The Hindu Business Line : `Objectives must be made clear for SHGs to deliver'

Given the low level of community and political participation by SHG members, they virtually became voiceless to play a much broader role in the polity or society.

Bangalore , Jan 2

Self Help Groups, particularly women's groups, are playing a significant role in the goal to achieve poverty alleviation, human development and social empowerment, but the programmes using the SHG strategy should gain more clarity about objectives.

"Too many objectives are unrealistic. Fuzzy definitions of objectives mean that they may fall by the wayside," warns the Karnataka Human Development Index Report 2005.

Objectives relating to empowerment should be clearly defined and then supported by appropriate intervention, according to the report.

With its potential to offer grassroots participatory implementation, SHGs' voice much be strengthened to extend their identify beyond the traditional perception of being an interventionist strategy to promote savings and provide credit.

Given the low level of community and political participation by SHG members, they virtually became voiceless to play a much broader role in the polity or society, it said.

SHGs should be encouraged to become institutions that promotes human development and empower their members with an opportunity and the space to develop vision and mission, to develop and maintain organisational and financial management systems, to grow in confidence and skills to manage their lives and promote their interests in the private and public domains.

This could help them to establish linkages required for an institution to function effectively and sustainable and to support its members to become agents of social change, said the report.

The report added that given the effectiveness of SHGs in reducing poverty and building capacity of members, the strategy should now move into areas such as development of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities.

Though it was Karnataka that became the country's first beneficiary after the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme was launched in 1991-92, the State does not figure on the top of the table published by financial institutions that showed the number of SHGs formed in each State.

This was because the table captured data after the launch of the SHG-Bank Linkage programme by Nabard.

However, between 1984 and 1985, MYRDA (Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency) promoted several co-operative societies that further led to the formation of SHGs, known earlier as credit management groups.

"Today there is scarcely a village in Karnataka where an SHG has not been facilitated and the State Government is the single largest SHG promoting institution."

Apart from the Government, SHGs numbering 1,95,585 in all have been promoted by commercial and regional rural banks with Nabard support for capacity building and NGOs and other institutions.

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