integrating microfinance and livelihoods - the swayam shikshan prayog (ssp) experience

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INTEGRATING MICROFINANCE AND LIVELIHOODSThe Swayam Shikshan Prayog Experience

By

Sangeetha PurushothamanPreethi Krishnan

Priya PillaiMalasree Dasgupta

Best Practices Foundation

Bangalore

Date: 2 nd June 2011


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Table of contents

1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 31.2. Objectives of the study .................................................................................................. 41.3. Conceptual Framework and Methodology.................................................................... 51.4. Context ......................................................................................................................... 61.5. Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK) ...................................................................................... 71.6. Objectives of SSK ......................................................................................................... 71.7. Philosophy and Guiding Principles ............................................................................... 71.8. Institutional Processes and Coverage............................................................................ 81.9. Impact ........................................................................................................................... 81.10. Lessons Learnt ......................................................................................................... 121.11. Community Health Mutual Trust (SAST) ................................................................ 131.12. Objectives of SAST ................................................................................................. 131.13. Activities .................................................................................................................. 131.14. Impact ....................................................................................................................... 141.15. Challenges and Recommendations ........................................................................... 151.16. Sakhi Social Enterprise Network (SSEN) ................................................................ 151.17. Objectives of SSEN ................................................................................................. 151.18. Activities and Strategies ........................................................................................... 161.19. Impact ....................................................................................................................... 171.20. Challenges and Recommendations ........................................................................... 171.21. Synergies with credit, health and retail entrepreneurs ............................................ 181.22. Sakhi Retail Private Limited (SRPL) ........................................................................ 181.23. Objectives ............................................................................................................... 191.24. Activities .................................................................................................................. 191.25. Impact ....................................................................................................................... 191.26. Challenges and Recommendations ........................................................................... 201.27. Overall Strategies and Impact ................................................................................... 211.28. Focus on Livelihoods and Credit through MF .......................................................... 211.29. Social networks of women and larger Institutions ................................................... 221.30. Fostering Womens Leadership ............................................................................... 23

Combining strategies that promote women leaders-entrepreneurs through socialenterprises not only can raise awareness on critical issues but provide women with incomeopportunities to do so. Through active outreach products, women are not only able to raiseawareness but also help their communities access better healthcare and improve theirquality of life. Women who were actively engaged as arogya sakhis, field officers, sakhisand health governance monitors as well as community leaders show their collectivesupport for SSPs initiatives through melavas held annually as well as through their links tothe entities. To illustrate, every year almost 2000 women attend the melavas held by SSP,where women leaders were recognized as role models and commit to social goals. ........ 23

Womens leadership and their support is evidenced by number of women mobilized toaware of services: ................................................................................................................ 23

1.31. Capacity Building ..................................................................................................... 241.32. Convergence ............................................................................................................ 24


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1.33. Political capital ......................................................................................................... 241.34. Institutional Impact .................................................................................................. 251.35. Main lessons.............................................................................................................. 261.36. The Way Forward .................................................................................................... 271.37. Context ...................................................................................................................... 27

1.38. Empowerment .......................................................................................................... 271.39. Gender based strategies ............................................................................................. 281.40. Increasing community ownership through the federations ....................................... 281.41. Growing SSP SHG networks and community relationships ................................... 291.42. Convergence: Current and Potential ......................................................................... 291.43. Final recommendations ............................................................................................. 331.44. Summary and Conclusions ....................................................................................... 34

1.1. Introduction

The case study by Best Practice Foundation documents lessons and insights from a womensempowerment, entrepreneurship and governance approach that centres around facilitatingaccess to microfinance, livelihoods, health and other services. It examines the multipleinitiatives of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a learning and development organisationworking in rural Maharashtra and other states, primarily through the lens of empoweringwomen in poor communities in rural India.

SSP aims to bring women and poor communities from the margin to the mainstream of development by forging partnerships with institutional actors and providing technical supportfor community driven initiatives. Today, SSP partners with over 5,000 women SHGs witharound 72,000 members in 1,600+ villages across three states in India. Together, SSP,grassroots federations and social enterprises provide range of solutions/initiatives to meethealth, energy, water, sanitation, food security and agriculture needs of the poor in a changingclimate.

SSP is headquartered in Mumbai and it began its work in the economically backwardMarathwada region in Maharashtra. This region experienced a massive earthquake in 1993.Working to transform this mass-scale disaster into an opportunity for development, SSPpartnered with institutions, to develop a widespread network of women. After completion of the reconstruction project in 1998, SSP was supported by HIVOS over multiple years to formand strengthen grassroots institutions that went beyond savings and credit to build social,political and economic competencies for its women members by enhancing access to financeand markets and local institutions.

In the process of disaster reconstruction, SSP started promoting savings and credit groups toprovide economic and social capacity building support to women. However, groups couldnot leverage the volumes of credit that were actually being demanded and hence the need fora larger organizational structure came into being. Thus, the first federation was registered inTuljapur in the year 2000. The federation 1 was a three-tier structure comprising of a network of SHGs with the SHG at the village level, SHG representation at cluster level (10-15villages) and the executive committee at the Taluk level. By 2005, there were a total of 2,427

1 A federation is a network of self help groups with the Apex body at the block level with the broadobjective of empowering women and providing them with livelihood options.


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SHGs promoted by SSP, which came together to form eight federations and this strategycontinued leading to a total of 16 federations.

In 2006, SSP and the SHG network promoted Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK) as a communitydriven Micro finance Institution (MFI) with a goal to improve livelihoods for women andfamilies. From 2006 to 2010, partnering with HIVOS, SSP moved steadily from a savings &credit and micro-enterprise strategy to setting up social businesses that tap large scaleopportunities to provide sustainable livelihoods /incomes to women. SSP and the networksreadied themselves for this paradigm shift by espousing social and business models, securingcredit and capital, creating and running legal entities and building new skills sets.

Within this context, the concept of creating social businesses that could leverage and expandon the skills of women was on top of the list of priorities. SSP then nurtured 800+ womenvillage level retail entrepreneurs in as many rural villages/towns by setting up Sakhi Retail

Private Limited (SRPL) in rural Maharashtra to market a line of affordable products withhigh social impact that enhance the lives of both consumers and entrepreneurs to reach to72,000 families. Sakhi Community Health Trust (SAST) an initiative for rural families withlow access to affordable health to benefit from cashless health insurance and doorstep healthservices resulting in improved health security. Setting up a rural school of entrepreneurshipfor women and youth, building and training micro -entrepreneurs and starting an incubatorfor rural enterprises to enhance opportunities for women and young girls are key goals of theSakhi Social Enterprise Network (SSEN) entity .

1.2. Objectives of the study To understand the Micro-finance programme, Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK), and

additional non-microfinance interventions with respect to coverage, socio-economicprofile of the beneficiaries, services delivered, client satisfaction with services, and theresultant expansion of ability to make strategic choices.

To analyse the context in which the Micro Finance Institution (MFI) is operating in orderto identify legal, socio-economic, cultural and political factors that impact upon womenbeing able to access, utilise and benefit from micro-finance services and their impact onwomens ability to make strategic life choices.

To conduct an institutional analysis looking at the quality of the MFI internal procedures,policies, M&E, MIS in terms of enabling MF specific learning and reflection on: servicedelivery, product relevance, additional interventions, beneficiary/client satisfaction,knowledge of context and relevant stakeholders/resource persons/organisations that can

play a supportive role towards wider (economic) empowerment of women. To assess main lessons learned in terms of adequacy and relevance of the MF services

and additional interventions, th eir impact on wider womens (economic) empowerment,the potential sustainability of combined interventions, replicability and scalability, newinterventions that might be required, and unintended positive and negative outcomes.

