Home

Crowdfunding Countercurrents

CC Archive

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Defend Indian Constitution

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

CC Youtube Channel

Editor's Picks

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name


E-mail:



Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

 

Where Farmers Are Committing Suicides, Women Are scripting Success Stories

By Moin Qazi

15 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

“Money, says the proverb, makes money. When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more .The great difficulty is to get that little”: Adam Smith, the Wealth of Nations

Access to finance is critical for a country’s development - it is as much a part of a country’s basic infrastructure as access to roads, or electricity, or the Internet. Ample evidence indicates that economies with deeper financial sectors and well-functioning financial systems perform better.

Moreover, access to finance is an important contributor to inclusive development. Poor households in particular need access to a broad range of financial services — savings, insurance, money transfers, and credit — in order to smooth consumption, build assets, absorb shocks and manage risks associated with irregular and unpredictable income. Without access to good formal services, the poor must rely on the less reliable and often far more expensive informal sector. A growing body of evidence confirms that gaining access to finance has a positive impact on household welfare. As the great philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau says,“ Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million”

But in the cotton meadows of Vidarbha access to finance has led to debt traps which have driven farmers to suicides .There are several causes which explain this phenomena among the medium and larger farmers .In the case of marginal farmers ,it is an accepted fact that debts not just for agricultural operations but also for f social commitments have also triggered emotion problems, During my association with marginal and small farmer in Yavatmal ,once the epicenter of agrarian suicides ,I found that the new generation of farmers have lost the spirit of austerity and the changing lifestyle has inflated their debt requirements .Conversely poor women still retain, unsullied ,the savings instinct. The old maxim which says that if you are a good saver you will be a good borrower still holds true.

While handling microfinance operations in Vidarbha for several institutions I could observe an excellent credit culture among poor women who have pooled their resources and talents to form Self Help Groups. In remote crannies , poor women are pooling their talents and resources to build a new synergy of collective empowerment to transform their lives. These small clusters or collectives of women are known as Self-Help Groups.

If you want to see the credibility of poor women borrowers, you must visit villages in the suicide-prone Yavatmal district of Maharashtra where banks had to plough dud agricultural loans like a mountain of rotten potatoes. My experiences during the last few years in Yavatmal have made these convictions indelible. I was leading a credit camp for my company, engaged in housing finance through Self Help Groups in the interior tribal villages in Kelapur block. I was struck by the plight of a family whose tin roof had blown away. I offered a Rs. 5,000 loan to the women. To my great surprise, she refused, saying she would not be able to repay it. I tried to convince her to accept it and to get the interest rate further reduced by my company, but she remained unmoved. Her daughter, who was observing our interaction, told me that the mother would never take a loan, as the last time she had taken one she was already under great moral stress and had to donate blood at least two times at the nearest hospital to meet her loan instalment commitment.

In Sakhra (pop: 550; district Yavatmal), deep into the forest belt infested by tigers and other wildlife, lies an island of incredible honesty. In a village called Nagezari, almost twenty kilometres deep in that belt, a group of twenty tribal women told me that they had repaid the bank loan despite assurances from political leaders that the loans had been waived by the government. They went all the way to the bank office to check with the manager if loans had actually been waived. He told them that this was incorrect and the loans of agriculturists alone had been waived.

Sakhra is a unique example of totally illiterate backward women ensuring the rights they have been guaranteed by the law by virtue of their being forest tribals and also the protection under the laws for displaced people. Sakhra is a resettlement village in which villagers uprooted by a development project have been rehabilitated. Seventy households led by Anusaya, lovingly called Amma, have fought their way on their own. They demonstrated before the local administration for days to get a barely motorable road constructed. Each family owns six acres of irrigated land, and at least a pair of bullocks, two cows and a few goats.

"There was a time when we didn't know where the next meal was going to come from," says Mirabai Shyamrao Martawar, whose husband killed himself by jumping into a river after moneylenders pestered him for payment. "Now I save Rs rupees every month after providing for 10 members in the family.” the women are into a variety of businesses such as goat farming, community farming, running corner shops, bamboo handicrafts and glue making.

Without an income, life for these women and their children was a constant struggle for survival. Young widows were particularly vulnerable."This is a revolution," says Manoj Bhoir, whose voluntary group Village Development and Education Society facilitates microcredit for 650 self help groups. "These women are determined to repay not only the debts of their families but also provide a better life for their children."In many cases widows were thrown out by their in-laws. Only a small number were given compensation by the government after proving their husbands committed suicide."In a group we are safe," said Mastawar. "When one is in trouble the others will come forward to help."

Our experience of working with poor women emphasises the fact that work is their foremost priority, around which their lives revolve. As they say, “If we work, we survive.” Besides intermediation, all manner of self-employment—sewing, delivering small items, making handicrafts—could be facilitated with a small amount of capital for a sewing machine, a bicycle, or tools. The poor are no different from other small entrepreneurs in that managerial advice and access to business networks can make the difference between success and failure. It is clear that women’s empowerment, like many things, from the outside. Men and women must first find their own reasons and their own justifications to allow women a fuller role in society. Increasingly, they are finding those reasons within Islam. Like men, women deserve to be free. It is only a matter of time until the day comes when they [women] test their chains and break free. As Rumi says in the Mathnawi, “This woman, who is your beloved, is in fact a ray of His light, She is not a mere creature. She is like a creator”.

Moin Qazi is a well known banker, author and Islamic researcher .He holds doctorates in Economics and English. He was Visiting Fellow at the University of Manchester. He has contributed articles to Indian and foreign publications including The Times of India, Statesman, Indian Express, The Hindu, Third World Features (Malaysia), SIDA Rapport (Sweden), Depth News (Philippines), Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek (Hong Kong).He has authored several books on religion, rural finance, culture and handicrafts. He is also a recipient of UNESCO World Politics Essay Gold Medal and Rotary International’s Vocational Excellence Award. He is based in Nagpur and can be reached at [email protected]




 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated