Make Women in Rural India Financially Secure

Women play a major role in sustaining families and communities in our working areas, in addition to their domestic responsibilities. They are engaged in agriculture and allied activities and also seek casual labour near their homes. Since most women are illiterate, they can only undertake unskilled and semi-skilled work, which restricts their chances of earning a reasonable income. Traditionally, women have not been involved in many entrepreneurial activities, which further limits their opportunities. As sources of income are limited, there is considerable need for credit in these areas, but very few means of securing it. As a result women mostly borrow money from traditional moneylenders, usually at exorbitant rates of interest, and most of their income goes towards repaying their loans.

Seva Mandir works to create opportunities for women in rural areas so that they can become financially independent by creating inter-loaning groups and encouraging the habit of saving. These inter-loaning groups called Self-Help Groups (SHGs) not only give women an easy way of saving and taking out loans whenever required, but also give them a platform to discuss socio-cultural issues in their village and families. Currently, there are 665 Self-Help Groups maintained by Seva Mandir in southern Rajasthan, India.  

These SHGs also provide emergency support to women. Devali is one such SHG member.  She fell ill and the doctor said she needed an operation on her uterus, but she could not afford it. She applied to her SHG and was given a loan of Rs. 16,000 ($250).

Devali says, “I am so grateful to the SHG for their support when I needed it most. The moneylender in my village charges an interest of 60% per annum whereas the SHG just charged 12%.”

This is just one of the examples of how these SHGs help women during their time of need. The loans from SHGs also help these women to invest in their children’s education, to build toilets and bathrooms in their homes, set up shops to improve their well-being, buy cattle and so on.

Helping women run well governed and self-governed- Self-Help Groups also develops solidarity, governance and management capacities among women.

Your donation is changing the lives of hundreds of women here in this part of the world. We are truly grateful for your support.

Please write to me for any feedback, queries or suggestions at atul.lekhra@sevamandir.org 

Kind regards

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir Team

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Links:

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