Dr. Banarsi Lal
Over the years a plethora of poverty alleviation programmes has been implemented in India and a huge amount of social and financial investments has been made to achieve the sole objective of poverty eradication. Most of these programmes were based on top-down approach and did not consider the needs of the people. Activities for poverty alleviation programmes in most cases adhered to fund based development. The economic vulnerable groups were forced to remain under-confident and the guarantee for security of their livelihood was found missing in the entire endeavor to eradicate poverty from the country. Considering the large number of people still living below the poverty line, therefore the resources used for poverty eradication and provision of subsidies in the name of poor have not been much effective in achieving the goal of poverty alleviation. In the late 1990s evaluation reports of the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), a major programme for creating self-employment opportunities in rural areas reflected the flaws in the implementation of the programme. After that holistic programme called Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was announced by the Government of India. This programme was based on group approach rural development where the rural poor were organized into self-help groups.
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are small functional groups in rural areas to increase the resource base of the members through the act of thrift and credit among themselves. To form quality groups, rural participation plays a pivotal role in identifying its members who are brought into the SHG-fold through the process of social mobilization. Group functions are assessed and monitored by the external agencies with active support of government, the lead bank of the region and the Panchayats Union. The SHGs developed under various programmes provide a great opportunity for convergence of various programmes of various ministries and organizations. Necessary training can be provided to the SHGs members to create awareness on community health, traditional and modern agricultural practices, micro-credit, veterinary practices, water resource management, Panchayati Raj and other issues. These trainings could be helpful in increasing the abilities and confidence of the rural poor people that may enable them for an effective contribution towards their own community development. Various micro-enterprises like pickle manufacture, agarbati making, honey and food processing, spices production, dairy farming ,group leaf plate making etc. have proved to be most viable economic activities in the country to drive beneficiaries out of the poverty trap in the rural areas. The products are produced according to the local demand patterns. To sustain the community economic activities, leadership and membership trainings backed by participatory management is a must for the SHGs. The SHGs members if imparted entrepreneurial trainings combined with exposure visits to the successful micro-enterprise of the same nature would have a greater impact on the quality of the products produced by the poor beneficiaries. The success of the economic activities taken by the self-employed persons largely depends on their social influence, their role in decision making process, broader financial base through enhanced thrift and credit activities and widened ownership rights to the assets created by them.
The agricultural extension programmes of the Ministry of Agriculture could be effectively implemented by the help of SHGs members in the rural areas as 66% of the rural people depend on agriculture. Dairy, poultry farming, sheep breeding are preferred activities among rural people. The benefits of the activities can be maximized for the SHGs by ensuring appropriate forward and backward linkages with the activities of the department of animal husbandry and dairy development. The services of SHGs can be utilized for the eradication of diseases like Tuberculosis, Polio, and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which are common among the rural people. The SHGs can play an instrumental role in the population stabilization programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through reaching the communication as well as benefits of these programmes to the BPL families who tend to have large families leading to higher dependency ratios. Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates are higher in these families. Mechanism would need to be developed for the Reproductive and Child Health Programme benefits to reach the SHGs. The members of the SHGs can be involved in the on-going Adult Education programme of the Department of Education where the self-employed members could be considered for training under Total Literacy Campaign continuing Adult Literacy programme activities. In this endeavor, a major chunk of adult illiterate population could be systematically covered and would have multiplier effect in increasing the performance of the literacy drive in the country. The organizations like Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Small Scale Industries, Ministry of Textiles, Development Commissioner, Handloom etc. have programmes for development of clusters in places where traditionally some activities have been going on. For instance, carpet weaving, handloom, pottery, wood-craft, stone carving cane and bamboo etc. are popular in some parts of the country. There is need to identify all such activities that could be taken up in clusters covering the groups of rural artisans in various areas. Cluster approach has the advantage of bringing in economies of scale as well as developing backward and forward linkages. The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education popularly known as Mid-Day Meals Scheme is under implementation in the country since 1995 with an objective to ensure universalisation of primary education by increasing enrolment and attendance and reducing school drop-out rates and simultaneously impacting on nutritional status of children in primary classes. There is possibility of utilizing the services of the SHGs for implementing the on-going Mid-Day Meals Scheme in different states. Quality SHGs can be identified and a flexible decentralized approach be adopted for involving the members of these groups in cooking and supplying the mid-day meals to the school going children. This endeavor would ensure successful implementation of the centrally sponsored mid-day meals scheme. The role of people effected by drought and various other calamities has to be properly outlined while planning and executing calamities mitigation activities. An atmosphere encouraging community participation through SHGs has to be created where access to information, knowledge on effects of drought and possible ways of relief from droughts like situation can be ensured through the government and non-government machineries. The SHGs can be trained to analyze and understand the social, economic, political and environmental consequences of regular scarcities of food, water and fodder. The SHGs can be inspired to interact with the government and non-government agencies to initiate various relief measures taken up by the central and state governments. The SHGs can also be given responsibility of running fair price shops under the Public Distribution System in the rural areas. Community organizations like SHGs could be asked to take up the activity of dissemination of necessary awareness on sanitation procedures in rural areas. Various ministries, departments, organizations etc. should look towards the SHGs for targeting their programmes which ultimately would help in improving the quality of life in rural areas.
(The writer is Sr. Scientist & Head, KVK Reasi).