Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes: an analysis of MASUM, Maharashtra, India

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1 & Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal All rights reserved. For permissions, please doi: /cdj/bsp029 Abstract Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes: an analysis of MASUM, Maharashtra, India Anurekha Chari-Wagh 1 The microcredit programme initiated in the 1980s is celebrated by the Indian state and international development institutions as an ideal poverty alleviation programme for women. It is based on the principle of activating self-help among women and is considered as being empowering. The period defined a minimalist neo-liberal role of the state that allowed for the free working of the market and a belief that it will solve problems of poverty. Many have argued that the microcredit programme was influenced by this philosophy (Joseph, 2007; Swaminathan, 2007). In addition, that microcredit does not always have a positive impact on poverty alleviation because the official programme does not have the capacity to displace patriarchal structures that bind women (Goetz and Sengupta, 1996). By focusing only on economic issues it fails to address the way deprivation of nutrition and health, increasing violence and insecurity are affecting women as economic actors. Without addressing these questions it is not possible for women to get empowered. In this paper I examine the inter-linkages between citizenship, gender and development by evaluating the design of a microcredit programme for women presented by a feminist rural women s organization called Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) in Maharashtra. 1 This paper is drawn from my doctoral thesis. I am grateful to Sujata Patel (my supervisor) for her guidance and invaluable support. I extend my thanks to the Citizenship and Social Capital research group at the Department of Sociology, University of Johannesberg, South Africa, in particular to Tina Uys. Special thanks to Maithreyi Krishnaraj and Sharmila Rege for their encouragement. Thanks to Swati, Vishal, Anagha, Yogesh and Rudrah for their support and encouragement. I wish to acknowledge my greatest thanks to the anonymous reviewer for comments. I thank Janki Andharia for all her committed efforts. The lapses in the paper are entirely mine. Community Development Journal Vol 44 No 3 July 2009 pp

2 404 Anurekha Chari-Wagh Introduction Microcredit is celebrated by the Indian state and international development institutions as an ideal poverty alleviation programme for women. Based on the principle of activating women s self-help among women, it is considered empowering. Self-help draws its roots from the demands of Western feminists in the late 1960s when self-help represented small informal consciousness raising groups, based on the principle of groups, of the women, by the women and for the women. It represented a political strategy to engage in patriarchal principles within the existing mainstream groups and the state. This history raises a paradoxical question: can the state organize women into self-help groups (SHGs) for their own empowerment? The radical notion of self-help has now been co-opted by international development institutions and practitioners, but reducing it to mere economic groups, functioning as credit and savings groups. And yet women s groups and even radical groups are involved in microcredit. They are implementing the programme and using its own orientation to create consciousness and making women political actors. They do so despite critiquing microcredit conceptually and in some cases arguing that it is a neoliberal programme. The question is why despite such criticisms are women organizing as SHGs? Is this intervention part of a long-term strategy that women s groups have been involved with giving citizenship rights access to women? In this paper I examine the inter-linkages between citizenship, gender and development by evaluating the design of microcredit programme as presented by the feminist rural women s organization, Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM), (Association for the Development of all Facets of Women), Maharashtra, India. It draws its ideological adherence from the autonomous women s movement and has a human rights approach to women s emancipation. This paper is divided into three sections: gendered citizenship rights for women, microcredit as a neoliberal programme and intervention of MASUM. Gendered citizenship rights for women I locate the theory of gendered citizenship in terms of the growth of women s movement in India. Gendered citizenship rights are not a current issue but relate to the ways gendered citizenship rights have been articulated over time and space. Can we analyse the women s movement, a struggle for rights of women as a movement for gendered citizenship rights? How does one understand the intervention of radical women s groups in the poverty alleviation programme such as microcredit?

