Self Help Groups (SHG)
In 1994 Sadhana found that women as a community were ignored in the developmental process. Sadhana knew the importance of women especially in educating families. ‘Educate one woman and you educate the whole family’ is wisely said.. This education was to be an applied activity instead of an academic one. It began to organize women into savings and credit groups. There were already men's groups in the villages and they operated ‘funds’ charging poor farmers 5% interest per month. Women too said they should try to charge their borrowing members like the men's groups did. It took some weeks of education and an offer of capital to each of these groups to bring the interest rate down to 1.5% per month. Since then these 25 groups have been recognized as Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) by NABARD and some of them are given loans by the government bank. |
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