Here’s a success story of a woman Self Help Group (SHG) which has changed the lives of a number of women and their families in Manipur.
The SHG, Denlang SHG, which functions as a valuable bank, was formed at H Makhao village in Manipur’s Churachandpur district in 2014 with the help of the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) through Sahei Foundation.
There are 15 members including the president, secretary and treasurer in Denlang SHG.
The SHG holds meetings twice a month where each member contribution is a sum of Rs.40/- only and in each month they contribution Rs.80.
Since its inception, the SHG has been achieving good progress without any constraint.
Apart from earning income, many activities like maintaining cleanliness and medical treatment facilities are being conducted by this Self Help Group in the village by putting small dustbins.
Some of the group’s income-generating activities which were done in the previous years included mushroom culture, cultivating leafy vegetables, weaving, and poultry.
These activities were voluntarily initiated by the SHG after resolutions were taken in its meeting.
The profit through the income-generating activities goes into their group account which means the group activities are meant to benefit individuals through their group, the DoNER Ministry said in a statement.
They clearly understand that all these savings are meant for them.
Denlang SHG was formed with zero balance in 2014 but as they progress, in 2021 they have more than Rs 2.50 lakhs only as their corpus fund.
These amounts were used as a revolving fund among the members at the 2% rate of interest.
The revolving fund benefits in economic upliftment, opening of small/ medium business enterprises and as a security in times of shocks and emergency.
Nengneivah, an SHG member, took a loan from the SHG in 2015.
She took Rs. 4,000 only and used the money for starting a small poultry business. Her husband doesn’t have any permanent work to support the family but now both of them work together and have become successful.
They also expanded their business and become financially more independent than before, with those profits she manages the family needs and start a piggery and now she has 4 pigs that can be sold at a good price.
Lamneikim, 30 years, is a member of the SHG. In 2016, her child became severely sick.
She didn’t have any money to treat her child, so she took an amount of Rs. 20,000 from the SHG and used the money for treating her child.
The child was given treatment and after a few days, the child regained his health. After 3 months she repaid the money to the SHG.
Nemkhokim, a member of the SHG and her husband were engaged in manual labour at various construction sites.
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But the manual labour work hardly provided any social security to her family. In 2015, she took a loan from the SHG and invested it in buying raw materials for weaving.
The weaving turned out to be a profit-making activity.
Moreover, she took a loan again and ventured out into dairy business.
Within a span of two years, she was able to expand her business and the livestock has become a valuable asset for them. Her husband is also participating in the business.
She took a further loan with which they started a ginger plantation. At the end of the season, they sold the harvest at a good profit.
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It has enabled them to gain greater financial independence through the loan provided by the SHG.
The SHG functions as a valuable bank that supports the customers to promote their daily income-based activity.
At the individual level, the members used the money without any hesitation and initiate ventures that could benefit them.
Moreover, at the low interest of 2%, they could repay the loan.
The rules and regulations were properly followed in distribution, allocation, interest, repayment and disbursement of money.
Apart from financial needs and economic support SHG also provides more rigid social bonding among the members by sharing their problems and helping each other in times of need.
The SHG has become an asset for the village in supporting the existing institutions like the church, village authority, NaRM-G.
A member of the SHG added that their status is more independent as their husbands wouldn’t give any complaint in meetings and activity which they are engaged in instead “they give us support when we are too busy” with household works, the statement said.