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

were also found to be influential in the community with some women becomingmembers of panchayats 71 .Another major study of 72 SHGs undertaken earlier (Harper et al., 1998) - covering over1,000 SHG members in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka - too registeredimprovement in members’ diet, assets and education. This addressed the question of thebenefits to the poorest members of the SHGs. The evidence suggested that nearly allmembers benefited to some extent although the benefits to poorer members were less ordelayed compared to the better off. Thus, only 31% of the families of poorer membersincreased their assets, 44% improved their food consumption and 15% improved theireducation.On the question of the access to benefits and power of poorer members of groups, thefindings from data collected from six MYRADA groups (Fernandez, 2000), however,suggest that the poorest were not marginalised in terms of access to loans, though their loanswere mainly for consumption purposes.Among the other organisations visited, ASSEFA had attempted to study impact on SHGmembers of its women’s development programme (ASSEFA, n.d.). The study results aremixed or modest and to that extent more credible. The study covered 2,754 households (totalmembership of ASSEFA SHGs in March 2000 was 70,611 spread over 3,268 SHGs in 8districts of Tamil Nadu) using an interview schedule and survey methods. Villages coveredwere based on structured sampling and households were randomly selected. 47% of themembers were found to be from families with annual income less than Rs. 14,000, 31% fromfamilies with income between Rs. 14,000 and Rs. 20,000 and the remaining 22% fromfamilies. While there is no discussion on these figures, it is presumed that Rs. 20,000 is a cutofflevel for poor households and Rs. 14,000 for the extreme poor. It is suggested in thereport, though not evidenced from the single point mid-term project data, that the programmefailed to adequately target the poorest - which is the basic philosophy of ASSEFA.Other data from the ASSEFA study is also revealing:• Only 55% of SHGs (1,558 out of 2,834) had repayment rates of over 80% and overduesfrom SHG members were Rs. 624.44 lakhs.• 28,053 members, constituting 40% of the total, did not have access to financial assistancefrom ASSEFA projects. 72• 95% of members covered by the study reported increases in annual income and 52% havereported an increase in net worth over Rs. 10,000.• 75-85% of the respondents reported a range of social impact such as attitude of familymembers, control over additional income, self-confidence etc.None of the other organisations visited had conducted an impact assessment programmethough most said that they intended to. PRADAN is undertaking a major impact assessmentthis year as part of the Imp-Act, a three-year action research programme to assess the impactof microfinance programmes and institutions in the lives of the poor people. It is beingconducted in different parts of the world simultaneously with financial support from the FordFoundation and a collaborative implementation effort of about 20 organisations all over the71 Local self-government bodies72 A similar figure is reported for other NGO programmes.57