1.3. Conceptual Framework and MethodologyThe basic concepts which informed this study are from definitions and frameworks of womens empowerment conceptualized by Mayoux (2005), Longwe (1989, 1991), Rowlands(1997) and Kabeer (1994) included in Appendix 2.1 and by DFIDs livelihood fram ework

(Appendix 2.2).


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The case study was conducted in three phases planning and pre-appraisal, implementationand follow up - over a period of two and a half months from November 1 st 2010 to January15 th 2011. Phase one included secondary research, planning meetings of research team withSSP staff, creation of the conceptual framework, preliminary design of instruments, pilotfield testing of instruments and finalisation of the methodology. The implementation phase of

20 days included a six day field visit, a quantitative survey of participants using and not usingmicrofinance services and the initial draft reports. In the final phase, a follow up visit to thefield along with a review of the initial draft and quality of the quantitative surveys jointlyassessed by BPF and SSP were conducted. Consequently, a second set of data collection wascarried out, to fill in the gaps and obtain the quantitative data needed to ensure a satisfactoryquality of the final sample surveyed.

The quantitative methodology was based on random stratified sampling methods, with threeequal samples of respondents (30) for those participants with a household income of less than5,000 rupees per month. This ensured that groups of comparable socio-economic status weresampled. The three samples included participants who have taken microfinance loans forlivelihoods, participants who have taken microfinance loans for consumption and participantswho have not taken loans from the MFI but were members of savings groups. Refer toAppendix 2.3 for sample of respondents by village.

The qualitative data collection and analysis included in-depth interviews with SSP staff,profiling of participants, focus group discussions and interviews with external stakeholders of the initiatives. One limitation of the quantitive methodology was the sample size of 90 whichmay not be representative of the entire population of women in SSP. Also it does notrepresent the impact on women leaders ( Sakhis, Arogya Sakhis field officers and supervisors)who were interviewed in separate FGDs. In this context the methodological framework wasexpanded to include a definition of womens empowerment that captured the new rolesplayed by women leaders, as innovators of solutions and as providers of access to servicesand products to solve large scale problems through qualitative interviews and FGDs. Thequalitative sample interviewed included separate focus group discussions with women fromthe three groups for the quantitative sample, women federation leaders, women leaders whowere in panchayats, women entrepreneurs trained under SSEN, consumers of insuranceproducts, consumers of Sakhi retail products, Arogya Sakhis , field officers, field supervisors,Sakhis or women from the retail marketing network, women farmer group representatives andtrainers (also federation members). This was supplemented by in-depth staff interviews of senior staff from SSP. The study was conducted through four visits to SSP and one from SSPto BPF.

Appendix 2.4 provides the quantitative and quantitative instruments used in this study. Theseinclude the instruments used in the interviews and FGDs for internal and externalstakeholders and participants. These instruments have been provided as a separately as azipped file.

1.4. ContextTo assess the levels of poverty among the women criteria of the official Below Poverty Line 2 indices such as annual incomes below 20,000 rupees and landholding status were examined.

2

The Below Poverty Line for rural areas was set at annual family income less than Rs. 20,000, less thantwo hectares land, and no television or refrigerator in the ninth five year plan. However in the 10 th five yearplan this was changed to look at he degree of deprivation in respect of 13 parameters, with scores from 0-4:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_incomehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_incomehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_incomehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeratorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeratorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeratorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeratorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupeehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_income


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Of the 80 who responded about 67 women (84%) reported landholdings below 4.8 acres. Theoverall status of women interviewed in SSP showed were close to the poverty line with the17% of families earning under 20,000 rupees annually. However this figure of Rs 20,000 hasbeen questioned in the 10 th five year plan as unrealistic as to support the food requirementsand does not provide much for the other basic essential items like health, education etc. That

is why some times the poverty lines have been described as starvation lines. Thus a morerealistic cut off would be at least Rs.3,000 per month or 36,000 rupees per year by whichfigure SSP sample surveyed showed 61% earning less than Rs.3,000 per month.

Need for Microfinance : Women reported a need for credit especially to enhance theirlivelihoods as the primary reason for accessing microfinance services. Earlier many reportedhaving to take loans from money lenders or relatives and in this sense the MF services filled adire need. In the current context of those who were already taking MF loans many said thatthey needed loans of higher magnitudes without which they would still need to take loansfrom other sources. They also wanted loans of varying durations according to seasonalityand fund flow from the livelihood activity which may require longer terms. Women in thesavings groups said that they had insufficient access to credit especially for livelihoods andeven those who accessed bank loans said these loans were of too small a size to enhance theirlivelihoods as they ranged between 2000 to 3000 rupees per person, much smaller whencompared to the loan size from microfinance.

Need for Additional Interventions :

A major need identified reported by all women was the need to enhance their livelihoods,which could be a reflection of SSPs focus on livelihoods. Thus the need to provide broadbased livelihood opportunities on scale emerged which translated from micro-enterprise intoSSP creating social enterprise. Several women who were engaged in livelihoods or who werepotential entrepreneurs reported the need for training on marketing.

Several women in savings groups reported not having had enough food before joining thegroups. Even now some women reported facing issues like alcoholism, inadequateinfrastructure in their villages such as electricity supply, roads, sanitation and water supply.Health expenditure was reported to be a major issue and many had taken insurance to resolvethis problem. NSS data shows that people in rural areas were able to manage only Rs.409 outof Rs.1,000 from their own income during hospitalisation, and Rs.772 out of Rs.1,000 in thecase of outpatient treatment. The remaining was collected through borrowing, loans fromfriends and relatives and even from distress sale of household assets which was confirmed by

women. SSP in their own needs assessment identified health care expenses to be a majorfactor enhancing the economic vulnerabilities of the women and their families. They alsofound that the most common reason for women accessing loans from their SHGs is forhealth-related expenditures. This established the need for health insurance and access toaffordable health services which SSP responded to through their community based, voluntaryhealth insurance programme.

The entities that were set up in response to these needs had overlapping geographies with theintent of servicing the same women and families. The microfinance initiative had reached outto 31,454 members, the largest population, while the health initiative reach 13,873 consumers

landholding , type of house , clothing , food security , sanitation , consumer durables , literacy status, labour force,means of livelihood , status of children, type of indebtedness, reasons for migrations , etc.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_Poverty_Line_%28India%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landholderhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landholderhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_securityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_securityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_securityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_durablehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_durablehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_durablehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livelihoodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livelihoodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livelihoodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livelihoodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_durablehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_securityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landholder


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in 175 villages of which 562 had taken MF loans. The retail marketing network has servicedmore than 61,000 consumers through 850 sakhis across 850 villages. SSEN has trained2,465 women of which 843 have taken MF loans. While the quantitative survey which didnot include Sakhis did not show much overlap, the interviews with Sakhis showed womenwho had benefited from at least two of the initiatives. Women have to be a member of a

group to access MF loans but to get access to health or other products and services thewomen did not have to belong to groups although many were from the same geographicalarea. One limitation of the study was that it did not target and interview families who hadreceived multiple services from all entities to assess impact. However SSP is imminentlypoised as each entity scales up to impact the same women and families with the multipleservices for health, environment, energy, and credit.

1.5. Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK)Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK), the microfinance entity of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP)was formed with the mission t o provide a range of socially relevant financial services for

rural women and their communities to help reduce poverty and to improve quality of life.

1.6. Objectives of SSK To provide a range of financial services and options to women and community members To empower women SHGs and their members to join the financial mainstream To enable SHGs and their members to diversify their livelihood systems and reduce risks

through credit plus services.

SSK began operations in 2006 with an initial capital of Rs. 42 lakhs (one lakh is 100,000)funded by SSP with federations playing some role in loan application generation initially. In2008, the entire operation was handed over to SSK where several federation leaders wereabsorbed as field officers. Over the years, SSK has evolved itself into a sustainablemicrofinance institution. Registered under Section 25 of the Company Act, SSK is a not forprofit company and therefore does not leverage funds from investors with a profit motive andmainly depends on bank loans for their working capital. SSK has leveraged funds fromprivate/public sector and rural banks. In year 2009-2010, SSK leveraged Rs. 68 million anddisbursed close to Rs. 110 million as loans.

