Empowerment: Changes in the Lives of Individual Women
Publication Date: 2004
Published by: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Document Type: Case Study
Empowering women through savings and credit
This paper is third in a series of four case studies of a savings and credit based micro finance program of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a NGO working in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The study was commissioned by the UNDP office in India and was sponsored by the ICICI Bank.
SSP supports women's savings and credit programs by promoting self help groups (SHGs) and linking them with banks and other sources of funds. This paper presents the gains to a woman from participating in Savings and Credit Group (SCG) activities, in addition to financial support.
The author states that a SCG member stands to gain in terms of enhanced awareness about:
- Various women's development programs;
- Different livelihood opportunities;
- Lessons from activities of other groups.
In addition, the SCG program also increases a member's access to:
- Public resources, such as fair price shops;
- Training opportunities, such as enterprise training and computer literacy;
- Other socially relevant programs through exposure trips.
Thus, SSP's SCG program helps in enhancing members' confidence as well as making them more capable of presenting their own points of view, even to the male-elders of the village and to government officials, something unthinkable for them prior to the program. This helps them receive greater support from their families and more respect as individuals.
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