Masters of their world

Ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8), we take a look at how self-help groups have raised the profile of rural women as successful entrepreneurs

March 04, 2016 04:28 pm | Updated 04:28 pm IST

One of the many women who have benefited from Gramalaya Microfin Foundation's skill-based business development plan. Photo: Special Arrangement

One of the many women who have benefited from Gramalaya Microfin Foundation's skill-based business development plan. Photo: Special Arrangement

Pickles, baskets, millet flour, doormats, sanitary napkins and costume jewellery. These are just a few of the products that have given women in rural Tamil Nadu a new life as entrepreneurs. As it nears its second decade, the ‘Mahalir Thittam’ (Women’s Scheme) launched by Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women Ltd (TNCDW) in 1997-98 in collaboration with non-governmental organisations and community groups has nurtured a large number of women towards financial independence. In 2009, the TNCDW estimated there to be 3,91,311 SHGs in the State with a total savings of Rs.2062.04 crores.

Self-help groups (SHGs) have given way to joint liability groups (JLGs) over the years, but the seminal idea has stayed constant: to encourage economic empowerment. “The concept of saving didn’t exist in the rural belt when we started out 28 years ago,” says J. Geetha, director, Gramalaya Microfin Foundation (GMF), a sister concern of Tiruchi-based water management and sanitation NGO Gramalaya.

“Our very first experiment was the formation of a ‘User Group’ of 20 men and women in 1990 to manage a hand-pump that we had installed in a village. We started with just Rs.10 per person. The total capital of Rs.200 would be lent to one member, who would have to repay it with interest the next month. It was basic, but very exciting for villagers who were more used to moneylenders,” recalls Ms. Geetha.

Slowly, the idea of investing the money in small business operations grew first as ancillary projects in the agricultural sector, and then spread to skills-based development schemes.

Today GMF has got 5,200 joint liability groups under its supervision. The NGO offers training in 29 skills.

Besides focusing exclusively on female participation, Mahalir Thittam has regularised SHGs by introducing banking and administrative norms. “Bank accounts have become compulsory for SHGs today. But there was a time when these groups were routinely cold-shouldered by the banks. The Mahalir Thittam’s regulations helped, but what also perhaps impressed the banks was the SHGs’ high rate of repayment,” says Ms. Geetha.

* * *

At GMF’s Bikshandarkoil office, seven businesswomen have gathered to share their stories. For R. Amutha, the abundant banana crop in her Karthigaipatti village has helped her 21-member Poonthottam SHG to earn a neat profit from selling nearly 2kg of pickles daily made from plantain flower and stem. She underwent training to manufacture banana value-added products in a course that GMF partnered with the National Research Centre for Banana in Ariyavoor, 10 years ago. “I started the group three years ago, with the help of a loan arranged by GMF. We can produce up to 500 kg of pickles in a month, but we have limited ourselves to around 60kg, because we need marketing support,” she says.

P. Thulasi Ammal of Annaikalpatti has taken millet flours and ready-mixes as her products of choice. Her SHG Sri Agilandeswari earns each member at least Rs.2000 per month, and the group is now waiting to use six new milling and sieving machines given by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Sirugamani. Says Thulasi Ammal, who is also a Panchayat Level Federation (PLF) leader, “Even though they are very commonly grown in our village, we didn’t know much about millets like thinai, saamai and kelveragu until we were trained by experts from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Madurai. Besides making health food mixes, we also make sweetmeats using millet flour,” she adds.

V.Susila picked up the craft of weaving doormats and other soft furnishings from old saris and coir rope while staying in Kota, Rajasthan. Little did she know that her skills would come in handy when she started a 12-member handicraft JLG in Pulivalam village, where she settled down after her husband’s retirement. “We buy old saris, and then tear them up into one-inch strips to be wound into one big bundle. Then we use a net grid to weave it into shapes, with the help of a special needle,” says Susila.

Adds her JLG colleague S. Jaya, “We also offer 2-day training courses on these crafts. We charge Rs.100 per item, which is not much when you are going to earn it back so quickly.”

D. Janaki’s baskets look machine-made, but she assures us she has been making each one of them by hand for 17 years. “I prefer to work alone even though I’m in a JLG, because it’s hard to control the quality of the finished product with others,” says the Kattuputhur resident. “I source the nylon wire and rivets in bulk from the markets in Tiruchi, and then make them at home. It takes me 15 minutes to make a basket. I can weave 30 in a day,” she adds.

