A Village meeting of the SHG

A SHG meeting

Soon we were called for the meeting of the villagers. I noticed that all the attendees were women. I was later told that this was the norm for all SHG meetings as women empowerment was a proclaimed goal.

Achen presided over the meeting, Sanoj the project co-ordinator sat with him, I was called to sit along with them along with Binoy. We sat on a cot set on the verandah. The women sat on the floor in front. There must have been about 10 women who attended. I noticed some of them were young girls probably in their teens.

Mr. Raghuveer read out from a book in Hindi what seemed like a summary of the previous meetings and explained the purpose of their meeting today. The meeting was called periodically to discuss the status of the SHGs, deliberate on their issues and discuss solutions. Later Mr. Raghuveer handed over the book for achen to examine. I saw that the book had neat records of previous meetings and other matters. The documentation seemed well maintained by Mr. Raghuveer.

Achen asked the women about their issues and they began to speak - first reluctantly but after some prodding they became quite vocal. They wanted to know what had happened to the money they were contributing every month (I learnt that they would each contribute an amount like Rs.10 or Rs. 30 towards a common fund which was maintained by Mr. Raghuveer. Over the years this had accumulated into a good amount and they wanted to know how they could benefit from it) Achen explained to them that they had to themselves come up with ideas about how they want their money to be used.

Achen spoke in Hindi as he was raised in Bhopal and hence could readily connect with the audience. I learnt that Theodosius Thirumeni would also speak in Hindi and hence was really at home in these meetings.

Achen gave them an example that in another village they had started a poultry farm using their resources. One of the women came up with the idea of raising goats. It slowly developed into the idea that we could buy goats for them to raise, they would take care of it, and when it gives birth, they would raise the offsprings, but give back one of them to the pool. That seemed like an agreeable idea but they were unsure and hence they decided to discuss among themselves and let Mr. Raghuveer know about their decision.

The meeting went on for about half an hour. The teen age girls seemed to have learnt stitching and there were suggestions to use their skills somehow. Here I saw the womenfolk really coming together to take up responsibility, to stand up for their rights, to take care of their family - and I knew then - we had got this right - raising the status of the women is crucial to building up the society. Thank God for SHGs, thank God for the work of the Makodia Mission.

(Written by Mathew Samuel (Sunil), a visitor to Makodiya in January 2013)