1.7. Philosophy and Guiding Principles Focus on SHG: SSK provides financial services to its poor rural women consumers throughSHGs and urban consumers through Joint Liability Groups (JLG) 3. However, in focussing on

its primary commitment to serve the rural poor, SSK has continued to strengthen thecollective at the village level in the SHG. Sustained efforts are put to build the field officersrelationship with group members who have prevented unequal distribution of loans, increased

3 SHG is a group of 10-20 women members, who meets once a month, saves similar amounts in thegroup, has a bank account in the name of SHGs, does internal lending with the savings collected. The purposefor group formation is larger including addressing social, economic and political issues. The group ishomogenous in terms of socio economic status and group life is longer. A JLG is a group of 5 women, of similarsocio economic status whose only purpose is to receive loans. The group dissolves after loans are repaid.Savings is not mandatory, nor is internal lending. In both SHGs and JLGs, the group is given the loan and stands

guarantee for repayment and no loans are given to individuals. JLGs are not part of the federation and as theMF operations have deepened within the same villages new groups do not necessarily belong to the federation.


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transparency within groups and increased awareness of the status of loans and accountsamong the members.

Livelihood Orientation : SSK focuses on loans for livelihoods than on consumption, evidentin their loan portfolio of 95% of loans being used for productive purposes.

Registration as a non profit entity: By registering as a non-profit entity from the beginning,SSK has avoided the pitfalls of microfinance institutions which are driven by profit such ashigh interest rates and coercive recovery methods.

1.8. Institutional Processes and Coverage Coverage: The cumulative disbursement of SSK till Dec 2010 is Rs 300.44 million to 3,313SHGs and 612 JLGs reaching 31,454 members.Products: SSK has four loan products based on principles of flexibility and tailored tolivelihoods (Appendix 3.1). The products include a short term loan with a maximum size of Rs.40,000, a medium term loan up to Rs.1,00,000, a long term loan up to Rs.3,00,000 and anemergency loan up to Rs.30,000, with interest rates ranging from 20-22% with repayment

schedules ranging from 12 to 24 months.Credit-related processes: The credit related processes consisted of promotion of loans,generating of loan application, appraisal of the application, disbursement of loans, follow upand recovery. The processes have been formalised to increase transparency, build grouphealth and trust, create checks and balances and monitor groups closely in ways by whichtypical pitfalls of microfinance have been avoided. Monitoring of field officers progress isdone through the creation of incentive mechanisms that are then tracked. The overallincentive structure is provided in Appendix 3.4

1.9. Impact

The main impact of the MFI is improved livelihoods and incomes leading to a better qualityof life. Access to on time need based credit for productive activities by poor women is amajor factor. SSK operations have been strengthened by using Key Monitoring Indicatorsthat measure outreach and portfolio quality and the MFIs efficiency, productivity andfinancial viability. These indicators look at the health of the MFI. SSK has been evaluatedover the years by CRISIL and M- CRIL rating agencies. Its overall external rating hasimproved over the years. See Appendix 3.3.

Impact on Womens livelihoods and lives

An impact assessment survey was carried out with women SHG members. See Appendix.

3.5. Three groups of women were interviewed with a total sample of 90 women:1. Accessed loans from the MFI for consumption2. Accessed MFI loans for livelihoods3. Savings groups - not accessed any loans from the MFI

Focus group discussions with the same women supplemented the survey findings.

Socio Economic StatusIt was seen that microfinance initiatives had targeted poor women in small and marginalfarmer households with an annual income of less than Rs.36,000. See Tables 1.a to f inAppendix 3.5. Comparing the three groups more women in the savings groups wereagricultural labourers and less were involved in agricultural production and trading comparedto the two microfinance groups. Also the group accessing MF loans for livelihoods had a


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lower proportion of women in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Table 1b) comparedto other groups.

Economic ImpactEconomic impact has been examined looking at access and control over credit and incomes,

expanded livelihood options, changes in expenditure pattern and ability of women to makedecisions related to expenditure including assets, large and small purchases.

Access and control to credit: Women who had taken microfinance loans reported that interestrates at SSK was lower (24% per annum) in comparison to money lenders (60-72% perannum). Of those surveyed, 33 women out of the 60 said that the loan processing proceduresfor microfinance loans were simple (Table 4d). In the discussions, women who had accessedloans from the banks complained that while the interest rates for banks was lower than SSK,procedures were longer and complicated. Women preferred flexible use of loans. A third of women surveyed felt that MF loans could not be used for diverse purposes and the size of loans were usually small.

In terms of the decision to take a loan, women from all three groups said this was donethrough in consultation with their husbands and family members (Table 6g). More womenwho had not taken loan from the savings groups and not the MFI reported not consulting theirhusbands. Very few women who took loans for starting businesses did so without consultingtheir husband. This is possibly a function of both size of the loan and the fact that many of these loans financed family businesses.

Expanded livelihood options: More than 96% of SSKs loan portfolio was for livelihoodinitiatives with only 3.9% of the loans given for consumption purposes (See Appendix 3.6 forportfolio distribution). Of the total portfolio, the non farm sector was 56%. Among the loanstaken to start businesses, around 30-40% of the loans were accessed by women as first timemicro entrepreneurs. This is a direct outcome of SSKs emphasis on credit for livelihoods.Among the other activities, women were substantially involved in livestock care and milk production. In agriculture, women are primarily involved in cultivation and harvesting withmen primarily in charge of agricultural activities, assets and incomes.

By starting micro-enterprises and investing in livestock, women were also expanding theirchoices of location and time of work and are contributing substantially to the family income.In many cases, women have stopped working as agricultural labour. In the survey, about 50%of the women who were financed for business by microfinance loans reported that these loans

were used for starting new businesses. See Table 4b.

Access to income and assets for households: O ver 87% reported an increase in income as aresult of their livelihood activities funded by microfinance loans. See Table 4f. For e.g.women accessing microfinance loans for livelihoods (Rs.3,467), higher than the other groupsat Rs 2,793 and Rs 3,163. See Table 1d. There was not much change in assets reported bywomen comparing their assets now and two years ago (Table 6f). The few changes reportedwere those that women tend to have greater control over sewing machine and livestock butthese changes were marginal. Micro enterprises created the most impact for women whohad created new businesses like textile shops, tailoring business, bangle business and beautyparlours on their own and increased confidence, higher levels of skills, expanded work

choices, decreased vulnerability and creating jobs for other women. The impact on incomesbecause of microfinance livelihoods is evident in the form of increased confidence, higher


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levels of skills, expanded choices on the type of work women choose to undertake, decreasedvulnerability and even increased employment for other women. Women like Bhagirathi andBaby Shiral serve as role models for other women not just as entrepreneurs, but also throughtheir orientation to helping other women join SHGs or start businesses (Appendix 3.7).

Control over incomes by women: There was a clear difference reported in control overincomes between women who have got loans for businesses compared to other groups (Table6a). The majority of women (28 out of 30) who received microfinance loans for businessesreported having full or partial control over their own incomes, with only one woman in thisgroup reported having no control. In contrast about 7 women who had not taken loans fromthe MFI and 5 women, who had taken MFI consumption loans, reported having no control.Women reported greater control over incomes from assets such as sewing machines, flourmills, and cereal processing units, shops and live stock (Table 6b). However in the case of agricultural assets, it was largely men who had control over these assets and the incomesfrom them (Table 6b).

Women reported not having much control over expenditures on small or large purchases orover the decisions to purchase household assets. Comparing the three groups findingsindicate that women with MF loans for business had marginally higher control over smallpurchases compared to women with MF loans for consumption. The savings group had muchless control over small purchases (Table 6d). In terms of large purchases (Table 6e) mostlythe decisions rested largely with men or were jointly made. However women with MF loansfor businesses reported having some control over large purchases for their own household runbusinesses.

