The COVID 19 pandemic followed by the nationwide lockdown has left a huge impact on women in every field. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women. The pandemic has adversely impacted many communities and groups differently and the women belonging to self-help groups have also been on the receiving end of this impact. However, their significant roles in assisting the government in times of this crisis cannot go unnoticed. This article mainly deals with two broad questions:
(i) Impact of COVID 19 on women working in SHGs in terms of production problems and Social problems
(ii) Contributions made by WSHGs to contain the pandemic.
Importantly, there has been a sharp decline in the income of these women, which has deeply affected their living standards. It is also very important to highlight the deep-seated consequences of this pandemic, evident in their personal and social lives due to the economic loss in their enterprises. However, despite facing so many difficulties, these women are on the frontline to help the government to contain this pandemic; this research paper has tried to show the exuberant and assiduous roles that have been performed by the women working in SHGs or WSHGs. It also aims to present the inefficiency of the government policies and throws light on the fact that women, in spite of facing numerous problems are playing an outsized role responding to COVID-19 as frontline healthcare workers, caregivers at home, and as mobilizers in their communities, thereby giving us a pellucid picture of the ground reality.
WHAT ARE SELF HELP GROUPS?
Self-Help Groups are financial intermediary committees that usually consist of 10-20 people between the age group of 18 to 40 years. They are mostly from a similar socio-economic background and are involved in undertaking small savings amongst themselves in a bank. Besides India, these self-help groups are also found in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS
Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) are peer groups where women exclusively arrange themselves with the objective of being independent and to fight against all evils that are harmful to them together. The main objective of these WSHGs is to mutually mitigate the problem of poverty. It can be defined as a self-governed, peer controlled information group of women.
FUNCTIONING OF SHGs
All SHG members regularly save a small amount. The amount may be small, but savings have to be a regular and continuous habit with all the members. They work on the motto of ‘Saving first Credit later’. The SHG use the savings amount for giving loans to members. When they have sufficient amounts of saving in their hands they use it to take loans from the banks. The amount acquired can be used to produce goods and services or to further lend it to the other members of the group. Easy access to loans with a smaller rate of interest acts as an incentive for them to start their micro-unit enterprise. Consequently, Self Help Groups have emerged as the most effective mechanism for the delivery of microfinance services to the poor.
The outbreak of Coronavirus succeeded by the nationwide lockdown announced by the government in India has thrown many challenges to the members of SHG’s with regard to their production processes, conduction of physical meetings, mobilizing savings of the group, the rotation of money for internal lending among the members as well as their domestic situation and mental health.
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| Source:-Unsplsah By:- Srimathi Jayarakash |
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The Coronavirus outbreak has ineptly affected the production activities of SHGs. Many SHGs all-around India are actively involved in small scale production of many goods and services. However, the COVID 19 pandemic has hampered their production activities. Firstly, the raw materials needed for production are not easily available and accessible. Also, it is difficult for the members to come together for work because of the MHRD guidelines of social distancing. For the female members, it is even more difficult to go for work as their household chores have increased after the lockdown. Apart from this even if some production units have access to raw materials and workers, they still face the problem of transporting the goods to the main market as well as lack of interested buyers in the market. All these issues have led to a decline in their family income leading them to either use their past savings or rely on government relief.
The members of those SHGs which do not produce anything were either working as daily wagers, fishermen or salaried employees and the effects of COVID 19 are harsher on them. These members reported having stopped working since the lockdown has been implemented. Earlier these women used to save a part of their monthly earnings and then lend the collected funds to the person in need or in an emergency. However, the pandemic has left all these members unemployed and with zero income. Many of them are the lone bread earners of their family which makes it even more difficult for them. Thus this pandemic has left a very bad economic impact on the income and livelihood of these women working in SHGs.
SOCIAL IMPACT
According to the reports released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 68th round of NSS survey, 60% rural women above the age of 15 years engage in domestic duties. With the coming in of this pandemic, many women working in SHGs have been compelled to stay within the boundaries of their household. During this pandemic, most of the women in WSHGs are occupied with their household duties like domesticating animals and looking after their 3 or more children, in most cases. They are not well versed with the details of the pandemic. Moreover, they have little knowledge of how their SHG functions on a daily basis. Despite being the official account holders in their nearby banks, the paperwork and logistical arrangements are mostly handled by their husbands. Due to the pandemic, many rural women have been working as part-time labourers to make ends meet. The aforementioned points highlight the adverse impact this pandemic has left on the production process as well as the social lives of women who work in SHGs. While most of their production has been put on hold, their social roles have been restricted and their social positions have deteriorated. Noticeably, there’s a paucity of statistical data relevant to the problems faced by rural women working in SHGs, a subject of utmost concern.
