The Women’s Credit Union, Rammanna Gardens, Banglalore - Ruth Bergan

The women's credit union in Rammanna Garden, Bangalore, has been up and running for around six years. In this time it has been a seminal force in making considerable changes within the Rammanna Garden community. Women are now setting up their own businesses and taking out low-interest loans that help them to make various improvements to their lives and to those of their families. However questions remain about the future of the union and, as the project expands, a number of challenges are faced. At present the union relies - to a certain extent - on input, in terms of finance and other resources, from the Development Education Society (DEEDS). Considering this, will the union eventually be able to run independently? And given the specific aims that motivated its creation, how can the impact of the union be monitored as its dynamics change?

Before DEEDS initiated a project in Rammanna Garden, the community faced numerous problems. Poor sanitation, irregular water supplies and low nutritional levels had led to poor health among the inhabitants. This had been aggravated by extremely over crowded living conditions and a lack of access to proper medical care - one of the most tragic results of which was a high infant mortality rate. Child labour was common; children often worked in the local bottling factory, where both working conditions and pay were poor, or in private homes as domestic workers. Literacy levels were very low at only 18% of the population .

In general these problems did not stem from a lack of income; annual incomes ranged from between 21,600 to 50,400 rupees and work was relatively easy to find, although it was often irregular and poorly paid. The problems tended to have their root in an ignorance about health, hygiene, nutrition and the importance of education. This was coupled with an extreme difficulty in admitting children to formal school and an inability to manage money. Many families also suffered financially from having taken out high interest loans to pay for ‘exceptional’ expenditure such as marriages or festivals.

The Rammanna Garden area was characteristic of the low status accorded to women across India. Attitudes towards women tended to be extremely traditional and restrictive. They were rarely let out of their houses unaccompanied or allowed to work. The education of girls tended to be more neglected than that of boys; this was linked to girls being married very young, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. The Child Marriage Restraint Act, passed in 1930, made the marriage of children illegal (defined as any person under the age of 14). Since 1930 the mean age for women to marry rose from 13.1 to 19.5 in 1991. However, as the situation in Rammanna Garden highlights, it can be extremely difficult for such laws to be enforced. A young marriage is often preferred for both social and economic reasons. Working parents with low incomes may feel that their work does not give them the time to protect or educate their daughters, or they may consider their daughters a financial burden.

The ideal is often for women to stay at home. This conveys an appearance of wealth and avoids leaving women exposed to gossip about their activities, which can be damaging to both their reputations and their marriage prospects. However marriage at a young age almost inevitably means that women will be ill-prepared for motherhood. They are likely to be ignorant about sex and sexual health, childcare & child development, nutrition and health. In 1996 the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, sponsored a survey that showed that 38% of girls aged from 15 to 19 were married, while at the same time it has been shown that, in the 15-19 age group, there was a much higher maternal mortality rate.

The undervaluing of women was further reflected in the dowry system that still remains a central part of weddings within the community today. Wives are offered almost as commodities and, if the accompanying material gift is not sufficient, can find themselves rejected. This is to the shame of their families and themselves. Husbands are often chosen on economic grounds alone, rather than according to the personal compatibility of the couple. As women and female children are undervalued as members of the family, there will be an additional tendency to neglect their health. This undervaluing has been a contributing factor in crimes against women across India; the All India Progressive Women's Association reported that, in 1994, there were 170 'dowry deaths' in Karnataka, 83 in Tamil Nadu and a shocking countrywide total of 5199.

DEEDS' main focus when it first began project work in the Rammanna Garden area was the eradication of child labour. It felt that the best way of giving the community a chance to develop was by encouraging families to give their children an education, by addressing the aforementioned problems and by empowering people to learn about their rights and how to ensure that they were met. This mean’t anything from having good sanitation to being able to access good health care. The first step DEEDs took was to open a Non-Formal Education (NFE) centre to make it easier and cheaper for children to attend school.

In part the credit union was created to help financially support families. As children would be attending NFE centres they would no longer be contributing as significantly to family income. The union offered women the possibility of saving money into an account and taking out low-interest loans to start small businesses. Examples have included fruit and vegetable stalls and screen-printing workshops. It is uncommon for people in the Rammanna Garden area to have bank accounts. A 500rs deposit is required to start a small business, a sum well beyond most people's means. In the past this often mean’t that people had to take out high interest rate loans in order to start a business. DEEDS had to work hard to convince the community of the benefits of the Credit Union; many people were distrustful of the social workers that visited the area. It took some time to convince men to allow women to take participate.

Although the main motivation for creating the credit union was child development, DEEDS also hoped to empower women to tackle other challenges. They also recognised the important role that women, as mothers and members of the community, play in child development. With these principles in mind, it became increasingly clear that economic support needed to be offered alongside educational programmes. One member of the union used a loan to open a tiffin (lunch-box) business and then took her daughter out of school to help with deliveries, as she was unable to cope with the demand. In this case, economic development was detracting from the founding principle of child development. To try to prevent such situations continuing, DEEDS ran a series of workshops on the advantages of sending children to school.

