SUEB in an NGO partner of ECLOF which lends to the poor women for microenterprises. They have launched a parallel organisation, Self Help Federation, through which the women save and lend among themselves for consumption and other needs. The village women have total ownership over the money in their selfhelp group. The women speak for themselves (1 US$= 43 rupees).

Karunisha and Mohamed Sherif fish for a living. Karunisha says, “Previously, my husband worked for someone else. He earned about 50 rupees (US$1.25) a day which was only just enough to pay for our food. With a loan we bought our own net. Now we work for ourselves and can earn up to 300 rupees a day. Out of this we can meet our daily bills, pay back the loan and save for the day when we shall have to replace our net.”

Zeenath Begam says, “I joined this Madhar Sangam group because the leader motivated me. Due to a lack of money, my daughter could not continue her studies. From this savings group, I have received a loan to pay for my daughter’s undergraduate course. I also used another loan to increase the stock in my shop. As a result I now earn enough to pay our living expenses and to save. We have heard many times from this group that women should not be like parrots in a cage. Now we realise that we need freedom, and we are slowly getting it.”
Radha is a group leader who visited another microfinance group in Tirupathi. “We observed their savings programme and decided that if we also linked a savings component to our loan programme the women would become much more responsible in paying back their loans. Now, all of us save 50 rupees a month. Women have received loans for buying grinding machines and sewing machines, or to set up a shop. They are saving regularly and paying back their loans on time. Their economic situation has improved.”

Shanthi Gopal explains, “My husband used to sell lottery tickets. I used to pick up the left over tickets he threw away to see if any had prize winning numbers. I got some money out of that and began to save it at home. But I found I spent the money because it was easily available. Then I thought that if we formed a savings group it would help everyone. Staff from SUEB encouraged me and came to our village to teach us how to run a savings group. When we began only 10 people joined. But when we began to use our savings to give loans our membership doubled to 20. Now 20 more wish to join but government regulations say 20 is the maximum permitted number so we need to select another leader from among us to form another group.”

A group leader Chenthamari explains, “We have benefited from our small savings programme. We were told that if each of us could save 50 rupees a month then when we required a loan we could take it from our savings. Ten of us paid 50 rupees. Just then one of our members said she needed money to pay her daughter’s school fees. We gave her our 500 rupees as a loan. She was able to send her daughter to school and she also paid back the loan in five months. We are able to help each other and we are united and continuing with our small savings programme.” This has also limited us to undertake action for the betterment of the community: we have managed to get the Public Food distribution system regulated in our village; get more pipe lines for portable water; and make the government sanitary workers to clean the garbage from the village regularly.