Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

SHGs as Change Agents in Enhancing the Political Participation 319
well as go beyond their mandate of promoting savings and micro-finance
to local self-governance.
This chapter explores the participation of SHGs in village panchayats
and the outcome of this participation to see whether the process contributes
to greater agency of women. The chapter also highlights the strategies
used by facilitating organisations to organise women purposively
around a shared concern, enhancing their participation in PRIs. Such a
discussion will facilitate an understanding of the ways in which educational
inputs have enabled the SHGs as women’s collectives to exercise
their agency.
The chapter draws on the findings of a synthesis study undertaken in
2004 by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). The study,
‘The Potential of Self-Help Groups in Enhancing Women’s Participation
in Local Self-Governance’, broadly aimed to understand the acts of political
participation of SHGs in the process of governance, and analyse the
outcomes of their participation. The study specifically analysed the process
of external facilitation by the Voluntary Development Organisations
(VDOs) to strengthen their collective voice.
The study was conducted in three states, namely, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh and Uttarakhand. PRIA purposively selected Samarthan in
Madhya Pradesh, Sahbhagi Shikshan Kendra (SSK) in Uttar Pradesh and
Himalayan Action Research Centre (HARC) in Uttarakhand to study the
SHGs in their respective areas. Each of these VDOs promoted and mobilised
the SHGs for political participation. Indeed, promoting SHGs is part
of their larger programmatic goal of reforming local-level governance.
HARC in Uttarakhand and Samarthan in Madhya Pradesh chose SHGs
purposively from amongst the groups nurtured by them. HARC works
with women SHGs of Rawain, a very underdeveloped area in Naugaon
Block of Uttarkashi district. It selected five gram panchayats from this
region and seven SHGs from these gram panchayats: the Draupadi in Kimi,
Yamuna in Upradi, Raj Rajeshwari in Kotyal, Narsingh in Naugaon and
Renuka in Naitri. Samarthan purposively selected 10 groups from four
villages from amongst the 52 groups it nurtured in Sehore Block. The groups
selected for the study were: Nai Roshni and Naya Prakash from Bijora,
Lakshmi and Gyan Ganga from Bijori, Chetna and Asha from Heerapur,
and Krishna, Durga, Babita and Asha from Khamliya. Sahbhagi Shikshan
Sansthan (SSK) randomly selected gram panchayats and SHGs from two