From debt to dignity

READ started self-help groups that offered skill training, short courses and small micro-finance loans so women could launch their own businesses instead of borrowing at crushing interest.

That same year the Government of India launched a five-year SHG & bank-loan scheme. READ’s groups were linked into it — READ forms and mentors the groups, while partner banks provide the credit, with women earning together and sharing profits.

Women’s Self-Help Groups — the full story

In our villages, most men are the sole breadwinners, while many women’s time and potential go untapped in household work. Those women who do earn — as daily-wage labourers, domestic workers or construction workers — bring home too little even for food. When a husband’s income is low or lost to alcohol, women are forced to borrow from moneylenders at crushing interest. Trapped in debt and despair, some even take the extreme step of ending their lives.

Moved by this situation, the founder of READ initiated women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in 2000, built on savings and credit within the group. Over 1,000 groups were formed and trained through short-term courses and skill programmes, with small loans from READ to start micro-businesses and microfinance support to escape debt traps — daily loans, education loans, marriage and housing loans. The same year, the Government of India introduced SHG-bank linkage under the Five Year Plan, enabling groups to access bank loans at nominal interest and share earnings equally. Through microfinance, these women continue to improve their economic and social status.

Banking partners: HDFC Bank (2006–2010), SBI (2009–2011), SHEPHERD (2011–2014), ICICI Bank (2014–present).

Aims

To unite village women into groups and create livelihood opportunities suited to their needs; to raise each woman’s economic status through her own work; to sustain women’s empowerment through continuous SHG finance; and to grow women’s entrepreneurship on a larger scale.

Objectives

1. Identify women willing to save and borrow within a group.
2. Form named groups of 12–20 members each.
3. Elect a president, secretary and treasurer, and define their roles.
4. Help each group choose a trade or profession and arrange the relevant skill training.
5. Guide groups on budgeting, savings, timely bank repayment and time management.
6. Support each group’s next step toward entrepreneurial growth.