Overall in keeping with research findings on wider research on womens economicempowerment it was found that women had greater control over incomes from assets in theirown businesses but not over family purchases, large or small. Nor did they have control overthe decision to buy household assets.

Increase in Expenditure: Vulnerability regarding Nutrition, Health and Education: Womenacross the three groups reported an increase in expenditure for health, food, education,clothing and travel (Table 7a). More women who received MF loans for business reportedincreases in expenditure especially for food and travel (all 30 or 100%) while 27 of them(90%) reported increased expenditure on health, education, sanitation and clothing. Theother two groups also reported an increased expenditure but to a lesser extent. Women whoreceived MF loans for business attributed increased expenditure due to increased incomes

(Table 7b) while for the other groups, the highest numbers cited were due to inflation. Manywomen reported feeling less vulnerable on issues related to health or family emergencies as aresult of access to higher incomes, information and contacts and mobility linked to theirbusinesses.

Women who had taken MF loans for livelihoods had accessed insurance (more than 50% or16 women) in comparison to the other groups (13 women for the group with consumptionloans and 7 women who had not taken MF loans). See Table 7a. Of the 36 women whoreported having insurance, 13 said they got access to insurance through the MFI. SSPsinitiatives on health insurance offer social protection through reduced health expenditure, andproviding access to health care and safeguards livelihoods of households where emergencies

do not wipe out their capital base.


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The other impact found was that women reported that expenditure on women and girls hadincreased (Table 7c). More women (73%) who received MF loans for business reportedincreased or similar expenditure with no woman reporting a decrease. Fewer women in theother two groups (57%) reported increased expenditure on women and girls with somewomen even reporting a decrease.

Social ImpactThe empowerment indicators for social empowerment tested were mobility, confidence, andimproved status in the family and increased social capital as measured by support from theself help group in times of crises.

Mobility: Women reported having to travel out of their homes to visit markets, banks,panchayat and government offices, NGOs, hospitals and for entertainment. Across the boardwomen who had taken loans for livelihoods reported higher exposure and increase in socialcontacts due to visits to markets, banks, government and panchayat offices (Table 9a). Of these more women in this group also reported going to these places on their own (Table 9b).This was in complete contrast to womens earlier lives where they had not stepped out of their house.

Confidence: More than two thirds of the women who had received MF loans for eitherbusiness or consumption reported an increased status in the family as a result of joining theSHG. The vast majority of women who had received MF loans for business (97%) reportedincreased self confidence due to the SHG, compared to 80% of the women who had receivedMF loans for consumption and 70% who belonged to the savings groups.

Social Capital: All women were received MF loans for business or consumption reported thatthe time spent in the groups was useful and they had received support during times of difficulty (Table 2b). Higher number of women in the savings groups reported receivingsupport for problems such as sickness, lack of food, payment of school fees, householdquarrels, than women who had taken MF loans (Table 2c).

Political ImpactPolitical empowerment was measured using indicators such as voting, independent casting of votes, participation in Gram Sabhas and participation in elections (contesting local elections).See Table 10.

Voting patterns: Most women reported casting their vote in the last elections (97-100% of all

three groups). The majority of women in all three groups (97%) said they caste their voteindependently deciding who to vote for.Participation in GS: A third of the women who received MF loans for business said theyparticipated in Gram Sabhas (public meetings) but only 10 percent of the women in thesavings groups reported participating in Gram Sabhas.Participation in elections: Very few women said they contested elections and of those whodid they were more were from the savings groups (10%). No woman from the MF group forlivelihoods said they ran for elections.Overall in terms of political participation there seems to be high participation in voting butmuch less participation in Gram Sabhas or in contesting elections.

Interviews with federation women leaders showed that many were elected village presidentsor members. Many federation leaders were seen to have evolved into politically active leaders


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showing that synergi es with federations would be vital to increase womens politicalparticipation and leadership in development.

1.10. Lessons Learnt

The emphasis and focus of SSK on lending for livelihood purposes has the potential to resultin greater economic empowerment of women as compared to other MFIs, where loans areprimarily taken for consumption or household expenditures.

Relevance and Product DifferentiationThe SSK management already identified the need for a nuanced livelihood analysis based onseasonality of agriculture, higher investment for agriculture equipments and infrastructure,loans for housing repair and construction, etc. Analysis is planned of micro businesses andrevenue streams of the varied livelihoods to tailor MF products to better suit the needs of consumers. Currently SSK has already piloted tailored products such as agriculture loan witha different repayment cycle appropriate to crop. They are planning relevant products for

dairy, agriculture infra structure and agriculture working capital. They are also buildingpartnerships with organisations such as Milaap which sources social funds at a lower interestrate which can be on-lent for housing, health and education at lower interest. This has beenpiloted with sakhis from Sakhi Retail Private Limited who received loans at lower interest(12% in comparison to 22% of normal microfinance loan) for their business.

Social Relevance of the microfinance activitiesSSK would have to develop KMPs that fit with its overall mission which should translate intosocial incentives for staff at all levels where performance can be assessed not just on theirown organizational performance but also on their contribution to other verticals and for socialissues. A strong set of gender related inputs conscientisation and awareness of rights forMF consumers and field officers - orienting men and women to permit womens freedom of choice and mobility would add great value in improving womens overall empowerment.Synergies with the federation and SSP would help SSK achieve this objective. A strongergender related institutional focus and a deeper, sustained effort on building the capabilities of the women to run businesses through better integration with SSEN could produce many morewomen run and owned businesses.

1.11. Community Health Mutual Trust (SAST)

To increase access to health services and social protection for the poor, SSP promotedcommunity-owned Health Mutual Fund (HMF) which later evolved into Sakhi ArogyaSamudaya Trust (SAST). Women are centrally involved as service providers and create ademand for improved health services by forming health governance groups in their villages.With the active participation of the community federations, SAST was legally registered inMay 2009, to focus on health initiatives preventive and promotive health care, healthinsurance and monitoring of health services providers.

1.12. Objectives of SAST To promote preventive and curative care in low income segments in rural/urban areas. To set up and operate comprehensive health services and insurance to provide low cost

and quality health care for poor communities in rural and urban slums.

To provide preventive health care trainings and referral services.


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To establish doorstep services through community based health entrepreneurs ( ArogyaSakhis ).

To increase womens leadership in participation and monitoring on health care services.

1.13. Activities Arogya Sandhi or Community Health Trust Fund: The Community Health Mutual Fundwas initiated by SSP with Sakhi federations in 2006. Later, SSP converted the CommunityHealth Mutual into a partnership model with aninsurance company. A rogya Sandhi or anopportunity for health was launched as acomprehensive health services and insuranceproduct in January 2009 with Swasth India Services(SIS), a for profit health venture. This model changeallowed SSP to provide one window services outpatient health care and hospital coverage at

affordable prices to those women and families withlow access to affordable health. The members pay anaffordable annual premium Rs. 750 which issubsidised further for the poor. They are entitled to afamily coverage of Rs. 30,000 and accidental deathcover. Other benefits include discounted doctor fees,drugs, compensation for wage loss, and onsitereferral services from Arogya Sakhis or communityhealth entrepreneurs. In addition, the Trust has setup Sakhi Clinics which provide out patient services,similar to public health centres in areas with limitedhealth care.. Box 4.1 provides the key features of theInsurance programme, details of which are inAppendix 4.2.

As of December 2010, the fund has around 13,873people enrolled in 175 villages, with membercontributions of Rs.18.7 lakh serviced by 16empanelled hospitals (Appendix 4.3), 18 empanelleddoctors, in turn linked to 18 pharmacies, 1 SAST pharmacy and 2 Sakhi clinics.

