APMAS Self-help groups in India: Reaching the vulnerable with micro financial services Presentation by CS Reddy creddy@apmas.org European Microfinance Week Luxembourg, 13 th November 2008
About APMAS Vision: Sustainable Women Self Help Movement in India A public society began work in July 2001 A national level Resource Institution for strengthening SHGs & SHG Federations Areas of work include capacity building, rating, livelihood promotion and research & advocacy. Services provided d for a fee. Focus on SHPIs and SHG Federations
India micro Finance (mf) sector 70% of India s population does not have access to formal financial services (750 million people) Financial inclusion is critical for India to ensure sustainable & inclusive i growth More than 2,000 Micro Finance Organizations (MFOs) commercial MFIs & SHG model SHG Bank Linkage, led by NABARD is the largest micro finance program in the world. Reached 50 million poor families with MF services, another 100 million families to be reached Reach with micro-insurance is very limited Credit requirement is Rs.200,000 crore ($50 billion) Regulatory & supervisory issues exist
What is a Self Help Group (SHG) SAVINGS first model of micro finance targeting poor women 10 to 20 women form an informal group Common objective access to financial services, eventually come out of poverty Homogeneous same socio-economic status Possibly from the same neighborhood Evolve a set of norms savings, g, meetings, g, loan, repayment, py interest rate, book keeping, leadership, participation Promoted by NGO/Government/Bank Linked to Banks for loans to meet members credit needs Use SHG as a mechanism to access Government services
SHG Model Federation Village Organization Formal Banking Sector SHG Specialized Companies such as Sangamitra and Kalanjiam Development Financial Services Federation MFIs F l B ki Formal Banking Sector NGOs
Evolution of SHG movement in India Phase I: NGOs promote women SHGs as an alternative to mainstream financial institutions to reach un-reached segments of the society. Phase II: NABARD takes the lead in partnering with NGOs, particularly l MYRADA, to pilot the well-known SHG-bank linkage model. Phase III: State Governments,,particularly in the South, take a proactive role in the promotion of SHGs in a big way, by way of revolving loan funds and other support. Phase IV: SHG-Bank linkage reaches the scale of over a million bank-linked SHGs. Phase V: SHG federations emerge to sustain the SHG movement and to provide value-addedadded services. Phase VI: SHGs and SHG federations gained widespread recognition to be partners of various mainstream agencies such as financial institutions, corporate sector, and government.
India SHG movement SHG model - poverty reduction & women empowerment >5 million SHGs in the country Quality??? More than 3.5 million SHGs have loan outstanding with banks Largest MF program in the World SHG Bank linkage - loan outstanding approx. Rs.15,000 crores ($3 billion). Still problems to get bank loans in many states Savings of SHGs in banks approx. Rs.4,000 crore ($1 billion) More than 100,000 SHG federations, nascent??
India SHG movement Total SHG federations could be 400,000 (future) Promotional funds needed to achieve universalization of SHGs approx Rs.10,000 crores (>$2 billion)? GOI, NABARD, States National Council for strengthening g SHG movement established & National SHG fed. MFDEF & Financial Inclusion fund to strengthen the SHG movement SHGs seen as a strategy for financial inclusion Capacities of the SHPIs? Supportive policy & regulatory environment???
SHG Bank linkage Impact (NCEAR Study) More than 60 per cent of SHGs consist of members belonging to Below Poverty Line families. Changes in net household income between pre- SHG and post-shg registered a significant growth per year at 6.1 per cent. Across different income activities of households, livestock registered highest growth at 11.2 per cent. Per household h annual expenditure on education and health recorded 5.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent growth respectively.
SHG Bank linkage Impact (NCEAR Study) Net change in the value of consumer durable assets per household h was Rs. 4,329 between pre-shg and post-shg periods and the annual growth of assets recorded a high growth between the two periods at 9.9 per cent. The average level of savings (financial and physical savings) per households registered 14.2 per cent annual growth between base level and 2006. On an average, per household h borrowed an amount of Rs. 14,640 in the post-shg period compared to Rs. 5,384 in the pre-shg situation. The average loan amount per household grew at an annual rate of 20.5 per cent between the pre-shg and the post- SHG periods.
SHG Bank linkage Impact (NCEAR Study) On the issue of repayment of loan, the findings show 96.4 per cent of households reported regularity in repayments of loans. The share of households living below the poverty line reduced from 58.3 per cent in the pre-shg period to 33 per cent in the post-shg situation. About 92 per cent of households reported that the social empowerment of women had increased after attaining membership in SHGs over a period of time. More than 60 per cent of the households indicated that there is an increase in the ownership of productive assets in post-shg situation as compared pre-shgs situation. ti
Why SHG federations? To overcome the inherent limitations of a small unregistered group, and as part of a withdrawal strategy, promoters facilitated the formation of federations. The benefits of federations include: Those arising i from economies of scale Reduction in transaction costs Reduction in default rates at all levels Provision of value adding services Reduction in the cost of promoting new SHGs Increasing levels of financial discipline & accountability among SHGs.
SHG FEDERATIONS IN INDIA Region Type of federations PF SF TF Total Northern 121 26 0 147 N. Eastern 291 22 0 313 Eastern 21,371 784 0 22,155 Central 506 334 1 847 Western 713 1 0 729 Southern 67,655 2,285 22 69,962 Total 90,657 3,452 23 94,153
SHG Federation Model SHG Federation Village Organization/Cluster Village Organization/Cluster SHG SHG SHG SHG SHG SHG
APMAS GRADES: APMAS Federation Rating Tool Category Marks Weight G Governance 80 16% R Resources 30 6% A Asset Quality 50 10% D Design and Implementation of Systems 50 10% E Efficiency and profitability 60 12% S Services to Constituents or SHGs 30 6% SHG Performance 200 40% Overall Total 500 100%
In Conclusion SHG model reaching the vulnerable people. Some of the NGOs focus on forming SHGs of the poorest of the poor (dalits/sc/st) SHG serves as an effective tool for financial inclusion SHGs & their federations are women-owned, women-managed aged and women-used organizations - empowerment Several quality issues affecting sustainability of SHG movement, yet great potential to reach the un-reached with financial services
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