ROLE OF WOMAN IN SOCIAL TRANSOFORMATION
A CASE STUDY OF AN SHG IN KALLALLI VILLAGE OF CHINTAMANI TALUK
(Dr. Umadevi Mathad, Associate Professor, SJMVS College, Hubli)
Introduction:
There has been lot of literature based on research that has been churned out from the portals of universities and other research organizations in the world on the role of woman in social transformation. The continuity of well bred human species depends a lot on the well being of both man and woman on the planet earth. Since ages the role being played by woman was more restricted to looking after house hold affairs which were not of enough economic significance until recently. The Hindu scriptures have given an important position to woman but in real life situation it is without any economic freedom. The improved access to education by liberal policies of the government has brought women on the main stream of both social and economic development. Women are no more looked down upon and perhaps they have started playing key role in social transformation by accepting new challenges thrown upon them due to changing socioeconomic scenario in the world. The author is currently trying to highlight the pivotal role in social transoformation being played by scarcely educated women members of an Self Help Group in Kallahally a village in Chintamani taluk of Chikkaballapur district which has just 200 house holds.
Kallalli is a village about 7 Kilo metre from Chintamani, a taluk head quarter in the Eastern dry zone of Karnataka state. The rain fall is measly 700mm per annum. The sand mixed clay soils do not offer much for the farmers in terms agriculture opportunities. However the village has 80% incidence of poverty. There are 160 house holds below the poverty line. The composition of 8 SHG’s is given below:
Sl Name of the SHG Number of members Weekly contribution (Rs) Loan amount extended (Rs)
1 Zansi Stree Shakti Swasahaya Sangh 17 20 2000-5000
2 Ganga Bhavani Stree Shakti Swasahay Sangh Sangh 18 20 2000-5000
3 Laxmi Stree Shakti Swasahaya Sangh 20 20 2000-5000
4 Saraswati Stree Shakti Swasahaya Sangh 20 20 2000-5000
5 Bhuvaneswari Stree Shakti Swasahaya Sangh 17 20 2000-5000
6 Chowdeshwari Stree Shakti Swasahaya Sangh 20 20 2000-5000
7 Laxmi Narasinha Stree Shakti Swahaya Sangh 20 30 2000-13000
8 Nandi Stree Shakti Swahay Sangh 20 20 2000-5000
Zansi Stree Shakti Swahay Sangh is in existence since the year 2000. And all the members are below poverty line. The profile of the SHG is as follows
Sl Name of the member Age Family size Occupation of the member Other activity taken up by the member after becoming the member of
M F
1. Nagamani (Representative-1 28 1 1 Agriculture Labour Sheep
2. Rajeswari Representative-2 38 3 1 Agriculture Labour Cow
3. Laxmamma 40 1 1 Agriculture Labour Sheep (1)
4. Narayanamma 45 1 2 Agriculture Labour
5. Ratnamma Babanna 40 3 2 Agriculture Labour Cow
6 Ratnamma Rajanna 40 2 3 Agriculture Labour Sheep(2)
7. Ratnamma Muniyappa 27 2 3 Agriculture Labour Sheep (2)
8. Ratnamma Sriramappa 35 3 1 Agriculture Labour
9. Laxmi Devamma 42 2 2 Agriculture Labour Cow
10. Muddumani 28 3 1 Agriculture Labour Tailoring
11. Shyamala 28 2 2 Agriculture Labour Tailoring
12. Anjamma Srinivas 30 2 2 Agriculture Labour Cow
13 Radha 25 2 2 Agriculture Labour Cow
14 Sunita 27 2 1 Agriculture Labour Tailoring
15 Gayatri 30 2 1 Agriculture Labour
16 Munivenkatamma 45 1 Agriculture Labour Sheep (2)
17. Sushila 28 3 2 Agriculture Labour Sheep (2)
*Average wage per day is Rs 30/-
Weekly Meetings: As such the attendance for their weekly meetings remained 100% but as a matter of imposing discipline the Sangha is levying penalty of Rs. 5/-. They are record the proceedings of the meetings and update the account book after collecting the contributions at the rate of Re. 20/- per head. They also discuss, analyse and take decision in prioritizing the applicants based on the nature of financial emergency. And it is a collective decision of the members.
