Self-help Groups as Financial Intermediaries in India ... - Sa-Dhan

3.4 ConclusionThis section served to set out the rationale for the models adopted by the leading NGOs in anattempt to develop sustainable structures for the delivery of financial and non-financialservices through SHGs. However, several of these innovations are one-off initiativesincapable of easy replication or, as in the case of the mutually-aided cooperatives, specific tothe context of state in which they have been introduced. Set against the financial products andterms of apex microfinance agencies and wholesalers it also provided a picture of the deliverysystem for loans accessed by SHGs. The many possible combinations of formal and nonformalinstitutions that are involved in channelling funds for loans to poor families throughSHGs are a feature of a system where a suitable regulatory environment of microfinance hasnot developed and NGOs and MFIs struggle to find appropriate “models” and paths given themany constraints. In Chapter 5 we assess, from the available data, the prospects for thesustainability of these models.22