Health Governance and Monitoring: The Health Governance Groups (HGGs) constitutedof women leaders from SHGs, act as monitoring groups that hold the public health services(PHCs, Taluk and District Hospitals) accountable to the community. Members are madeaware of their rights on public services and actively encouraged to access the PHC forprimary care thus increasing the demand for its services, forcing it to be responsive to thecommunity. Till date, around 25,000 women have been reached with AIDS testing, educationand follow up care.

1.14. Impact

The impact of the SAST initiative is clear in improved access to quality health care, reducedhealth expenditure and decreased vulnerability among consumers.

Box 4.1: Features of the Arogya Sandhi(Insurance Programme)

Group Insurance for a family of 5 members.

Differential pricing for BPL (Rs.450-Rs.800) and APL (Rs.750-Rs.1100) families.

Rs.30,000 coverage for family flouter &Rs.10,000 coverage per illness.

Cashless hospitalisation (requiringminimum 24 hours stay) at empanelledhospital.

20-30% discount on OPD consultationsfrom empanelled general practitioners andspecialists

30-40% discount on tests conducted fromthe diagnostic labs in the network

30% discount on drugs at identified drugsdispensing centres

Accidental death cover worth Rs.25,000 Rs.50 per day as compensation for wage

loss from the 4 th day of hospitalisationonwards subject to an upper limit of 15 days .

Sakhi Clinics which provide out patientservices, similar to PHCs in areas with limitedhealthcare.


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Improved Access to Affordable Healthcare ServiceOf the total members, 457 women made claims worth Rs.20 lakhs exceeding the totalcontribution. They were supported at the backend by the public health insurance policy(UHIs). Members benefit from services during in and out-patient treatment, are provided withextensive information about places to access treatment, made aware about their rights. SAST

recorded a renewal rate of 55%, which shows the relevance of the insurance product for thepoor.

Creating Health Entrepreneurs to earn sustainable incomes Arogya Sakhis earn a fixed income and a commission (between Rs.35-70 per policydepending on the premium) for every member enrolled. On an average working a few hoursa day, Sakhi, earns around Rs. 500 to 1,000 per month.

Decreased Vulnerability and Improved Health SecurityMembers reported that insurance has reduced vulnerability, increased confidence duringhealth crisis, and mitigated the need to borrow during health emergencies. Per household,OPD services usage resulted in a savings of Rs.250.

Improved Public Healthcare ServicesSAST ensures better accountability and monitoring of public health services through thenetwork of womens collectives with the health governance group s in each village lobbyinggovernment agencies for better water, sanitation and health services. The mechanismfacilitates a higher quality and more affordable primary care resulting in an improvedhealthcare experience for the rural poor.

Creating Health LeadersThe Arogya Sakhis are simultaneously health leaders and entrepreneurs who provide doorstephealthcare services - curative and preventive - to the community. These include basicconsultations, first aid and emergency care, informed referrals, maternal and child care andeducation on the importance of health insurance.

Health Prevention Education and Community Health AwarenessThe community is provided preventive healthcare knowledge (good water and sanitationpractices, hygiene practices, healthy eating habits etc) through SAST, supplemented withactivities from other SSP entities (sale of water purifiers for safe drinking water, bio-fuelstoves and organic fertilisers from SRPL and growing of nutritious vegetables through theKrishi ghats , which are groups of women farmers) which help advance its application in theday-to-day lives of the community.

1.15. Challenges and Recommendations Effective Utilization and Sustainability of the Health Programme

Sustainability of initiative is a function of the increased membership to achieve breakevenpoint, after eighteen months. Several factors are at play: (a) Affordability : Total claims oftenexceed the contributions, showing it would be difficult to lower this cost. (b) Continuousinvestment on product promotion to create consumer demand and intensive training of Sakhisor community health workers to reach out and market to consumers more effectively.Deepening penetration in existing geographical areas, with a later focus on horizontalexpansion could be a viable strategy so that services provided are met by costs to achieve abreakeven point in cost centres.

Primary preventive


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To make preventive care effective and integral with (a) higher involvement and (b)even spread of healthcare costs.

Enhanced community ownershipThe current initiative needs to step up awareness of health and social protection to assist in

lowering costs, better and appropriate utilization of product benefits and reduce incidence of preventable diseases.

1.16. Sakhi Social Enterprise Network (SSEN)In keeping with its larger focus on livelihoods and women led enterprise strategy, SSPinitiated a Business Development Services. Over three years, the unit provided women SHGmembers a forum for exchange with peers, skills and local business support besideshandholding to go to market. It was formally legalised as Sakhi Social Enterprise Network (SSEN), in 2009 as a non profit Company. The main goal of SSEN is to function as anincubator for rural social enterprise through which women can expand their livelihood

options.

1.17. Objectives of SSEN To scope, identify and convert opportunities in Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) economies

into business ideas and plans in partnership with local entrepreneurs. To build a culture of entrepreneurship To launch a Rural Entrepreneurship School and Business development services to

integrate women and youth into markets. To mobilize and leverage the resources of different stakeholders and institutional actors in

the ecosystem, through strategic partnerships and alliances.

1.18. Activities and Strategies SSEN operates through three verticals: (a) an Entrepreneurship School which focuses onentrepreneurship development (b) a Vocational school focusing on vocational training and

placement, and (c) Go Direct, which prov ides services to government and corporate that canalso serve to subsidize the costs of the first two verticals.

School of Entrepreneurship: The school aims to inspire, educate and launch newentrepreneurs, build a culture of entrepreneurship, create business ecosystems structured forsuccess and incubate scalable models of community entrepreneurship for replication, for

women and youth from marginalized communities. To achieve these objectives, SSENconducts needs assessment to understand aspirations and assess demand for further training.The school has piloted locally designed and delivers entrepreneurship development throughcommunity entrepreneurs who double up as trainers.

Entrepreneurship training is at two levels. Level 1 is the Entrepreneurship AwarenessProgramme (EAP) which provides exposure to enterprise possibilities. Level 2 is the

Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) provides specific enterprise skills to womenaccording to local needs. SSEN is now is in the process of setting up the School of Rural

Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Start Up! A pan India organization that incubatesnew ideas and models of social change. The Schools goal is to educate, inspire and help

women and youth launch socially-minded micro-businesses by developing theirentrepreneurial skills and mindsets. SSEN has sought knowledge partnerships with the Best


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Practices Foundation, Dharwad School of Management and the Tata Institute of SocialSciences. This could result in recognition and certification for grassroots entrepreneurs, andaccess to expert trainers and a time tested curriculum MOVE ((Market Oriented ValueEnhancement) which is a marketing and business management course tailored to landless,asset-less women and youth.

Incubating collective enterprises: 500 women from Nanded district started collectives toproduce and market organic vegetables and seeds. Federation members travelled fromanother district and started the same. Exposure visits to Agricultural University andgovernment extension centres helped improve agricultural productivity and exposed first timewomen farmers to technology and markets. These farmers now liaise with local governmentsand act as resource persons to advocate the importance of environment friendly farmingmethods.

Vocational Training School: Expanding its constituency SSP piloted and launcheddemand based training for young girls and boys who have completed their schooling.Connecting rural youth to local industries and the service sector, SSEN introduced gap fillingcourses and placement services thereby professionalising its services for a new segment.

For three years, demand based IT skills mobile centres were run in partnership withMicrosoft reaching out to over 500 youth in remote villages. In 2010, SSEN partnered withthe Government and DB Tech a pan India technical education entity to impart computerliteracy, retail management and career counselling.

Rural Marketing: An important revenue source, it designs and executes together with SakhiRetail, an end to end rural marketing and communication services tapping into corporate andgovernment agencies. Branding of products, market research, video clips, rural advertising,consumer feedback surveys and test marketing have increased SSPs bandwidth in thecorporate world.