AID PROVIDED BY GOVERNMENT TO WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS AMID LOCKDOWN
During this pandemic and its lockdown, the government of India has also provided financial aid to these SHGs. Recently Rs 1.76 lakh Crore stimulus package has been announced by the union finance minister to fight COVID 19. Also one of the announcements included doubling of collateral-free loans to women Self Help Groups (SHGs) from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. This will help 63 lakh SHGs covering 7 crore families, as per the announcement. It is too early to analyze the efficiency of this government policy, but there are some serious points that need to be pondered upon beforehand.
Notwithstanding this initiative, geographically there has been a skewed development of the SHG-Bank linkage program in India. There is wide regional disparity in terms of SHGs linked to banks. While the Southern Region accounted for 71.4 per cent of the total loans to SHGs, the share of North-Eastern Region was just about 1.5 per cent. This depicts that even today; a significant number of SHGs are not connected with any bank. This reality raises questions on the accessibility of aids provided by the government to Women-led self-help groups.
Along with medical staff, nurses, police force, government and bank employees, Self Help Groups also need to be appreciated for their exuberant and selfless service for their country amid this lockdown." The women’s movement that started as a leap of faith some 15 years ago has proved to be an invaluable resource in these difficult times. Our partnership with the Indian government in building social capital among the rural poor has paid off in spades,” said Gayatri Acharya, who leads the World Bank’s $750 million support for India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission. Despite the setbacks they are facing due to the lockdown, WSHGs are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Ministry of rural development has mentioned that more than 19 million masks have been produced by some 20,000 SHGs across 27 Indian states, in addition to over 100,000 litres of sanitizer and nearly 50,000 litres of hand wash. Since production is decentralized, these items have reached widely-dispersed populations without the need for complex logistics and transportation.
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| Source:- Unsplash By:- Prashanth Pinha |
SHGs in Assam are producing masks on a large scale. Under the national rural livelihood mission, WSHGs of Assam have made around 52 lakh face masks. An article printed in Economics times, mentions the services provided by the Kudumbashree network in Kerala. “Kudumbashree” is one of the earliest groups to have joined the government in its fight against the Corona Virus. With almost 44 lakh members working at the district, community and neighbourhood level, it has a wide reach and has been the natural choice to help the government in aiding its citizens during these trying times. Kudumbashree has turned the pandemic into an opportunity. Kudumbashree members have been busy making masks, hand sanitizers, running over 1300 community kitchens and budget hotels. About 570 volunteers have been engaged in helping the civil supplies department to pack and distribute food kits. In an interview with one of the Kollam district program coordinators, he informed that Kudumbashree had planned to launch a statewide program, in March, to expand sales of products and services. Many products prepared for this initiative were still in godowns because of lack of transportation facilities and markets. This has been a major problem for Kudumbashree units.
Besides producing masks and running community kitchens, many SHGs are also performing the task of disseminating information regarding Government action and policies to remote and grassroots level. In Bihar, an SHG named Jeevika is spreading guidelines regarding social distancing and sanitization through songs and video messages. They are acting as a strong pillar against scaremongering and widespread wrong information. The Mahila Artika Vikas Mandal and over one lakh WSHGs in Maharashtra are training some of their members to introduce and assist the rural population to online banking services. They have, together, contributed Rs. 11.35 lakhs to the chief minister’s relief fund. Members of the Snehita help desk in Wayanad have been offering tele-counselling for people undergoing home quarantine. They are also assisting the elderly and differently-abled through these difficult times, by getting essential items home-delivered.
WSHGs have been mobilized by the government to help them in their battle against the novel Coronavirus. These women-led groups are helping the government to reach the most underprivileged groups in rural areas. Helping in their own ways, these groups, along with the other essential services employees, are being hailed as “corona warriors” by the Indian media. To conclude, the pandemic has adversely impacted many communities and groups differently and the women belonging to self-help groups have also been on the receiving end of this impact. However, their significant roles in assisting the government in times of this crisis cannot go unnoticed.
REFERENCES
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/RuralWomen/ArundhatiBhattacharyya.pdf
https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/corona-warriors-in-assam-women-shgs-make-51-lakh-masks
http://www.kudumbashree.org/pages/830
https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/self-help-group-women-covid19-warriors-65220/
AKSHITA SHARMA
MARIA LATIF TRUMBOO
SREELAKSHMI
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