Empowering women self-help groups

This article claims that women in rural Andhra Pradesh, India are increasingly finding financial empowerment through Self Help Groups (SHGs) and MACTCS (Mutually Aided Co-operative Thrift and Credit Societies). Over 5.4 million women have organised themselves in 380,000 groups, accumulating savings of the order of US$900. They have also sought and received loans and grants from the State Government and National Bank for Agricultural Rural Development Bank (NABARD) amounting to US$62 million, thus making their bank finances US$172 million.

These village-level organisations have grown to a level of self-sustainability where they are now demanding increased access to information. Accordingly, MANAGE (National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management) has been working out new innovations in technology dissemination across the country. Cyber Extension, which is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for Agricultural Extension, is one of MANAGE's areas of emphasis. Under this initiative MANAGE is testing ICT connectivity at state, district, block, and village levels. The Ranga Reddy Project is the village-level action research project of MANAGE.

As part of this project, computers were installed in 11 villages of the Ranga Reddy District in September 2000. One system with a printer, modem, KVA (Kilo Volt Ampere), and UPS (uninterrupted power supply) was provided to each village. The systems were placed in the premises of MACTCS in 9 locations and at Gram Panchayat (grassroots administrative structure) offices at 2 locations. The 11 village kiosks cater not only to their own villages, but each of those villages caters to surrounding villages where MACTCS group members reside. Furthermore, because the buildings of MACTCS are well connected with major roads, the total reach of the project is approximately 250-300 villages.

The kiosks had telephone line connectivity to begin with; the hardware was procured and given to the Women Groups or Farmers' Groups under agreement with the President of the respective MACTCS. MANAGE then provided the service of one IT Facilitator at each of the kiosks for a period of 6 months to train all the farmers and farm families, and also to assess the information needs at the village level. Organisers selected each IT facilitator from local area, so that he or she could interact with trainees in the local language.

In addition, the government of Andhra Pradesh has opened 8 Rythu Bazars (Farmers' Market), where farmers or their family members can sell their produce directly to consumers. MANAGE has arranged to host these prices on a special Ranga Reddy District website; at the kiosks, farmers can access these prices very early in the morning everyday. In addition, the general market prices of agricultural produce across the whole country is accessible at the kiosks (agriwatch.com has given the 11 villages free access to their website). Beyond prices, the farmers access the Ranga Reddy District website to learn about training programmes and other agricultural training institutions in and around Hyderabad. Other subjects covered on the site include: watershed programmes, cooperatives, Yuva Shakti (Youth Programmes), programmes for handicapped persons, Bal Karmik (programme to eradicate child labour), Panchayati Raj (programme on local self government), programmes for minorities, and programmes for Scheduled Tribes. According to the authors, the Telugu (local language) websites are also very popular at the kiosks.

The authors state that "Recently, when the Home Minister of the State inaugurated the second MACTCS building at Keesara Mandal, the village ladies asked a number of questions on implementation of various welfare schemes, particularly those for ladies. They also expressed their unhappiness about paucity of drinking water in their area. They also suggested the schemes under which the development works could be undertaken. Thus, the information access at the village level has improved the information about the state programmes meant to support the village community and they are able to articulate their needs and demands much more clearly to the concerned officers." Furthermore, they explain that the increased access to information at the village level has put pressure on state officials to deliver programmes in a timely manner (villagers now know that they are eligible for housing loans, for example, and have the necessary documents to demand that they receive them). Each MACTCS has its own email account, which enables easy communication with state officials.

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