“While Poverty Persists, there is no true freedom” -Nelson Mandela

Lack of Financial Inclusion is among the most important, yet overlooked factors of poverty in rural areas. This is where SHGs come in.The concept of SHGs has been around since the 1990s, however, despite the life-changing advantages brought about by SHGs, their penetration has been fairly inadequate. SHGs are an important tool for empowering women from marginalized communities and they still continue to be among the best tools for increasing financial inclusion among the poor.But first what even are SHGs?

SHGs are informal groups of peoplewho come together to find ways to improve their lives through collective efforts. SHGs are self-governed, peer-controlled organizations.SHGs operate with the aim of building functional capacity amongst the poor and marginalized communities in terms of income and employment-generating activities. SHGs also help build social capital amongst the poor as they give them a platform to discuss and tackle social issues together.

There are currently 74.80 lakh SHGs across the country, however, the positive impact of these SHGs is still fairly low, owing to the difficulties faced by them in their day-to-day operations. For SHGs to function effectively and efficiently, they need assistance from NGOs and other social welfare organizations.

SHGs need comprehensive assistance, especially in their initial stages, and continued assistance throughout their course of operation to effectively flourish and empower women. This is where FFEC comes in.

FFEC

FFEC partners with marginalized communities to create solutions for them that can improve the socio-economic conditions of the members of the community. FFEC follows a 4-step approach to empower marginalized communities, these include-

1. Listening to the problems of the community
2. Building leadership among rural communities
3. Empowering communities through education,training etc.
4.  Partnering with local communities.

FFEC has been involved in helping women in suburbs and marginalized communities to set up SHGs. FFEC organizes training workshops for rural women and educates them regarding SHGs. The workshops follow a comprehensive and interactive approach which includes understanding the problems of the participants and educating them about how SHGs can solve those problems.

These educational workshops are an effective tool for increasing awareness regarding SHGs.

FFEC organizes workshops for women at its learning centre in Trilokpuri. These workshops see participation by women from diverse backgrounds. The workshops follow a comprehensive approach of first understanding the problems faced by these women and training them about what SHGs are. FFEC sends trainers to conduct these workshops, these educational workshops are an effective tool of creating awareness among the local communities about the benefits of SHGs.

Along with raising awareness about SHGs, FFEC also provides assistance with the necessary documentation required to setup a SHG, while also educating the members about how to manage the SHG on their own. The educational workshops go in depth into the workings of a SHG, the books maintained by a SHG and how to maintain these books, how to manage savings and loans of the members etc. This goes a long way in developing self-sufficiency among members and empowers the rural women to stand on their own and run the SHGs by themselves.

FFEC also helps the SHGs in creating income generating activities. At the learning centre in Trilokpuri, FFEC members were able to identify possible income generating activities for the SHGs based on the pre-existing skills of the members and provide them with initial raw material and expertise required to set up the income generating activities.

FFEC collaborated with the local SHG to provide them assistance regarding the income generating activities they can setup. Some of the manufacturing activities that were decided were-

1. Hair accessories
2. Small bags
3. Pouches

As mentioned earlier, SHGs today face the problem of not being self-sufficient enough and falling apart after the aid from NGOs stops. For SHGs to truly shine their light upon the people who really need it, it is of paramount importance that we build SHGs to be able up to stand up for themselves and not need hand holding after the initial stages.

SHGs are meant to give rural women independence and financial freedom, the ability to stand up for oneself in a world constantly trying to put them down, and finally the ability to be one’s own saviors. FFEC’s workshops help empower women from marginalized communities to do just that, to be able to stand on their own. SHGs formed under FFEC’s guidance have the necessary skills and expertise required to run a SHG successfully and create wide-spread positive socio-economic change for everyone involved.