Self-Help: Development Economics, not Pop Psychology

During our visit to the Yelagiri Hills facility of the South Central India Network for Development Alternatives (SCINDeA), Dr. Bennet Benjamin spoke about “circles of power.”  He identified four types of power wielded by those who hold it: economic, political, social, and cultural. Once a person or group achieves one type of power, it is relatively easy to leverage that into other power circles. The groups SCINDeA works with, tribal and Dalit (“untouchable”) communities and women in particular, are shut out of all four circles of power. The programs run by the NGO’s within the SCINDeA network focus on development with, rather than for, the marginalized people they serve.

The basic model is the self-help group. Twelve to twenty women form a group which meets certain requirements, such as living below the poverty line (living on less than two dollars a day). The groups pool what limited resources they have to establish an account at a bank, and from that fund, short-term emergency loans can be made to members of the group. After they have held that account for a period of time, the group can formulate a business plan and get a loan from the bank based on the credit they have established. Some groups in the Yelagiri Hills community collected wild honey from the forest to package and sell. Others purchased the raw materials to make and sell incense sticks. We met women who were running concessions and boat rentals at the local park based on a lease they purchased from the state government, and women who were harvesting and packing tamarind or buying chilies to dry and grind into chili powder. The coalition of self-help groups in the Yelagiri Hills has twice won a state award as the top group in Tamil Nadu. But that’s not what made me want to write about them.

The women in these groups aren’t getting rich, but they are making a profit and repaying their loans. They are feeding their children and providing them with an education, and they are empowering themselves. We met with a group of representatives from the Yelagiri Hills self-help groups, and their stories, their presence, and their confidence blew me away. Here was a group of women who once had been house-wives at best. Tribal widows, mothers, and wives who had no social standing, no money of their own, and no authority in the community. Now they have children attending college, are winning awards, and making even their skeptical mothers-in-law proud. Now they sat before a group of foreigners and laughed and joked and spoke out confidently about their experiences and triumphs. One woman told us, “I used to have to wait for my husband to buy me a new sari, now I can buy one on my own.” It was festival day, and her sari was a fine, elegant one.

Dr. Sheila Benjamin of SCINDEA introduces the women whose self-help group runs the canteen at the local park.

Wild honey collected and packaged for sale

#1  Self-Help Federation in the state of Tamil Nadu

A ceremonial welcome from the women of tribal community