3 Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes 405 The Indian women s movement has a 100-year-old history, but it is not a homogenous movement. A literature review highlights three distinct characteristics. First, the movement raises a diversity of issues such as work, wages, organization, environment, ecology, civil rights, sex, violence, representation, caste, class, allocation of basic resources, consumer rights, methods of production, health, religion, community and individual and social relationships (Kumar, 1993). Second, there is diversity in the forms of organizations. There are multitudes of women s groups and organizations, covering a broad political spectrum, from groups affiliated with leftist parties, the dominant centrist parties, as well as a vast number claiming to be autonomous that belong to the movement (Kalpagam, 2000; Sangari, 2007). Third, it conceptualized new theorizations of patriarchies. There was a clear recognition of gender relations as a political issue and an understanding of feminism as an analysis of gender discrimination located in multiple patriarchies (Sen, 2004). The struggles of women led by women s movements have articulated, restructured, re-defined gendered citizenship rights. Gendered citizenship involves the process of contestation and negotiation in defining women s rights. It conceptualizes these as one that questions the binaries of private public and understands citizenship rights of women as contextualized within the social structures of caste, class and ethnicity, and it involves the conceptualization of this differentiation through the theorization of multiple patriarchies based on social structures. The expansive growth of the Indian women s movement in the late 1970s and its militant intervention made the state change its policies. Gendered analysis of development policies in the first few years of post-independence India reveal two major shortcomings: first there was no special effort to integrate the specific needs of women, and second it focused on the household and was not sensitive to unequal power relations operating within it. A gendered critique forced the state to change its policies to incorporate the feminist demands of the women s movement. Since the 1980s the state initiated two processes, the establishment of separate cells to coordinate women s concerns in development process and designing and implementing special programmes for women relating to income generating, extension of credit facilities and literacy schemes. Thus, as the women s movement raises feminist demands, the state incorporates those in a limited manner, with implications for gendered citizenship rights as experienced by women. Further, the differentiation becomes sharp in a neoliberal state, where women experience differentiated rights. There are social, cultural and legal differentiations that make citizenship gradational or hierarchical (Yuval-Davis, 1997a, b; Lister, 1997a, b). Stasiulis and Bakan (2003, 13 14) reiterated this position by arguing that the neo-liberal policies have sharpened the citizenship divide between

4 406 Anurekha Chari-Wagh the elite and the poor in the South. Women face graded exclusions in terms of access to continuous livelihoods, services, physical and social infrastructure, political rights and control over their bodies. The decades of the 1980s and 1990s inaugurated a period of neoliberalism. It allowed for a minimalist role of the state, the free working of the market and a belief that it will solve problems of poverty. In particular, neo-liberalism called for rolling back of the state through processes of privatization, deregulation and liberalization. The negative effect of neoliberalism is seen in the form of loss of livelihoods, reinforcement of social inequalities, marginalization of people and exploitation of the environment. This has meant that the poor women have had to take up more responsibilities and their struggle for survival has become more acute, which has implications on their citizenship rights. Neoliberalism does not allow women to take for granted the commitment of the state to help the poor. Simultaneously, the state has evolved a policy of sponsoring groups of women in the name of empowering them. This is the principle in the programme of self-help microcredit groups. Many scholars have argued that the official microcredit programme has been marked by the neoliberal philosophy (Joseph, 2007; Swaminathan, 2007). Microcredit promoted capitalist development by providing easy access to credit and encouraging the concept of self-help where the onus is on poor women to develop themselves, thereby absolving the state of the responsibility to cater to their needs. Neoliberal times have placed new challenges to women s groups. They have had to design alternative strategies to relate and negotiate with the state and yet question its policies and power. This paper assesses the design that MASUM has evolved to negotiate with the state and simultaneously raise a critical voice against patriarchy in the continuation of which the state is playing a primary role. It considers the extent MASUM helps to organize women to question the structural inequalities, to be sensitive to patriarchal hierarchies within the structures of caste and class and lastly whether these groups are sensitive to the patriarchal character of the state. Microcredit as a neoliberal programme Mayoux (2001) argues that the 1970s and early 1980s were the periods of discovery of microcredit as a poverty alleviation programme and the 1990s one of legitimizations of the microcredit sector. Microcredit programmes were considered as a panacea of all problems for women. At the 1997 Micro Credit Summit, microcredit intervention was acknowledged as a powerful tool to end economic dependence of poor women and garnered an investment of USD 21.6 billion. In the Draft Declaration at the Microcredit Summit, it is emphasized that

