WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH SHGs: PROMOTION, PERFORMANCE AND PROBLEMS (3Ps) Dr. M. JULIAS CEASAR Dean of Arts & Assistant Professor / Commerce, St. Xavier s College (Autonomous) Palayamkottai. ABSTRACT Women is a mother, wife, daughter, sister and child who bring happiness and cheer in the family through their presence, role and responsibility in their own way Self Help Group is a small homogeneous, affinity group, engaged in thrift and credit activities working together for common purpose of mutual help. The group lends money to the members who are in need of financial support for productive and consumption purposes or for making investment in business operated by them either in group or individually. These loans are very helpful to the rural women to start a new business or help them to become an entrepreneur. Empowerment is the major focus of the SHGs and NGOs among their members and more particularly among women from rural segment who participate in the activities of these agencies. The challenge before the members is to evolve strategies to break the stereotypes of the past by solving the problems of poverty, unemployment and the like. To empower women, it is necessary to make women equal partners in the national development process and equip them to make choices in order to actualize their self worth. In this light an attempt is made by the researcher to study the promotion, performance and problems of rural women entrepreneurs through SHGs in Tiruchirappalli District. INTRODUCTION Women are the cheer and happiness in the family who play a major role in the development process of the society more particularly in the context of the family and society, including its economic and social system. In most of the countries, women have less access to education, jobs, income and power than men and the rural women in India. In recent years, equality of status of women has gained greater importance by social reformists, social workers and political leaders. Social status of women can be improved significantly only by making women to be self-dependent by raising their economic status that leads to progress and development of the entire country (Mehta 1982). In order to make credit available to rural masses the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is giving special financial assistance through Banks, Micro Financial Institutions (MFIs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs). Self Help Group is a small homogeneous, affinity group, engaged in thrift and credit activities working together for common purpose. Each member has to pay a fixed sum for a fixed period of time in a bank account which will be in the group. The banker being satisfied with the co-operation and involvement of the members provide loan to these groups. The group lends the amount to the members who are in need of financial support for productive and consumption purposes or for making investment in business operated by them individually or collectively. A moral responsibility is created to prompt repayment of loans. These loans are very helpful to the rural women to start a new business or help them to become an entrepreneur. www.icmrr.org 74 admin@icmrr.org
DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS Entrepreneurs: An entrepreneur is an individual or group of individual or groups of individuals, who as a single decision maker, keen planner and sole risk taker, organizer, manager and runs the enterprise whereby reallocates resources beneficially for best interest of his / her venture. Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship is a purposeful activity of individual or a group of associated individuals, undertaken to initiate, maintain or profit by protection or distribution of economic goods and services. Women entrepreneurs: Women entrepreneurs can be defined as an adult woman who creates, owns and runs an entrepreneurial form of business. Self employed women entrepreneurs: The self employed women entrepreneur or individuals, who do so in their own home or offices and are not normally listed on anyone s payroll. Women enterprises: Women enterprises are those, where more than half of ownership control is in the hands of women. Non Governmental Organization: NGOs are organizations set up to implement the projects and policies of the government for the upliftment of the society. Subsidy: It refers to a concessional finance extended to the weaker sections of the society shared equally by the central and state government. Revolving Fund: Revolving fund is a fund given by the government through SED scheme to the SHGs. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The concept of self help group has brought revolutionary change in rural economy by creating the way for self reliance to the rural people especially to the weaker section through the promotion of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial traits; it has proved to be the remedy for many problems of the rural flock. It is the right time to study on this as its growth is multifold in a short period. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDY The reviews of past studies will create a basis for the research and give a direction to the researcher by giving insight into the topic. The researcher hence, has made a review to find the past directions on the topic by various researchers. V.S Genesamuthy, et.al., States that women development schemes is intended to promote economic development and social empowerment of the poorest women through the network of SHGs formed with active support of NGOs. They conclude as in some area the SHGs are functioning effectively where as in some area they are face problems. Since SHGs help women to achieve economic empowerment this falls measures contribute a lot to the nation C.Ville, (2003) The main objectives of self help group is to promote savings among the poor and provide small and short term loans to its members at a lesser interest to meet their consumptions and small income generative activities or through micro enterprises. Rasure. K (2002) Says that the genesis of SHGs could be traced to mutually aid in the form of cooperation, self help, self reliance and strategies of survival as well as development for the poor. Micro financing provides credit access to the poor with no collateral obligation which encourages savings and promoting income generating activities. www.icmrr.org 75 admin@icmrr.org