1.19. Impact SSEN strengthens the business acumen of SHG/Federation members to start new businessventures or upgrade existing micro-enterprises. Until 2009, large numbers of womenmembers who took loans, gained business skills and confidence. Women moved up fromrunning micro to small enterprises with small investments. By March, 2010, SSEN hasdeveloped specific economic skills where:

30,000 women are exposed to enterprise development through EAP training 2,465 women have undergone EDP training 960 women were trained in retail sales, promotion and customer relations 970 youth were trained in computer literacy 122 youth were trained through advanced computer courses (hardware and

networking) who now engage in computer maintenance of those centres and othercolleges in their area. 4

Most new entrepreneurs reported increased confidence to move out of the house and travelalone due to the business venture. Additionally, they learned to save, conduct bank

4 Ibid:p.9


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operations, and have access to markets. See Appendix 5.1 for evidence of womenentrepreneurs increased access to incomes.

1.20. Challenges and Recommendations

Building a market oriented, demand driven curriculum

There is a need to create more demand driven businesses and for trainers themselves to betrained in market oriented business skills development. While the impact on the lives of newentrepreneurs in terms of their capacity to make decisions and choices was evident, the actualrevenues and marketability of products as an outcome of the training could be higher.

Some trainers voiced concerns that out of 30 women who had taken skills training on soyaprocessing; only three women had ventured to start a new business despite it being explainedas a profitable. Another trainer also reported that many women had started detergentsbusiness in large groups thereby reducing profitability.

In this regard SSEN has already begun on a entrepreneurship approach instead of a enterpriseskills training that aims to change the mind set of women. Partnering on the MOVE, a marketoriented course is expected to show stronger results in terms of improving profitability of enterprises. The revised fee based 3 month module with business counselling for a year willpush women to analyse the market first instead of just starting and improving existingbusinesses.

Developing a cadre of business and market oriented trainersTraining of trainers is vital to ensure business orientation and build their marketing skills. Inprevious experiments with business development training, Best Practices Foundation hasfound that federation and SHG women were eminently capable of training entrepreneurs onbusiness provided that they themselves are rigorously trained in these skills. The necessaryhuman resource is due to the lack of a strong demand for SSEN services and therefore lowscale. SSEN needs to develop a cadre of master-trainers who could train women and providebusiness nurturing services, and thereby build sustainable livelihoods. Federations cansupport SSEN through active marketing and promotion.

1.21. Synergies with credit, health and retail entrepreneurs SSEN has the highest potential to build synergies by training rural entrepreneurs. Greatersynergies could be developed between trainers and loan officers from SSK .Potentialentrepreneurs identified by SSK could be trained and credit given through SSK and thepotential borrowers can access training prior to accessing loans.

1.22. Sakhi Retail Private Limited (SRPL)The journey began in early 2005, when Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) was exploringsolutions to alleviate the physical drudgery and health hazards associated with fuel collectionand cooking of rural women. At the same time, British Petroleum (BP) was seeking NGOpartners to enter new and emerging markets in safe, eco-friendly energy.

Utilizing this co- creation opportunity, BP and SSP went to rural womens groups tounderstand their needs in the household energy sector. Research at the grassroots level and


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rural womens direct involvement led not only to a product concept, but also to a deliverymodel involving womens groups in every business aspect. This led to the formation of a for profit entity to stock and distribute the bio fuel stoves. At the same time, SSP in the HIVOSsupported project had initiated a door to door sales of high quality, locally procured groceryitems through federations. In January 2009, Sakhi Retail was established rural marketing and

distribution social enterprise with SSP linked promoters and women as shareholders. Thiswas envisaged as one platform to nurture village level women entrepreneurs and increase thedistribution network and move towards profitability by reducing overheads.

Sakhi Retail was established with the aim of providing consumer education and raisingawareness of rural low income households on use of clean, green appliances, eco friendlyfuels and other energy products. The lack of markets, resources and competitive productsoften presented constraints for scalability of business of women. Increasing interest of corporates in rural markets was an added impetus and opportunity that SSP used to establishSakhi Retail to augment the income of women. 5 SSP started linking grassroots women'snetworks ( sakhis ) as village level entrepreneurs directly with corporates. With BritishPetroleum, SSP co-created the Oorja Stove, a smokeless stove operating on bio mass fuel.Corporate partners include Godrej, HUL,Honeywell, First Energy, SELCO solar homelighting, D. Light, OGP Nutraceuticals, and Olive Mobiles.

1.23. Objectives To empower local women as retailers Sakhis To distribute needed products to rural, low income households To develop supply chain for remote rural markets To incubate products designed and tested with rural women To educate consumers on clean, efficient energy products

1.24. Activities Identification of Products : The criteria for product selection is clean, green, affordable,quality products that the community needs but are not necessarily aware of, which entailseducating the consumer. Today, SRPL also targets products, unavailable in local markets.Selection of products is based on customer feedback collected through top selling sakhis. Onan ongoing basis,SR surveys on shopping patterns of rural consumers to identify relevantproducts. By engaging with multiple corporates on a range of products, SRPL has enabled therural poor to access quality products at affordable prices.

Building the Network of Sakhis : Sakhis with business acumen from rural communities areselected. They have an assigned sales areas with a guaranteed customer base of 500-1,000households. To prevent competition, one sakhi is not allowed to sell in a village whereanother sakhi is operating. Each Sakhi makes an initial investment of Rs. 10,000 to purchasethe initial stock of goods. They earn commissions on sales and utilize part of their profit forsubsequent purchase of stocks.

Distribution Strategies: SRPL began with the strategy of door to door sales through sakhis which over time expanded to show rooms to showcase products for direct sales from walk incustomers. The door to door sales strategy capitalises on the standing of the sakhi and the

5 SSPs proposal to HIVOS 25 th November 2005


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communitys trust in them. Recently, institutional sales for products such as Jumbo Stovestargeting restaurants and hostels, has also begun.

1.25. Impact

The impact of the retail network can be seen at different levels: that of the individualentrepreneur - the sakhi , on the community through the consumer and on the institutionthrough a sustainable social enterprise model. Currently SRPL reaches 64,000 customers in735 villages in five districts supplying more than ten relevant /need based products in missiondriven sectors water, bio fuels, solar energy, organic agriculture etc.

Impact on the Sakhis SRPL has created a network of more than 850 rural women entrepreneurs, who have beenable to earn a monthly income ranging from Rs.750-3,000, thus contributing to familyincome. See Appendix 6.1 for evidence of women entrepreneurs increased access to incomes.The Sakhis use the products that they sell and in the process develop a strong awareness of

their health and environmental impact. Many have become a community leader-cum-educatorpursuing the goals of creating a better environment for her community. In a study done byCatalyst Management Services in May 2008 sakhis reported several benefits from running theretail business including earning more incomes and acquiring business skills. However inrecent years some sakhis reported that declining sales of Oorja stoves and biomass pelletsneeded for these stoves. Sakhis found it difficult to sell products, both because of the growthin prices and competition from other products. Despite this, many continue to beentrepreneurs through other businesses because of skills gained through SRPL. Focus groupdiscussions and interviews showed two clear trends, the first being, the growth of entrepreneurship and second being the difficulties in sales of the SRPL products and theviability of the business itself over time. Both consumers and sakhis reported that the pricingof the products especially of bio fuel pellets and solar lanterns, water purifiers as expensivefor the rural markets.

Impact on the CommunityProducts have positively influenced the lives of close to half a million rural women andhouseholds. (a) bio-fuel stoves have reduced the drudgery and time spent on collectingfirewood and cooking, leading to saving of fuel and decreasing medical costs of women (b)nearly 2,00,000 rural households are now aware about safe and clean drinking water,renewable energy and advantages of organic farming (c) nearly 3,500 have installed solarlighting and benefited from increased farm productivity and education of children (d) almost64,000 rural homes benefited from a reduction of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissionthrough the use of smokeless stoves (e) nearly 10,000 people have a solution of safe drinkingwater.

