Women in Agriculture

Lesson 47 :Programmes for empowerment of women – Myrada & Wytep

MYRADA

MYRADA is a Non Governmental Organisation managing rural development programmes in 3 States of South India and providing on-going support including deputations of staff to programmes in 6 other States. It also promotes the Self Help Affinity strategy in Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh
The Mission Statement

• To foster a process of ongoing change in favour of the rural poor in a way in which this process can be sustained by them through building and managing appropriate and innovative local level institutions based on their rights and rooted in values of justice, equity and mutual support.
• To recreate a self-sustaining livelihood base and an environmentally clean habitat and the institutions to sustain them, based on a balanced perspective of the relationship between the health of the environment and the legitimate needs of the poor.
• To promote institutions, strategies and skills through which poor families are able to exercise their rights to develop their livelihood strategies leading to food security and to secure the rights of women and children, minorities and marginalised sectors.
• To promote good governance and convergence in the PRIs that foster effective, appropriate and timely primary health care and education and which address the issues related to natural resources, sanitation and HIV/AIDS/STIs in a holistic and sustainable manner.
• To influence public policies in favour of the poor.
• To strengthen networks and linkages between and among formal and informal institutions that can foster and sustain the impact of development initiatives.

The brief mission statement that guided Myrada since 1987 is: "Building poor people’s institutions". This arose from the belief that the poor have a right to craft their own institutions which must be respected.

Goals of MYRADA:
Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger:

Formation and strengthening of Self Help Affinity Groups (SHGs/SAGs): Over 10,000 such groups have been promoted directly by MYRADA till date. Through the efforts of MYRADA and in collaboration with other institutions like NABARD, the State and Central Governments in India, and multi-lateral agencies like IFAD, UNDP, UNOPS, etc., the SHG concept has been transformed into a national and regional movement. As a result of policy influencing, lending regulations have been modified to include priority sector loans directly to SHGs and without asking for beneficiary lists or pre-formulated loan utilisation plans.

Membership in MYRADA-facilitated SHGs is over 160,000 of whom more than 95% are women. They control a Common Fund of over Rs.1.1 billion (own savings, interest earned on loans given to members, bank interest, etc.). They have advanced over 1.1 million loans amounting more than Rs.2.7 billion. Thus, they have created money in the hands of people, given them the choice to negotiate with others, to cope with adversities and to pursue their aspirations.

Promotion of non-farm skills and enterprise development is an area that MYRADA believes holds an answer to the threatened livelihoods of the rural poor in the current context of liberalisation and globalisation. The youth see a greater future in the manufacturing and services sectors when compared to dryland agriculture. MYRADA has successfully trained a number of young men and women who have since found employment as masons, electricians, plumbers, fitters, drivers, in the garment industry, as veterinary promoters, food product retailers, etc. In one location, MYRADA has also enabled a group of over 200 young women to set up a private limited company of their own – where they are the shareholders, managers, and workers – to assemble watch straps and make gold and silver jewellery. It has also set up a Technical Training Institute where boys and girls (including high school drop outs) can learn trades for employment in the industrial sector. Nevertheless, entrepreneurship development and training for employment in the non-farm sector remains an area in which MYRADA has to expand its investments and efforts.

Micro-finance activities: MYRADA has always been clear that it should not compromise its development role with the role of a financier. On the other hand, besides continued and as yet unmet needs for credit by the poor, there is enormous space for innovation in the field of micro-finance that has not yet been tapped by mainline financial institutions. Hence, MYRADA has promoted a non-banking and not-for-profit micro-finance institution called Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services. In the relatively short time that it has been in operation (since January 2000), it is partnered with over 90 NGOs and has advanced credit of over Rs.2.6 billion directly to more than 6,000 SHGs (including repeat loans to the same groups). It is now well-known in the field of micro-finance and has started to independently command the attention of others in the field, who visit to learn from its systems and field practices.

Promote Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women:

1. As already mentioned, more than 95% of the membership in SHGs is of women. The important thing to note here is not only do they now have savings in their own name, access to credit, and have experienced a rise in status coming in the wake of this money power, every member of each SHG also undergoes between 8 and 14 modules of training in a variety of topics that prepare them to face the challenges of integrating with the mainstream. To this end, MYRADA conducts more than 5,000 training programmes for CBOs each year.
2. MYRADA can take credit for organising the devadasi women of Belgaum District (Karnataka) not only to work for their own social and economic development but even more importantly, to carry out a movement through which dedications of future generations of devadasis has been effectively contained. The women now have an organisation of their own (MASS). They have also expanded their activities to include prevention of child marriage, besides which they have a legal support programme that is available to all vulnerable people and not just the devadasi members of MASS. Adoption of a similar approach directly by the Government in the neighbouring district of Bijapur-Bagalkot, and the involvement of MASS by the Government and NGOs to support similar movements in Raichur and Koppal districts have been other achievements.
3. As already mentioned in a prior paragraph, MYRADA has been instrumental in setting up MEADOW, a Private Limited Company that is owned, managed, and staffed by 200 young women. They are linked with a major watch manufacturer earn wages upward of Rs.3,000 per month from making watchstraps, assembling watches and table clocks, and crafting jewellery. Initially, MYRADA had been asked to manage this programme directly but refused on the grounds that its role was to promote the growth of appropriate people’s institutions to manage their own programmes. MEADOW had been functioning successfully for the past 8 years, has built up a good asset base (land, buildings, machinery), and has been making profits each year. The women themselves are respected as major bread earners in their families; they are taking their own decisions, are no longer under pressure to marry early, and have the freedom to do many things where earlier they were controlled by their families.
4. Through Community Managed Resource Centres MYRADA has been able to establish legal help desks in more than 25 locations, and in most locations the services are being provided mainly to women.
5. In the last 2 years MYRADA has been able to organise around 350 SHGs of female sex workers. Though this was not originally planned (the plan was only to work on HIV-AIDS issues with high risk groups), the women showed interest in forming SHGs. These SHGs are also receiving institution-building training inputs, and some of them have also taken membership in the Community Managed Resource Centres where they are well accepted by the others.