5 Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes 407 empirical evidence has shown that women, as a group, are consistently better in promptness and reliability of payment...a effective method of ensuring that the benefits of increased income accrue to the general welfare of the family, and particularly the children...women themselves benefit from the higher status they achieve when they are able to provide new income (Results, 1997, p. 8 cited in Linda Mayoux, 2000, p. 214) The United Nations declared 2005 as the Year of Microcredit. This was translated into massive investment in the form of grants, projects, conferences, workshops, and many other activities in order to encourage and facilitate programme growth. Micro-enterprises and micro-credit projects proliferated and were shaped by donors. Ten years later, this process was further reinforced when Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize. In India it was in the mid-1980s that officially microcredit programme became an integral part of the development policy. The government promoted microcredit programme by passing supportive policies. Microcredit is implemented through SHGs, informal associations of ten to twenty women who meet regularly, usually once a month, to save small amounts (typically Rs ) a month. Although they are generally formed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), it is expected that they select their own members. The SHGs operate with byelaws devised and agreed by the members themselves, including rules for monthly savings, lending procedures, periodicity, timings of meetings etc. Groups lend money to its members and each has to maintain meticulous accounts and records. After a period of six months of disciplined functioning, the SHG becomes entitled to a loan from the bank where it has an account (Ghate, 2007, 24). There is widespread encouragement of the SHG model. Recent figures show that as on March 2007, lakhs SHGs in 587 districts of the country have been credit-linked to 44,500 branches of 50 commercial banks, 352 cooperative banks and 96 regional rural banking (RRBs). There are thousands of institutions that promote microcredit, including government, semi-government, banks and NGOs. For example, in , there were 573 banks (commercial, regional rural and cooperative) lending to the SHGs through 41,323 bank branches. Further there were 4323 NGOs and other agencies, promoting, training and mentoring of SHGs and undertake capacity-building activities. Neoliberalism which implies re-organization of the processes of production on account of the new economic polices has relegated women to low-wage and informal sector work and has increased subsistence labour (Sangari, 2007, 54). Neoliberalism has influenced the nature of poverty alleviation programmes focusing on market-led growth. Kabeer (1995) argues that in this environment women were given recognition as key agents in

6 408 Anurekha Chari-Wagh the development process as the new micro-entrepreneurs, as the nimble fingers behind the export success of global market forces. Neoliberal features of microcredit Ideologically, microcredit programmes are market-based programmes that focus on individual s enterprising nature. Hanak (2000) and Joseph (2007) argue that microcredit s neo-liberal inclinations are clearly revealed in the position of the World Bank and other international aid agencies. According to Joseph, these institutions portray poverty as a locally and individually created, and therefore locally and individually solvable, problem. In this regard, microcredit that helps in raising household income in monetary terms falls perfectly in line with such an approach. One has to realize that microcredit is a resource-creating programme that ensures that banking institutions make profits. The organizers charge exorbitant rates of interest almost an average of percent per annum. This is more than what moneylenders charge the poor (Joseph, 2007; John, 2005). These rates are higher than the corresponding rates charged by commercial banks or other financial institutions. For example, real interest rates in 1992 varied from 15 percent per annum in Bangladesh for Grameen bank to 45 percent in Bolivia for loans advanced by Banco Sol 2 and 60 percent in Indonesia for loans advanced by Badan Kredit Kecamatan 3 (Hulme and Mosley, 1998, cited in Swaminathan, 2007). In India the interest rates on microcredit projects are also very high, and the final interest rate includes a margin charged by each particular link in the credit chain. Thus, banking institutions provide refinance to commercial banks at 7.5 percent per annum, banks on-lend to NGOs at percent, NGOs then lend to SHGs at percent and the groups lend to individual member at percent per annum (Chavan and Ramakumar, 2002, cited in Swaminathan, 2007). Microcredit enterprises thus will have to generate very high rate of profit and returns to be sustainable to the borrower. The microcredit programmes create an image of women as ideal, dutiful, hardworking, resourceful, responsible and efficient, single handedly and smilingly carry the burden of the family, community and the nation and assume that all women are budding entrepreneurs. In a neo-liberal state, the agenda on gender and development focuses on efficiency rationale, where through microcredit programme groups of women accessing easy credit and proving themselves to be efficient managers is emphasized 2 Microfinance Institution. 3 Ibid.

7 Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes 409 (Joseph, 2007). It focuses on language of efficiency and on women (rather than the relational concept of gender), which places them as good subjects against the marginalized men who are regarded as both incapable and irresponsible (John, 1999, ). Further, in this framework, women are expected to be responsible, bear the burden of the family, household and community and without complaining (Nair, 2005). To except that by becoming part of the microcredit programmes and through it the market, women would be empowered, is not realistic. The economic empowerment logic inherent in microcredit programmes though necessary for further emancipation is never sufficient. In development practices, it is assumed that responsibility automatically translates into authority (Krishnaraj, 2006). It does not happen so in everyday practices. Patriarchal ideology increases the responsibility of the marginalized without and corresponding increase in authority. Intervention of MASUM MASUM is a rural women s organization and takes its perspective from the democratic ideas of the non-party political processes, NPPFs, the feminist perspective of the autonomous women s movement and the human rights perspective popular since 1990s. Development interventions of MASUM are framed in the perspective of its ideas on gendered rights as citizenship rights and as a human right. For MASUM, the integral component of citizenship rights is that it is granted by the nation state. As Manisha Gupte, founder trustee of MASUM said, Women in India have rarely been perceived as independent citizens. More often it is men and /or family and society that negotiate citizenship rights for them. MASUM s vision is to make citizenship rights accessible to women as a person by strengthening their independence and individuality (Interview with Manisha Gupte, 6 April 2006). MASUM s conception of gendered citizenship rights emphasizes both individual rights and group rights. Thus, MASUM demands the state respect and protect women as citizens and also ensures women s access to good health services, a violence-free society, subjugation-free spaces, access to better education, employment, livelihood and property. Yet, MASUM has used a neoliberal poverty alleviation programme like microcredit to articulate gendered citizenship rights for women. MASUM is a feminist rural women s organization working on the issues of health (reproductive health) and sexuality, microcredit, legal aid and violence against women. It was founded in the year 1987, in Malshiras village, Pune district by Manisha Gupte and Dr Ramesh Awasthi and works in

