When the concept of self-help groups (SHGs) was launched 33 years ago in an obscure village of the backward Dharmapuri district with the assistance of International Fund for Agricultural Development, the idea was to improve the overall socio-economic and political status of women. But, over the years, the SHGs have transformed into a movement that has not only served as a link between the conventional banking system and those who were left out but also emerged as tools of poverty reduction. The SHGs, apart from being frontrunners in the Bank Linkage Programme (BLP), constitute an important element in the implementation of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and the Tamil Nadu Urban Livelihoods Mission.
Today, Tamil Nadu’s ‘ Mahilar Thittam’, and its subsequent variants, is studied by development experts globally. Andhra Pradesh has replicated it as Podupulakshmi- Indira Kranti Patham, Bihar as Jeevika, Odisha as Mission Shakti-Targeted Rural Initiatives for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure. In Kerala, it is Kudumbashree. A November 2020 paper, published by the Bonn-headquartered IZA Institute of Labour Economics, credited the movement with, what it called, the feminisation of the formal finance market in Tamil Nadu, which commenced in the late 1990s. This was made possible as the SHG model had been bolstered by active public policy and multilateral agency support. During the previous financial year, 4.46 lakh SHGs were credit-linked with loans totalling about ₹18,886 crore at an average loan size being ₹2.36 lakh. The Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW) is a significant player in shepherding the movement.
“SHGs have made a difference [to the condition of women in villages],” observes Kripa Ananth Pur, Associate Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS). Citing the experience of the World Bank-funded Pudu Vazhuvu project and the findings of a 2013 study of the Bank, the academic says the project has led to a significant reduction in the cost of debt and nudged the beneficiaries towards more productive loans for the purposes of non-farm livelihood.
