The Dhansura Shg - A Case Study

The main occupations of the people (Hindus and Muslims) of Dhansura village of the Sabarkantha district of Gujarat are dairy farming and agriculture and poverty persist due to lack of any other industrial or economic activity.  In the year 2002-2003 ICECD created an SHG called the ICECD KHODIYAR GROUP in Dhansura. A large number of women were developed as group leaders for the SHGs by ICECD. The Dhansura SHG was led by Induben and this SHG had 20 women as members. A loan of Rs. 60,000 was lent to this group by ICECD under the microcredit project @ 14% interest. These 20 women were trained in entrepreneurship and developed by ICECD to start their own micro-businesses such as cattle feed, embroidery, readymade garments, sari selling, etc. Gradually, they started earning more than Rs. 10,000 per month and thus emerged their own identity and respect in society.

The unique factor of this SHG was that all the members helped each other to become entrepreneurs. For example, one of the SHG women, Hemlata Patel who sold saris, decided to give saris to other women on a commission basis. This increased her sale to Rs. 80,000/- per month and enabled 20 other SHG members to earn up to Rs. 20,000/- per month.

Encouraged by this success, ICECD further gave a loan of Rs. 15,00,000/- from the ICECD Micro Credit to this SHG to lend micro-credit support to other SHGs. Induben, as the group leader started extending credit to women of 16 other SHGs of Dhansura and the surrounding villages of Titoi, Modasa, and Bayad through the Federation. Until now, these women were completely homebound. With this financial support, coupled with the ICECD Entrepreneurship Development Training, they started with their own micro-enterprises like cattle feed, fabric flower vases, readymade garments, mechanized oil mils, flour mills, horticulture, beauty parlours, etc. Soon they started earning anywhere between INR 10,000 up to INR 30,000 per month in peak season! These women who had no idea of business, with the help of microcredit and business guidance from ICECD became mainstream economic partners. Many of them took 2nd and 3rd-time loans and repaid the same with minimal default. The average loan size was Rs. 6,350 while the average second loan size was Rs. 11,250.

Induben herself was linked by ICECD to the Corporate Sector by motivating her to take up the Agency of Castrol Company and she became the first woman SHG member to get such an agency. This business grew under the ICECD monitoring and hand-holding in such a way that today her children have also joined her in business and have become entrepreneurs. She went on to be awarded by none others than our Finance Minister Hon’ble Mr. P. Chidambaram for her noteworthy achievements.
Location: Bopal, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

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