8 410 Anurekha Chari-Wagh eighteen villages of drought-prone Purandhar taluka, Pune district, and seven villages in tribal-dominated Parner taluka, Ahmednagar district (MASUM pamphlet). It combines research, advocacy, programme implementation and political consciousness raising group. MASUM focuses on creating a progressive space for deprived groups to make them politically conscious citizens. The founder members were influenced by the political movements in the decade of 1970s, in particular by the ideas of Jayprakash Narain (popularly referred to as the JP movement), the emerging human rights perspective, the women s movement, health movement in the post-emergency phase and the movement of science and technology for rural development (Interviews with Manisha Gupte and Dr Ramesh Awasthi). These perspectives are reflected in the MASUM programmes, its approach to political and economic issues within the society and the campaigns on reproductive and sexual rights, religious minorities and people who are mentally and physically challenged. The microcredit programme is distinctively unique. For Manisha Gupte and Ramesh Awasthi, microcredit programmes has a limited approach of poverty alleviation, as it does question the structural inequality embedded in societies. They argue that international development and funding institutions are pushing for Grameen Bank model of development in order to make it a prescription for poverty alleviation. These are out to prove microcredit as a solution to poverty. Despite this extensive critique, Manisha Gupte believes that microcredit can be made to create benefits for women. This is so because it acts as a financial support for women during emergencies as women can get easy access to credit, without having to arrange for collateral. This absence of collateral is important as poor women lack assets. Further, for MASUM, the SHG meetings are more than just gatherings to save and get access to cheap credit. These gats are the rightful space for communication, where women can express their feelings, emotions and thoughts. In addition, the programme addresses the core issue in feminist perspective that of the right of women to property and control over assets. Gupte argues that if microcredit programmes are properly implemented then there is a possibility that it could provide women an opportunity for creating assets thereby questioning patriarchy (Interview with Gupte on 7 April 2006). Fourthly, the co-conveners of MAUSM argue that through microcredit, SHGs link with the government bureaucratic system and with nationalized banks. Thus, Gupte argues that poor women ask for a share from the system and demand for their rights (Interview with Manisha Gupte, 7 April 2006). MASUM through its Streedhan project (women s savings and credit programme) develop SHG to function as a financial support network, a

9 Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes 411 legitimate space for sharing ideas and emotions, facilitate control over assets and link them with the government system. These functions allow MASUM to use microcredit as a tool to contest and negotiate with the systems and institutions of the state. The concept of Streedhan has a long history within the Hindu tradition and refers to women s property and assets that cannot be alienated from her and to which she has a right. It is thus not a dowry. Streedhan is women s property and she has the freedom and discretion to use it as she wants. It is also assets that women can own that would provide them financial security during marital crisis. Drawing from the above notions, MASUM started its women s savings and credit programme named Streedhan in 1991 and has since organized 640 SHGs. Strategies of re-designing microcredit programmes In this section I analyse the efforts made to re-design microcredit programmes to offset the inherent neoliberal features. MASUM has re-designed two features relating to high interest rates and rules of eligibility to make the SHGs more inclusive and pro-poor. Interest rates are now low when compared with other NGOs implementing the scheme where it can be as much as percent. Women in MASUM availing loans pay 18 percent interest per annum and of which 6 percent goes towards Streedham running expenses, 6 percent goes back to the community in the form of community development activities and the balance of 6 percent goes to enhance the rolling capital of Streedhan. The women decide upon how the development fund is utilized. For example, a creche was started in Malshiras village, so that the women or school-going girls do not have to remain tied indoors, looking after younger kids (Awasthi, 1994). Secondly, it relates to the strategy with regard to eligibility principles. In its initial years most SHGs had members from the same caste as they all lived together in the same neighbourhood. Further, in mixed caste groups, upper caste women dominated over dalit caste women. MASUM then decided to form SHGs based on women from marginalized caste, such as Navis and Khumbhar, from the dalit castes and secondly not to allow Maratha women (of the dominant landed caste) to form SHGs. This decision was re-thought when they realized that though the Maratha caste women belonged to rich landed families, they did not have any money of their own. Being part of microcredit groups provided Maratha women a place where they could save some money for their own use. In the meetings, interviews and group discussions with members of SHGs, it became clear these are more than just credit and savings

