KARNATAKA - of Planning Commission

Gender and Human Developmentviolence, which came down by 50 per cent. Atcommunity and societal levels, the groups wereless visible. Participation in gram sabhas improvedand this is a signifi cant step towards enlargingwomen’s community participation.The majority of the members wanted moreloans, more revolving funds and more capacitybuilding in book keeping, vocational skills,marketing, health education and gender issues.The importance of providing inputs in time wasrepeatedly emphasised by groups. The best way ofensuring that the programme shapes up to theirexpectations is to build a strong participatoryelement. The department must use these inputs toimprove the programme’s services.RecommendationsGiven the fact that SHGs are the preferredanti-poverty strategy for women, it can be concludedthat the strategy has met with some success sincegroups have reduced poverty, reached out to verypoor women and raised their awareness levelsquite signifi cantly. An important caveat is that theprogrammes have not reached the poorest womenwho are not in a position to save and who arepoor credit risks. What Stree Shakti must now dois to focus on the poorest women (BPL) who arenot getting credit for various reasons and ensuretheir needs are met by linking them with localrural wage employment programmes to build asustainable base for micro-credit. A second set ofactions must focus on strengthening/diversifyingthe vocational base and developing marketinglinkages. Ensuring that services are provided intime and effi ciently speaks of the need for bettergovernance. Gender sensitisation, literacy, healthand nutrition awareness would be the third set ofactions. All actions must be complementary, notsequential.206