K.Sudha Rani, et.,al (2002) The multi- dimensional process of empowerment requires awareness, education and training, participation in decision making and politics. It also aims at mobilization of women for economic self reliance, self confidence, leadership and entrepreneurial development. Sneh Lata Tandon (2001): Four thousand self employed women with a capital of Rs. 60,000 initiated establishment of the separate bank for poor, self employed in SHG christened as the Shri Magila Seva Sahakan bank which was established in 1974. These self employed women workers included hawkers, vendors and home based workers- like viewers, potters, beedi and paper rollers manual labourers and service providers. G.Thanmozhi (1997) has studied the women entrepreneurship in Coimbatore district tried to bring out the socio economic factors influencing the women entrepreneurs. She has analyzed the problems encountered by them and came out with a suggestion that promotes women entrepreneurship. T. Chiranjeevulu (2003) says, Andhra Pradesh government has been vigorously pursuing the micro finance agenda for embowering poor women. DRDA Warangal has made special efforts to thoroughly internalize this new paradigm of development. As a result organization of women into SHGs had really taken the shapes of a movement in the density. It also believed that the promotion of non-farm related micro enterprises is an integral part of plan strategy for securing balanced development of economy of the poor women. T. Prabakar (2002) has done a research on the entrepreneurship in household in Trichy town. He has tried to find out the factors responsible for entrepreneurship and the problems faced by them. He has found through the field study that the entrepreneurs are facing problems regarding finance; marketing and he suggested that the SHG could be promoted to undertake the business activity of the rural area also. OBJECTIVES To study the impact of socio-economic factors of the entrepreneurial activities of rural women entrepreneurs of SHGs in the study area. To study the factors involved in promoting rural women entrepreneurs the study area. To find out the various factors involved in entrepreneurial activities of rural women. To identify the various problems encountered by the rural women entrepreneurs. To analyze the impact on rural women entrepreneurs after becoming the members of SHG with reference to personal, economical, social and entrepreneurial factors. HYPOTHESIS There is no significant relationship between the group membership and the personal, social and economic factors of the respondents. The impact of group membership in the entrepreneurial development factors of the respondents is weak. METHODOLOGY SAMPLING It is a sample survey to study the entrepreneurial traits of women SHGs formed by 21 NGOs in Tiruchirappalli District. Among them four NGOs were selected for this research study, these groups are engaged in entrepreneurial activities and rendering marketing of goods and services to the general public. Of the total entrepreneurs a sample of Sixty eight respondents were selected from these groups based on the convenience sampling approach. www.icmrr.org 76 admin@icmrr.org
COLLECTION OF DATA Primary Data: The primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Secondary Data: The secondary data relating to the study were collected from books, journals, magazines and printed materials. ANALYSIS OF DATA The collected data were analyzed by using simple frequency tables, cross tabulation between the various groups and the personal, social, economic and entrepreneurial development factors of the respondents. SCOPE OF STUDY The present study is limited to the promotion, performance and problems of rural entrepreneurs who are functioning under the women SHGs. The performance the entrepreneurs are assessed on the basis of the savings, income earned and their capacity to borrow and repay the borrowings. It is hoped that the findings of the study may help in evolving strategies for the development of rural entrepreneurs. LIMITATION The study is limited to women entrepreneurs associated with women SHGs. The respondents were not ready to co-operate with researcher due to some unwarranted fear. The sample size is limited to sixty eight respondent on reason of the time constrain. Results and Discussions SHGs and NGOs give prime importance economic empowerment and improving the economic condition of the people. The super market concept together with their own products and small iddly shops in villages in an innovation and is picking up well for SHGs to do entrepreneurial business which is mostly supported by Mahalir Thittam, SHGs and NGOs. The main objectives of the groups are to increase the social status of the members and giving them financial assistance to make them sustainable economically. The sustainable economic development aims at increasing and improving their attitude towards the development of some entrepreneurial traits. The membership in SHGs relieves them from the clutches of money lenders and gets their financial requirements met through SHGs and group business aspect is the win-win strategy adopted by the groups. Thus the researcher has understood the NGOs do major role in motivating the group members to start the business of their own to gain more profit from out of their savings. More than 70% of the groups (respondent) participate in training programmes conducted for a period ranging from 5 to 10 days. Half of the respondents select their business on reason of simple technology. 