Work profile: All the members of the group are wage earners from agriculture and earn about Rs. 30/- per day. They also work in the brick making units which is little hard work and they earn up to 50/- per day. The agriculture work involves staking the tomato plants, weeding, harvesting, transplanting of paddy etc.,
Trainings: The SHG members have been trained tailoring, embroidery, candle making and agarabatti making etc.,
Loan profile: Most of the members have taken the loans for either cow rearing or sheep rearing due to stable incomes available due to Nandini milk dairy and ready market available for sheep. Each member of Zansi SHG have availed 10 to 20 times the loan whenever there was emergency.
Achievements: The Sangha members now feel that they are confident and able to talk with officers and other line departments to derive benefits. There incomes have gone up from Rs 750/- month to Rs. 2500/-. They have now a greater financial freedom. The Sangha has provided them a forum to discuss many issues. The Sangh’s of the village have organized cultural activities, tours and helped even non members when help was essential. They have played key role in the enrollment of children to the schools. One of the major achievement of the Sangha is getting them released from the clutches of money lenders. Especially the loans often have been taken for meeting the expenses of hospitalization and education.
Discussion:
The women members of the Zansi SHG they feel there voice is heard now due to economic freedom as the men folk have started behaving with women with more dignity. This has unleashed them from the kind of bondage that once they were suffering from. The weekly meetings have played a key role in discussing many issues and also to take part in addressing other issues such as social security and education. The trainings provided by the government agencies especially in tailoring, embroidery, agarbatti and candle making have not been very successful. On the other hand members have taken to such activities that are related to agriculture where they some experience. The women members were found to have the knowledge of number of government programmes designed to help the poorer section of the society. The programmes such as SJSY (Swarn Jayanti Swarojagar Yojane), Yashaswini, Balika yojane etc are known to them. They also know the training programmes imparted by the department of horticulture etc. They have played key role in availing the benefit from a world bank programme on improvement of the tank system (all the sangha’s in the village received Rs. 14000/- each as revolving fund). They have taken part in afforestration activity by planting about 3000 samplings on the foreshore area of the tank.
Conclusion:
Traditionally these women were contributing to the family income by adding their wage earnings apart from looking after household chores. The new policy level changes brought out by the government to strengthen the access to credit and provide support for income generating activity are successful in augmenting the incomes. This has helped them in acquiring assets. There is an emerging organization which is better informed about the new developments. The village women who are members of SHG are now meeting on a fixed day as per the norms of the SHG and that provides for them an opportunity to be aware of the family situation. Further this has helped them to know various government sponsored programmes which are basically meant for their development. They are aware of all the government programmes like SGSY, NREGS, Yashaswini, Balika Yojane etc., They are now in a position to approach various line department on their own without middle men. The incremental incomes have improved their self esteem. They are now able to take decisions to provide better education for their children. The economic empowerment has helped them to take decisions. The rescue of a woman who was not a member of the SHG but when she was on the death by spending about 8000/- rupees is indeed speaks of the concern of women to fight out helplessness. Exposure provided to them have changed their attitude towards changing scenario of their surroundings and are now able to deal with the social change more effectively. Key to Social transformation is dependent on the opportunities available for the stake holders in the social transformation. Being heard (voice), and being treated equal are great achievements and in this way the rural women are shouldering the responsibility of strengthening the rural economy. The access to financial resources can change the social set up as the money is key driver and improves their entitlements. The development of society without the change in the lifestyle of women can be called transformation. Women play key role in maintaining the finance of the home, prioritizing the needs to achieve better quality life. Hence the microcredit provided through the SHG has created a structure and function for the poor women members of the village and has given a new hope. The mainstreaming of gender is a prerequisite of social transformation and that is clearly visible in the case of Zansi Stree Shakti Swahaya Sangh in Kallahally village.
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