A Travelogue on The Opportunity That The Self-Help Group Movement Brings To Rural Mahrashtra :

On 10th July 2004, we traveled to visit the activities of P.R.I.D.E an NGO working in Mahad a taluka in the beautiful Raigad district of Mahrashtra. Raigad falls luckily for its residents directly in the rainbelt of Maharashtra. The lush green carpet that had sprung up all around Raigad, with the few rain showers was so breathtakingly beautiful that it made one literally feel one was perhaps in Kashmir, England or any other likely part of the world.

 

A Village Co-Operative With Rs. 75,00,000/- in Bank

Our first stop was a PRIDE co-operative set up in 1989. Today the Vipul Women's Cooperative Credit Society operative has over 2500 members with a deposit base of Rs.75,00,000/-. The co-operative has extended in last 10 years duration Rs. 52,49,000/- to 729 members. Current year cooperative has extended Rs. 2,71,000 to 287 members. The rest of the mon ey is invested in bank fixed deposits. All this from one local co-operative in Mahad….talk about resilient rural communities.

India Needs Enthusiastic Teachers :

Our second stop was a balwadi (kindergarten) at Karanjkhol village. To see 40 children just probably 3 feet high from the ground in the ages from 2.5 to 5 was heart-warming. But what truly stole the show was their teacher Sunita. Her sparkling eyes and unbounded enthusiasm left me speechless as she led her class of tiny tots through the most descriptive poem about the wonder of monsoons, they sang in unision about splashing through the puddles, watching the sun and clouds play hide and seek, all in total unbounded enthusiasm.

 

Unbounded enthusiasm…when did we see that last…total unbounded, unmeasured giving enthusiasm…the monsoon was surely blowing fresh breeze across our Raigad district J in 2004. It made me wonder and whisper a silent prayer…let there be hundreds of teachers like Sunita,... all those tiny tots..had something really great going for them…its what India needs…does'nt it ? Enthusiastic teachers !

 

 

The Walls Speak To You :

Our next stop was village Mandavkar Kondal to see PRIDE's activities here. The first thing that amazed me was once again the wonderful Balwadi. Beautiful drawings were painted on the wall, teaching the alphabet and the numbers. It was uplifting. If all our Balwadis were like this I think both our teachers and children would be the happiest lot ! Look at the pictures attached to understand what I am saying, or better still travel to Mandavkar Kond to have your jaw drop. Program Coordinator Mr. Vinayak Tikekar mentioned to me...”if the teacher is not here..the walls still speak to our children”…wonderful ! I was increasingly beginning to understand and appreciate the more humane spirit of our brethren who lived here in these villages close to our cities.

Shepherds of Tomorrow : Meeting With Subhadhra Self Help Group :

Since it was monsoons season here not all the women showed up for the microfinance self-help group meeting. “Rain is God here, we move as per his timing in this season” said the women leader Smita Pandurang. Smita Pandurang – bright, intelligent, enthusiastic, born a leader. The self help group initiative she said brought about a total transformation in her. Today she as well the other members, are more confident of themselves, can speak in public, are comfortable outside their houses, and cannot believe that they have taken so many loans and paid them back.

We met 3 self help groups : Trimurti, Kashibai and Subhadra total catering to about 40 women. The groups had started in 1999. Main projects : Rearing goats and investment in a grain grinding machine. The women had to travel past two villages to go get the grain ground. The grain grinding machine saved them the time and energy and was a brilliant step forward for the full village.

The loan taken was Rs. 1,60,000 for 80 goats plus another Rs. 70,000/- invested in a shed for the goats. The goats are owned by a group of 10 members of the Subhadra Group. Everyday 2 members are given responsibility for grazing. They how had assets in terms of Rs. 60000 in terms of goats plus the shed and were thankful to PRIDE for having giving them the security of the self-help group which was there to see them through all financial emergencies as well give them the boost towards micro-enterprise.

Empty Vessels Besides the Noise Also Bring You A Great Income :

At the next self help group we saw an enterprise that I had never seen before. I saw 5 boys sitting in the porch of mud hut village house banging with hammers on shiny, glinty huge copper vessels. The whole picture was out of a picture book. These boys sitting with hammers banging away with all their might and making the loudest clang, clang, clang on the vessels I wondered what this was all about...what could it possibly be....it turned out to be a micro-enterprise, and a well paying one at that.

 

The aluminum foils were bought as sheets, welded together in the back yard, polished and shined and then made into vessels. Then the last stage was beating the empty copper vessels with hammers to make it stronger, yielding in jobs for half a dozen folks and paying them Rs.2000/- a month. They would need to get ear plugs though I thought to myself, empty vessels truly make the greatest cacophony ever, but Rs. 2000/- is a grand income for those young boys.

 

We saw a bore well that cost Rs. 25,000/- to be dug. Water harvesting had been implemented for 3-4 years consistently in the surrounding hills and therefore the water table had increased. Water harvesting is simply creating three 15 feet wide trenches and planting 3-5 seedlings to make sure there is no soil erosion. The water harvesting and bore well made sure there was ample water for the village in the local village well, it was a great sight to see a gushing well charged well…not a familiar site in the Nanded district or Sangli-Satara that lies in the rain shadow.

 

Resilient Communities in Rural Maharashtra

The primary thought that I took away form this trip was that we resilient communities here in our rural Maharashtra. Their brightness, spontaneity, purity that comes straight deep from the ground is rare and needs to be protected and treasured. We need to keep our villages populated and busy, we need to transform them into beehives of activity and employment. India's future lies in the villages, that is India…her villages, we need to nurture it...build schools, create employment and help this silent revolution through micro-finance and the self help group movement empower our women and their villages to help this once upon a time great nation to attain its past glory.