1/3 rd respondents have attended entrepreneurial development programs (EDP) and have agreed that Mahalir Thittam is the only sponsoring organization that has given training to the group members with the aim to encourage women entrepreneurs. Half (50%) of the respondents felt that they purchase raw materials from their group s markets, because every group has to invest their money into their group s market and they give goods on credit basis. There is no much competition in the marketing process as the women group is very strong and women members make their purchase for family requirements they prefer to buy from the SHG owned business. More than 3/4 th (79.4%) of the respondents have the feeling that there is no special problem faced by them as women entrepreneur. Majority (60.3%) of the respondents have experienced that inadequacy of finance is one of the most important problem. The www.icmrr.org 77 admin@icmrr.org
overall finding is that, there is a high level of satisfaction in the personal, economical, social and entrepreneurial factors of women. SUGGESTIONS There should be a periodical review of the performance of the SHG to measure how far it has contributed to the improvement of the economically backward people who come forward to be members of the SHG with a big dream to have their social and economical status improved. It is suggested to the NGOs and government officials to inform the main objectives of Mahalir Thittam or SHG and their role in the women development. It is very much important as women in village are ignorant of various schemes available at the National and State level for their promotion and development. It is suggested that SHGs must plan out a strategy that may help them to measure the personal, social and economic improvement which is the main aim of starting and becoming members in SHGs. It is suggested to the SHGs to have thorough knowledge about the sponsors to the NGOs they belong to, as the NGOs are given huge sum of money both by government and private agencies at of reasonable interest rate together with subsidy. It is suggested to the groups to frame a technique that will measure the performance of the small scale business they have launched and how far members benefit out of it. It is suggested to every group to collect opinion of their members as this members act as sales personal approaching customer directly to sell the product launched by their group. The study may help the groups to understand how far the money is invested in the common interest of the SHGs. It is suggested to identify the social status, the economic condition and independent thinking of their members. This improvement may help them to identify a business of their own and may make them an independent entrepreneur. Having identified the performance the NGOs or the sponsoring banks should identify one or two individual members and must help them to enter into an individual business of their own which is the real growth in this system. Though members are in the groups, the NGOs must find a chance to identify individuals and promote them individually on their entrepreneurial skills by providing orientation and training to launch a business of their own. CONCLUSION The genesis of Self Help Groups could be traced to mutual aid in a form of cooperation. Self-help and reliance are strategies of survival as well as development for the poor. Hence, Self Help Groups and Micro Credit should be seen as a solution to accelerate the socio-economic development particularly of the rural poor women in India. A judicious mix of Micro Credit along with other activities with emphasis on development and empowerment strategies and processes would certainly make Micro Credit an effective instrument of social and economic development particularly of the women development in a holistic and integrated manner. Books & Journals Referred 1. P.S Ganesamurthy, et.,al A study on Thrift and Credit Utilization pattern of Self Help Group, B. Lakshmi Vilas Bank Suriyampalam Branch, Erode. Indian Journals of Marketing. January 2004 Vol:XXX1V, No I, PP 12-16. www.icmrr.org 78 admin@icmrr.org
2. C. Villi, Self Help Group-Micro Enterprises Tamil Nadu Journals of Co-operation, July 2004, Vol:3, No:9, PP 20-25. 3. K.A Rasure, Women Empowerment Through Self Group, Facts For You Nov 2002, PP 40-46. 4. Sudha, Uma Devi and Surendra, SHG s Micro-Credit and Empowerment, Social Welfare Feb 2002, PP 18-24. 5. Sneh Lata Tandon, Self Help-New Mantra For Empowerment, Social Welfare Oct 2001 PP 25-31. 6. G. Thenmozhi(1992) A Study on Women Entrepreneurship in Coimbatore District Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. 7. S. Iswari Devi 2003, A Study on Empowerment of Concern through SHG in Nagapattinam Dist, Unpublished Ph.D Thesis PP 33. 8. Regina Mary, The study on Women Entrepreneurs with reference to SHG in Tiruchirapalli District (2003). 9. Prabahar(2002), A study on Entrepreneurship in household industries in trichirapalli town Un published PhD thesis. www.icmrr.org 79 admin@icmrr.org