M. Amutha’s tailoring and embroidery skills have helped her to cash in on the craze for trendy embellished clothes. “I get 10-15 embroidery orders every day. Since we cannot do it all alone, I get a group of students to help out with the large patches of embroidery,” she says.

Embroidered blouse bits cost in the range of Rs. 300-7,500.

Paper-quilled jewellery is a big hit in the village of Nathamangudi, where M. Logambal of the Udavum Karangal SHG sells her handcrafted pieces. “I got trained in Gramalaya last year, and started my business with just Rs.100 as investment. “People don’t want to pay more than Rs. 10 for paper-quilled jewels, so I don’t spend anything on packaging. Since I am a tailor, I give a matching set of jewels with a set of clothes. My daughter helps me to sell some pieces to her friends in school as well,” says Logambal.

* * *

Though the self-help group movement had helped many women to start businesses, it is time for it to move beyond microcredit, says N. Manimekalai, director, advisory committee, Women Entrepreneurs Association of Tamil Nadu (WEAT).

“The drop-out rate is high among businesswomen. They are unable to sustain themselves because of the stereotypical products they choose to sell – nearly every SHG is involved in food production, costume jewellery or garments. Only those who have looked beyond the immediate demand have been able to make a difference,” she says.

WEAT has trained over 5,000 women in different skills and supported at least 500 first-time entrepreneurs in marketing their products. “Some have suffered losses because they didn’t have a proper business plan, but WEAT has helped them get back on their feet,” says Ms. Manimekalai. (See related report below)

The most common dilemma for small entrepreneurs she says, is to choose between reinvesting the profits in the business or diverting the money to more urgent home needs, which is why more should be done to market SHG products in a phased manner throughout the year.

“SHGs have helped women to come out of their homes and contribute to society. Their work should be analysed and space should be given to businesswomen to think independently, to help them adapt to the changing market situation,” she says.

As the budding pickle magnate Amutha says, “We’re all now wealthy enough to help our gents. After becoming an entrepreneur, I have saved enough to set up a puncture repair shop for my husband.

“We have also seen many people losing a lot of money after joining an SHG. But it is not the fault of the group. You lose money when you are not serious about repaying your loans.”

* * *

CASE STUDY

‘Try to learn from your mistakes’

Eight years after she started a home-based sanitary napkin manufacturing unit in Musiri, G. Valli can finally say that she has broken even. “There were days when I felt like committing suicide, because nothing seemed to be going right in my life. And I had so many debts that I just wanted to shut down the factory and return the machines to the manufacturer. Now I realise the importance of having a different product in a crowded market.”

Valli heard of Tiruchi-based Women Entrepreneurs Association of Tamil Nadu (WEAT) by chance on the radio in 2008, and enrolled herself for a course in making sanitary napkins, because “that was one trade I didn’t know about.” Already a skilled tailor, Valli learned how to stitch the napkins by hand first at the 5-day training course held in Cauvery College for Women, Tiruchi. A bank loan of Rs.15,000 helped her to switch over to making them with a sewing machine, but Valli realised she’d have to buy an industrial machine to get the finish of branded sanitary napkins.

“WEAT helped me by paying an advance of Rs. 30,000 for the machine, manufactured in Coimbatore. I also took a loan from Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC), Karur for Rs.2,02,000,” recalls Valli.

The machine was a failure in the beginning, because the die was of the wrong size. Faced with massive debts and a product that didn’t meet demand, Valli went back to WEAT. “We had an intervention programme one year ago that examined why women entrepreneurs and self-help groups had failed in the initial stages. As part of this, I was taken to Nepal, where I met other women who had suffered more than me, but had been able to come up with a successful product. It was here that I created a completely biodegradable sanitary napkin with a herbal gel base,” she recalls.

Grinding aloe vera, neem and holy basil (Tulsi) leaves into a fine woodpulp filling, Valli makes sanitary napkins without the plastic sheaths commonly used by bigger manufacturers.

Valli recommends incinerating the used napkins, because the resulting ash is not toxic. Today she supplies her Sri Sindhu Sanitary Napkins in several sizes and styles by post to customers based in Coimbatore, Pondicherry, Chennai, Erode and Tirupur, besides producing herbal cosmetics and offering pad manufacture training courses.

Deserted by her husband and relatives, Valli says her business has helped her to educate her three children, who also work in the Musiri unit during their spare time.

Valli advises aspiring businesswomen to hang on to their dreams. “Don’t give up as soon as you make a loss. Instead, try to learn from your mistakes,” she says.

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