House wives turn business women

Aparna, a house wife from Rajendranagar who recently opened a shop for crafts and paintings near her house proudly says how Podupu Sangham (Women empowerment Self Help Group)helped her in getting a loan.

The Self Help Groups, one of the development strategy programmes started by the government, aims in eradication of poverty by bringing up the financial status of the poor as well as their social life style. The SHG groups are wide spread across Telangana especially for the Rural and Urban poor.

Vijaylakshmi, 55, who is involved in the Sangham for almost 21 years and currently a leader for one of the Podupu groups in Rajendranagar says “I have always been very attached to this program from the very start, I was very active in the beginning. I have five daughters and my husband is a mechanic, and this program helped my family to get my daughters married. I really enjoyed the struggles to start this program here. When I came here 10 years back, there were no groups here. It took a month for me to get the women to form a sangham. Now there are 52 groups in this small society.” she added.

The SHG functions in many groups, each consisting of 15-20 women housewives who come together every week and discuss about their financial and social struggles. For financial help, the group opens an account in the bank. The leaders elected by the group itself collect a fixed amount every month from the women. This account helps them to take loans when in need. Through the program, the housewives have been trained in leadership qualities and decision-making. And it is seen that every woman gets a chance to become the leader in the group.

It has definitely helped them to open up in the group and outside of it instead of just working by themselves within the four walls of their homes. They are given confidence to think out of box and helped to showcase their talent in by conducting activities in the group. The training program which usually occurs every three months is also an awareness program for the women.

The result of this program is seen in every locality in the state. Currently, as officials inform, there are about 1,38,873 SHGs groups in Telangana. There are 4514 SLFs (Slum level Federation) groups and 104 TLFs (Town level federation) groups too in the state. All the groups are running efficiently. According to them, the programmes have benefited families financially but the social development between all the members is not very effective. Though the programs have been helping many women, there are still few who leave this program when they fail to pay back the loans which sometimes lead to tension between the members.

Jayna George