is easy to adopt a model that has been previously successful, every population is unique and poses its own unique challenges to initiatives such as these. Patriarchal norms are deeply embedded in the psyche of the people here. Women are tied down to domestic chores and are left with very little time to engage in any other activities- let alone income generating ones. Mobility of women is minimal and families do not allow or encourage women to engage in social activities. Sampark understood the need to understand the population in its entirety to tailor interventions that could holistically impact the population for the better.

SHGs were facilitated not only as platforms for financial stability, but also as channels of social upliftment- building a sense of community and harnessing the cohesive potential of these groups. Manorama was a healthy teenager preparing to join college when she contracted tuberculosis (TB). Due to lack of awareness and access to proper medical care, she lost her eyesight and became weaker and more ill. Her mother Rekha is a member of a SHG in Nevada, Varanasi. The Sampark team helped connect her to the right doctors for a proper diagnosis, linked her to a hospital that provides medicines and coached her family and the SHG members to ensure timely medication. The SHG members overcame the superstitions and resistances of her father, who has now come to see the value of right medical care. In addition, the Sampark team linked her to a nutrition support scheme for TB patients. A drastic improvement in her health is but an indication of the impact that SHGs can facilitate.

For women who have been restricted from moving freely and socially, Preeti from Khalispur is a trendsetter. This young woman comes to get trained regularly to learn to audit SHG books, to spread health awareness, and to do data collection on livelihoods. She recently bought a cycle for herself so she can be more mobile, learn more and do more, thereby increasing her income. Young women like her are motivated to earn incomes and take the groups forward, creating a positive cycle of change and development.

Pilot plants and small scale income generating activities are being rolled out, all of which are carefully structured with the community’s evolving needs in mind. Partnering with the Krishnamurti Foundation in Varanasi, Sampark’s initiatives are geared to facilitate self-reliance and independence in more ways than one.  

Published in GRASSROOTS journal of the Press Institute of India. Do not reprint or publish without permission from the Editor.