Self-help groups not so helpful

THE REALITY: A survey by NGO Nirantar has found that such groups have not led to their empowerment.

Throwing illiterate women into clusters called self-help groups does not necessarily lead to their empowerment.

A survey of over 2,750 self-help groups across the country by non-governmental organisation Nirantar reveals a shocking truth "" that self-help groups perpetuate the poverty of women, leading to neither economic nor social empowerment.

Soma Parthasarathy, co-author of the survey, says that the findings question the policy of equating self-help groups with empowerment when world-wide, it is being accepted that self-help groups are a disaster if it is a financial concept and not one of solidarity and leadership building.

Findings of the study underline that being part of self-help group does not ensure that a woman, least of all a Dalit or a tribal woman, gets to know her rights better, learns to read and write or even make her less poor than she was before.

According to the survey, of 2,750 self-help groups in 16 states (1,650 self-help groups formed under government programmes and 1,100 self-help groups formed by NGOs) 61 per cent of self-help group members were not literate, including 28 per cent who could only put their signatures.

The 39 per cent literacy rate of women in self-help groups is even lower than the 47 per cent national literacy rate for rural women.

The NGOs or sponsoring agencies for these self-help groups have done little to improve the scene. The survey shows that out of the 45 NGOs who participated in the study, only three had undertaken concrete efforts to provide literacy skills to self-help group members.

Nirantar goes on to link this widespread illiteracy with the other failures of self-help groups. The primary defect is the absence of capacity building in self-help groups. For instance, 47 per cent groups formed under government programmes had not received any kind of capacity building input for the last two years.

Again, less than 50 per cent groups studied in the survey had made any kind of links with panchayats. From the groups that had formed links with panchayats, only members from 8 per cent of the groups attended gram sabha meetings.

Self-help groups hardly created opportunities for the downtrodden. Among the groups surveyed, 43 per cent of them had backward caste women as a majority of their members while the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe population, most of whom were below the poverty line, had membership in only 27 per cent and 16 per cent groups, respectively, Nirantar said.

Worse, 58 per cent of the groups had not received any loans for the last two years, even though more than 90 per cent of the groups were depositing their savings. Most of the larger loans were given to leaders of the groups, who were mostly literate.

Women who came into leadership gained access to many more opportunities and resources compared with members of the groups. The study found that 46 per cent of the large loans were availed of by the groups leaders, although leaders are only 13 per cent of the total numbers of members in the groups.

The report has, therefore, suggested a national curriculum for all self-help groups, which should incorporate literacy and capacity building.

It says that without such an intervention of a minimum of 15days of inputs to all group members in a year, self-help groups are merely a wasted exercise that perpetuates rather than eliminates inequity.

For more, visit www.nirantar.net