Impact on the Institution and Building new modelsSRPL has emerged as an independent identity after going through several phases of development as a rural retail marketing network: Phase 1 of building the rural supply chain,Phase 2 of building product partnerships and Sakhi model and network and Phase 3 of moving towards profitability. By developing a revenue model, SRPL has managed to becomeself sustaining and is no longer dependent on external grants. The partnership between SRPLand corporates has created a social enterprise model for other NGOs to emulate and redefine

terms of association with corporate. Simultaneously SRPL offers insights for corporates onlast mile delivery through community agents. SRPLs distinguishing feature is that its focus


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remains pro-community and pro-women and pro-community. SRPL serves as a uniquebridge between civil society and private sector that allows a win-win situation for bothcompanies to reach rural markets and civil society to generate employment opportunities forcommunities that it serves. The primary impact of the SRPL model from the institutionalperspective has been the capacity to achieve both scale and sustainability.

1.26. Challenges and Recommendations Sustaining incomes for the sakhis:

The declining incomes of sakhis could indicate a possible mission drift due to the focus onbuilding a sustainable revenue model. To address this issue, SRPL has diversified products intheir portfolio, identifying products which provide the scope for repeat sales like waterpurifying tablets from Aqua Tab from Medentek, and agricultural input products likefertilizer. These products enable sakhis to have a steady incomes, maintain an ongoingrelationship with their consumers through which even introducing new, affordable productswill be easier. However, a critical first step towards ensuring that the benefits going to sakhis

remain substantive would be for SRPL to regularly track sakhi incomes which at present isnot systematically done.

Ensuring control of income to sakhisThe involvement of male family members with the business of the sakhis would need to beexamined carefully over time to assess its impact on sakh is control over their incomes.Through its selection process and through the sales process, SRPL has prioritised promotingthe Sakhi as an entrepreneur.

Affordable and relevant productsSRPL has to continuously focus on the affordability of the products and tailoring the productportfolio to be more relevant for rural communities. SRPL is also well aware of this and istrying to source pellets closer to the customer base to lower transportation costs. Similarly,the strategy of being the retail network for competitive products from corporates seeking toenter the rural market has contributed to lowering prices. SRPL has also made it a norm toensure that consumer feedback is obtained to ensure relevance of products. SRPLdifferentiates itself from kiranas and other rural networks by ensuring that their productswould be affordable, relevant and not easily accessible with strong social impact.

Synergy with other verticalsSRPL currently has piloted eight sakhis who have taken loans from SSK at a lower interestrate for future scalability. With corporate investment SSEN could train drop out sakhis onbusiness skills. SSEN would need to conduct a needs assessment of sakhis to create coursesthat are relevant for them.

For sakhis to benefit from health insurance initiative, SRPL has been considering the healthinsurance with investments from sakhis and SRPL. SRPL in Tuljapur is piloting the sales of both products and health insurance policies through the Sakhis to increase their incomes andto forge synergies with SAST.

SRPL being a for profit company, can use profits from SRPL for the benefit of the womensakhis. The SRPL board currently have sakhi or federation representation but has an AdvisoryCommittee with women leaders.There is a need to consider w omens participation at thislevel, to ensure accountability to its mission.

Sustainability of the organization


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Being an innovation in the rural marketing sector, SRPL as a social enterprise is establishingitself within the commercial business community. It takes time for the business communityand the banks, to understand this model and the need to invest in SRPLs capital requirement.As a social enterprise which aims at investment in the community and aims to enhancewomens livelihood and income. T he future challenge is to build a revenue model that can

interface with corporations as well as create a space for community decision-making.

1.27. Overall Strategies and ImpactSSP has developed a series of unique strategies around and livelihoods enterprise for women.These include a combination of social enterprise, developing principled partnerships andfostering economic leadership. The section below outlines the strategies and their impact.

1.28. Focus on Livelihoods and Credit through MF The focus on liveli hoods as evidenced by 96% of the MF portfolio has resulted in womens

economic empowerment and impact. Increased access to credit and incomes due to improved livelihoods strategies in the non-

farm sector is evidenced with the average income of women accessing microfinance loansfor livelihoods (Rs.3,467) being higher than women who have used loans forconsumption and not taken MF at Rs 2,793 and Rs 3,163. (See Table 1d and Chart 3.3.)

Women having increased access to skills as reported in the FGDs especially businessskills and financial and group management.

Increased expenditure on health, education and food : More women who received MFloans for enterprise reported an increase in expenditure especially for food, health,education and travel (90-100%). (See Table 7b).

Reduced vulnerability: Access to insurance reported was the highest (more than 50% or16 women) among the group which had taken MF loans for livelihoods as compared towomen in other two groups (13 women for the group with consumption loans and 7women who were part of savings groups). (See Table 7a). Of the 36 women whoreported having insurance, 13 said that they got access to insurance through the MFI.SAST, by reducing vulnerability through the reduction of health expenditure, andproviding access to health care also safe guards livelihoods of households whereemergencies do not wipe out their capital base.

Overall evidence indicates that women who had taken MF loans for livelihoods had improvedstandard of living, decreased vulnerability and increased choice for overall development.

1.29. Social networks of women and larger Institutions The overriding approach across SSP was that there should be more investment in womenleaders, village entrepreneurs, who through their own increased awareness on health,environment and energy were able to transmit the information to the community at large. Aunique feature of SSP, which is apparent across all verticals, is its capacity to promoteprincipled partnerships with large corporations, banks, insurance companies, NGOs as well asgovernment. The partnerships with corporate, entrepreneurs and women have resulted in aseries of learnings and social impact.

Increased access to health for women and their families and education of children asindicated by increased expenditure reported above. The increased access affordable


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health care services is seen in 13,873 members through SAST who had availedcommunity health programme. The core of this effort is the partnerships with health careproviders, pharmaceutical companies and insurance agencies that have enhanced qualityhealth care for poor.

Increased choice of quality products which were also environmentally beneficialevidenced by the sales of 70,000 Oorja stoves, in areas where incidence of water bornillness very high, conserving energy and electricity and selling organic manure, SRPL ispromoting sustainable natural resource management practices, improving the health of thesoil and increasing its long-term fertility while simultaneously producing nutritiousvegetables. This practice is complemented by organic farming initiatives of the federationof 500 women farmers who, through a collective farming and marketing.

Increased awareness of environment, health and energy among 2,55,000 families wherethey reside. Health awareness in the community is promoted through SAST to ensurepreventive health as well as to create awareness of their rights and demand for the use of the public health delivery system.

Increase in social capital as evidenced by the 45,000 women in strong groups observed inSSK. Campaigns on social issues such as sanitation and alcoholism reported by federationleaders also pointed to the evidence of womens participation in social issues. Healthgovernance groups actively monitoring local institutions and promoting health awarenessare other examples of social interventions by groups. SAST, by following a revenuemodel, funds 175 sakhis to do health promotion and provide space to facilitate groups formutual support for women to address social issues beyond just the mandated health focus.Women in groups where SSP has dealt with social and village development issues whichwas not clearly evidenced in the groups formed only for microfinance.

Increased Recognition by Government: SSP has partnered with the government KrishiVigyan Kendras, Universities and with NABARD to get women recognised as farmers toprovide technical support for increasing productivity in vegetable and dry land agriculturethrough onsite demonstrations and workshops. Women who are traditionally notrecognized as farmers and producers are now earning this recognition from government.SSP partners actively with the public health on HIV/AIDS awareness, womens healthand making primary health centres accountable to poor communities.

Credit based partnerships to expand loan products for women SSK has built partnershipswith banks, specifically public sector banks and agencies such as Milaap to obtain fundsat lower interest rates. These partnerships have helped to tailor loan products foragriculture innovations, short term working capital products for women entrepreneurs,

etc. SSK is in the process of building new partnerships for creating loans for housingrepair and new housing.

