The Hindu : National : Self-help successes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2005

National

National

Self-help successes

The Kudumbashree self-help groups have benefited from decentralisation.

IF CERTAIN positive outcomes of the Kerala experience in democratic decentralisation are anything to go by, decentralisation merely provides "opportunities" for interest groups to intervene in planning and governance to ensure outcomes desirable to them. In the panchayats where such intervention has been effective, the experience has been rewarding.

The case of the 1,44,182 self-help groups of women of the State Poverty Eradication Mission, `Kudumbashree', which have utilised the opportunities provided by the decentralised local self-government institutions (LSGIs) to the hilt, is a sparkling example.

In almost all panchayats in Kerala, the women from the Kudumbashree self-help group (SHGs) literally fill the quorum for the grama sabha. It may not be a healthy trend for local democracy if this is allowed to masquerade as genuine participation of all people, but to the members of well-run women SHGs, the grama sabha is a forum where they come prepared to argue for what they want, and get.

The executive director of `Kudumbashree', T.K. Jose, told The Hindu that the SHGs supported by the Mission were able to provide "income, employment and enterprise" to so many of poor, disadvantaged women in the State only in the context of decentralisation. Decentralisation offered Kudumbashree the opportunity of accessing funds from several sources through the panchayats. The decentralised panchayats offered a myriad empowerment opportunities and Kudumbashree helped to target them to the needy.

"Kudumbashree has played a responsible role in decentralisation in Kerala, ensuring participation in the grama sabhas, helping panchayats through meticulous and rational selection of beneficiaries and by setting directions for the decentralisation process itself, leading it to hitherto unattended sectors of Kerala society," he said.

The members of the SHGs have been derided by some as "benefit-seekers" and blamed for the general public perception that decentralisation is a "programme for the poor." But Kudumbashree taps 75 per cent of its resources from the funds of decentralised LSGIs meant for women and the poor and targets it to the needy through its women SHGs that functions almost as voluntary, mini-grama sabhas for beneficiary selection.

"If the Kerala decentralisation programme's achievements so far have all been pro-poor, a lot of the credit should go to the intervention of the women SHG members in the grama sabhas," Jose said.

— R.K.

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