10 412 Anurekha Chari-Wagh groups but are rightful space for communication, where they can express their feelings, emotions and thoughts (Manisha Gupte, Interview on 18 December 2007). Importantly, MASUM perceives SHG as a political group that would raise issues relating to the rights of women and marginalized and is reflected in its conception of SHGs as critical local mass with microcredit workers as the local critical mass Streedhan SHGs play an important role as its meetings are used to discuss various contemporary social, political and economic issues, thereby is developing these critical masses. The local critical mass undertakes various conscientizing activities among local women and has developed into a formidable base in every village, which mobilizes women on issues such as health needs, sexuality, child marriage, alcoholism and violence. In recent times SHG women of MASUM has been very active in a movement against alcoholism and alcohol vendors in Malshiras village, Purandhar taluka (Interview with Manisha Gupte, 18 December 2007). Feminists have theorized on a close relation of alcoholism with violence against women. MASUM drawing its ideas from its association with women s movement and democratic movements have been able to launch a sustained campaign against alcoholism. Male alcoholism leads to violence against women and the family s financial security precarious. In the SHG meetings, the issues of alcoholism emerged and thus it was at the behest of the women members rather than the leaders of MASUM that initiated this campaign. The first step was to stop making alcohol. In Malshiras village, there were six hath bhatis (gaoti daru local alcohol made without using distilleries), which was dangerous and hazardous for health. The fact that even the youths of the village were becoming addicted made this frightening for many mothers. The alcohol-making machineries were thus the object of protest in the struggle against alcoholism (Group Discussion, Malshiras Village, 8 April 2006). On Gudi Padwa (Maharashtrian New Year), day in April 2000, a big meeting of the Gram Sabha was held to celebrate the festival. Three hundred women gathered and demanded that the village leaders take punitive measures against the alcohol vendors. It was in that meeting that MASUM activists went to various hath bhati sites and broke the alcohol-making vessels and confronted the alcohol vendors. For eight days, these women conducted pheris (vigil rounds) in their village to ensure that the bhatis did not restart. Conditions were made much more difficult for the activists as men did not support them and were critical of their political activities. In certain cases women who participated had to fight resistance in the form of verbal and physical abuse from their husbands.

11 Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes 413 Though women were threatened, they did not compromise on the struggle and continue to function as a pressure group against alcoholism. Conclusion MASUM uses this anti-alcohol programme to articulate citizenship rights of women. Gendered citizenship for MASUM relates to politically conscious actors sensitive to patriarchal structures of inequality. MASUM is aware of the fact that structures of class, caste, gender and ethnicity constrain citizen access to rights and thus has devised innovative rules in its programmes to address these inequalities. In this process women converted themselves from economic actors into conscious political active citizens. The SHG groups provide a space for raising of gender issues and concerns regarding gendered citizenship rights when the ideas of the women s political movement is feminist and engages critically with the nation state on issues of power and authority. Funding I wish to acknowledge funding from the NRF project at the Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa and the Centre for Social Science and Humanities, (CSSH) at the University of Pune, Pune. Dr Anurekha Chari-Wagh is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Pune, India, and works in the field of sociology of development, labour, poverty alleviation, gender and development and women s movement. She also works as a gender consultant, conducting research, organizing workshops and training sessions on gender and development issues. Address for correspondence: Anurekha Chari-Wagh, Department of Sociology, University of Pune, India, anu_wagh@rediffmail.com References Awasthi, R. (1994) Streedhan. FRCH Newsletter, 7 (3). Ghate, P. (2007) Indian Microfinance: The Challenges of Rapid Growth, Sage Publications, New Delhi. Goetz, A. M. and Sen Gupta, R. (1996) Who takes the credit? Gender, power and control over loan use in rural credit programmes in Bangladesh, World Development, 24 (1), Hanak, I. (2000) Working her way out of poverty : micro-credit programs undelivered promises in poverty alleviation, Journal Für Entwicklungspolitik, 3,

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