Partnerships to expand women s skills SSP has a partnership with Don Bosco Tech (DB-Tech), India to train youth and women and link them to the industry and service sector.

This indicates the expanded choice available to women as a result of access to socialnetworks, credit and social capital.

1.30. Fostering Womens Leadership

Combining strategies that promote women leaders-entrepreneurs through social enterprisesnot only can raise awareness on critical issues but provide women with income opportunities

to do so. Through active outreach products, women are not only able to raise awareness butalso help their communities access better healthcare and improve their quality of life. Women


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who were actively engaged as arogya sakhis , field officers, sakhis and health governancemonitors as we ll as community leaders show their collective support for SSPs initiativesthrough melavas held annually as well as through their links to the entities. To illustrate,every year almost 2000 women attend the melavas held by SSP, where women leaders wererecognized as role models and commit to social goals.

Womens leadership and their support is evidenced by number of women mobilized to awareof services:

61,454 women improve livelihoods and income

85,000 women directly using products (bio fuels, solar energy, safe water, organicagriculture) that change their lives

20,000 women and families improving their health and social protection

3,00,000 women receiving information and aware of products and services, livelihoodopportunities and financial literacy.

Women leaders partner with SSP to play the roles of educators, promoters, monitors,innovators and change agents. Women leaders who have standing in their communities arethe key intermediaries as Sakhis and microfinance officers and community promoters.Collective leadership is built on health governance, social issues, community resilience andlocal governance. Federations reported that in several villages, womens groups worked withtheir local governments for total sanitation, run campaigns on alcoholism, monitor rationshops thereby promoting /strengthening womens involvement.A fellowship by federations to support upcoming leaders has resulted in grassroots innovationlab. Over a year, women leaders form a peer cohort and take on localized innovations. Theyare supported by experienced federation leaders through regular visits and review meetings.This has resulted in a second line of bottom up leadership. Several emerging innovations

have been scaled up by women themselves. Promoting women to be innovative in organicfarming of vegetables is one such experiment that includes over 2,000 women farmers acrosstwo districts. Other women leaders took on the task of ensuring that their village became100% open defecation free. Grassroots leaders, se e themselves as change makers, developconsensus for their ideas among their groups and apply for the Leadership fellowship to theFederation on behalf of their group and/or villages. Women SHG leaders bring the prioritiesto be addressed outlining how th ey will do it and educate their communities. 6

1.31. Capacity Building SSP and the social enterprises builds capacities of women to become credit worthy andbusiness ready. SHGs are providing with training on financial literacy, group management,

and their skills of bookkeeping and accounts improved. Vocational training for youth andentrepreneurial skills for potential entrepreneurs are provided. Elected members and womensgroups are trained to advocate with local authorities. It also provides inputs on governancethrough its mobile-based initiative on gram panchayat to women. Sakhi Retail and SSENprovide business, marketing and communication skills to sakhis and SHG entrepreneurs.

1.32. Convergence Convergence are best seen across SSP in the common approaches adopted by all the socialenterprises. Across these enterprises, the common features are:

Build a core group of women leaders who are socially conscious namely the sakhis

6 Sakhi Federations - Groots India Network: Leadership Fund, SSP Documents


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Build sustainable business models Provide permanent or long-term livelihood opportunities Overlapping geographies to maximise social impact through access to multiple

services including health, education, credit as well as improved livelihoods and livingenvironment.

1.33. Political capital Political impact has been seen in the form of women SHG leaders energising localgovernance by raising womens priorities in Gram Sabhas and on key issues such as healthand education. Women have also contested and won elections, although to a lesser extent.There is greater recognition of the roles playe d by womens groups by the DistrictAuthorities. Women have transformed delivery of basic services by monitoring of water andsanitation facilities, civil supplies for poor families, planning for primary health services andvillage planning processes. Such recognition from government officials is an indicator of their governance capacities.

1.34. Institutional Impact The origin of these entities had their roots in the federations with each entity growingindependently to go on scale with the required managerial and professional skills. Thedifferent entities are set up with independent processes and systems and leadership. Eachentity had its own independent source of revenue and has achieved varying degrees of financial sustainability. The MFI and retail marketing network operations have shown break even and minimum profits which are completely reinvested in the operations. The healthinitiative being a community service will take longer to reach a break even point. Accordingto a high level evaluation team, there are few scalable v oluntary health insurance models,and SSP is one of them. SSP will need over 5 years to reach 60,000 families on a grant model

to be sustainable thereafter.

With regard to the staffing of SSP and all its entities, most of the staff at the field level arewomen from the groups and federation. The professional staff are mostly from SSPsleadership with only the MF operations having new male staff at the managerial levels.While SSPs founder Director is a woman, the core leaders hip includes three men and twowomen. SSP staff comprises 26 male and 43 female staff (62%) totalling 69 personnel whilethe microfinance initiative comprises 15 male staff and 28 (65%) women staff. Of the total112 staff, women constitute 63%.

In the process of scaling up their microfinance, livelihoods and social initiatives, SSP has

strategically adopted a market based approach that includes partnerships with corporates. Indoing so, it also had to prepare SHGs to make them business ready organizations, somethingthat is credit-worthy. Women leaders were linked as a network by involving them in businessprocesses such as marketing, outreach and operations and in product development. All theserequired organizational transformation which entailed restructuring, changing attitudes of thetop leadership and preparing the organization to move from a grant based operation to arevenue based model. SSP s work with the corporate sector has resulted in sensitising headsof large corporations started to change their overall rural marketing strategy, training and HRpolicies to address needs of rural communities. In this manner, they coupled business agendaswith a clear focus on the underserved communities in rural and remote villages. The averageoperational cost over the last five years is 2.5 crore rupees or 25 million rupees per year.


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Building institutional sustainability of the MFI was the first step towards scaling up access tocredit. While scaling up, SSP was driven by its social mission and thus structure theorganisation and processes accordingly. By doing this, SSP avoided some of the pitfalls of the microfinance industry such as high rates of interests and lending to individuals. Bycreating transparent systems and bringing its operations closer to the SHGs, SSK built the

trust relationships with the groups and internally within SHG members as well.

SSK recognised that if women had to self monitor group loans, there needed to be a highlevel of trust among members. SSK took concrete steps to improve the health of SHGs.Group discipline and transparency was built through loan disbursement and repayment inmeetings. Instead of exerting pressure through loan officers, SSK trained women to recognisethat default by members as this would lead to stoppage of loans for the entire group. Fieldofficers with the history of belonging to SHGs, built a rapport with the groups and ensuredproper group functioning, financial literacy and membership awareness. SSKs loan productsare based on flexibility, purpose of loan and repayment schedules linked to range of livelihoods. Scaling up was achieved by ensuring that all women in a group received 1 to 2loans and similarly all groups in a village were linked to SSK. By deepening access to creditand livelihoods in a focused geographic location and higher penetration within those villagesand groups, SSK achieved operational efficiency and deepened economic impact.

The other entities simultaneously have been able to develop themselves into revenue basedmodels many of which have either broken even or are aiming at reaching a break even pointshortly. SSP has received several awards and has been recognized in the media for its work through this innovative model. Therefore investment in this type of a model wheremicrofinance is coupled with social enterprises that deliver effective services and productsthrough independent revenue streams would definitely be a recommendation for otherorganizations to address issues beyond credit in a sustainable manner.

1.35. Main lessons

The main lessons learnt from SSP for similar initiatives would be to therefore to begin by astrong investment in the base the network, women leaders, groups and federations uponwhich the verticals were built.

Center-staging the women in decision making and awareness generation in critical sectorssuch as credit, health, environment and energy would be an important pre-requisite for such amodel for womens social and economic empowerment. In this context SSP has engaged instrategies that have fostered a social, economic and political process which has built womenleaders and their networks which allow for a quick transfer on information, knowledge andthe ab