The main medium used by the union to spread awareness has been workshops, covering topics ranging from child development and nutrition to managing family finances and women's rights. These types of workshops aim to ensure that economic growth is matched by the dissemination of knowledge. It is hoped that this knowledge will help to realise goals, supported by the UN, including encouraging women to breast feed and spreading awareness about the importance of eating iron-rich foods. In this way DEEDs are part of an effort to reduce malnutrition, encourage people to seek health care, in particular pregnant women, and to further empower women to make positive changes to their community. The UN considers improvements in women's health to be a vital support for improvements in children's health. Two areas in need of urgent attention have been anaemia and Vitamin A deficiency. In urban Madras in 1993 levels of anaemia were said to be at 20.7%, in rural Hyderabad the figure was 96.7% and in Calcutta, 63.5%. Vitamin A deficiency continues to cause blindness in a large number of children. Information on nutrition is therefore vital and one of the most successful workshops organised by the union has been on the importance of eating foods rich in Vitamin A. In this workshop the connection between eating foods rich in Vitamin A and the avoidance of a particular type of blindness was explained by using songs, rhymes and pictures, followed by a cooking demonstration. Knowledge and understanding seem to be key to the success of the awareness programmes. Dr. B.C. Thiagarajan, director of DEEDS and more often referred to by his nickname 'Tiger', gave an example that illustrates this point well. This is that the women have begun to recognise the value of breastfeeding; however, when asked about the reasons for doing so they reply that it is 'good for strength (of the child)'. Tiger feels that, without understanding that breast milk offers children antibodies, so important in areas where living conditions are poor, there is a great likelihood that they will loose this habit.

Union Rammanna Garden

Union There are high hopes for the future of Rammanna Garden's credit union. Ideally, it should be a catalyst for the development of the community as part of a holistic, grass-root motivated approach. Staff working in Rammanna Garden are very enthusiastic about the workshops. When asked about their effectiveness, a typical response was, "one year ago the people didn't eat properly. We organised the nutrition workshops for them. Now the people are aware and they eat good food". This response may be conditioned by a desire to appear, to a Western visitor, to be succeeding, yet there is no question that DEEDS' presence has made a real difference. However concrete evidence to support claims such as the above have often been difficult to come by. This was particularly striking in regard to the women's education programme. Miss Vijaya, the director of the credit union, claimed that all the members of the union could now read and write. She based this claim on the fact that they could all sign their names, whereas previously many had simply marked an 'x'. This in itself is a great improvement; however, no further information on the women's literacy was available.

My own experience suggested that, following initial interest, the rote-learning techniques employed by teachers proved very ineffective and small class numbers tended to dwindle. There is no doubt that literacy is an important factor in development; Seth argues that it allows women greater access to a large number of facilities, including good health and maternity care. DEEDS have seen that by allowing women to exclude the, often unreliable, 'middle man' from transactions they are further motivation.

In order to ensure a grass-roots involvement and a holistic impact it was originally intended that the union's management would not remain in the hands of a few people. The idea was to allow a number of women to gain experience in running such a project, while also ensuring that the organisation was transparent. For this reason elections for committee posts are held at regular intervals of approximately four years. However, at present, the same people have been elected to the posts for some years. According to one member of staff, 'the people vote the same because (the staff) are doing a good job'. This may be true, but, as things stand at the moment, it makes it very difficult to monitor the union, especially if it is to run independently. The women in the area didn't seem to feel they could question Miss Vijaya's authority, and almost all interviewed felt that, if the union was to remain strong, it would be thanks to Miss Vijaya. Although they enjoyed being part of the union, they still didn't seem to consider it to be something to which they could make positive contributions, preferring instead to remain beneficiaries.

This attitude no doubt reflects the strong sense of hierarchy under which many Indian organisations seem to labour. The women may also feel they lack the skills to take on a committee post. Yet the women's attitude towards the union may dictate its dynamics in years to come. If a few people are allowed to control it, it will become increasingly difficult to ensure this is done for the benefit of all the members. If the women perceive the union purely as a source of economic gain, then other areas may be neglected. Their involvement helps to avoid a dependency' or 'charity' mentality as the women themselves feel part of the changes happening in the area. Active participation in the union can be very beneficial for the women themselves. The example of Azmat, a housewife from the area, is a good illustration. Azmat used to be confined to the house, forbidden from working; now she volunteers for the union as a cook, spending most of her time there; she also helps to organise meetings and give advice to people in the area. Azmat's membership of, and involvement in, the union has given her a degree of freedom barely conceivable before its inauguration.

Ensuring the women continue to benefit from the union not just financially, but in other ways as well, is already proving a challenge. During a 'Participatory Rapid Appraisal' (PRA) exercise, initiated by DEEDS' UK sister organisation 'Every Child' (formerly Christian Children's Fund Great Britain) it became apparent that, whilst one group of women were aware of many of the issues surrounding child development and DEEDS' approach to tackling problems in the area, a second group proved to be unaware of them. The latter group viewed it as a source of financial gain and seemed to think the staff were there to solve their individual problems, such as leaking roofs or sick children. The message of empowerment and grass-roots involvement had, at that time, failed to reach them. As the union grows, therefore, it may have to consider creating a number of committees; a committee for economic development, one for education and so on, to try to ensure the message reaches as many women as possible. This kind of expansion would require substantial human and material resources and their effective management. At present, the union relies on DEEDS' staff to help with budgeting, the running of the NFE classes and liaison with other organisations that take the workshops. DEEDS eventually hopes to act as a consultant to the union, rather than as a support, but the members must first have the skills to run it themselves. Without realistic monitoring, the awareness and skills training programmes, the building blocks of the ideal, may prove shaky foundations. A series of interviews revealed that a number of the skills taught to the women are not being used. For example, the women had asked to be taught how to make soft toys but, following the workshop, none of them were able to make use of the skill as the materials were too expensive.

This was in contrast with the nutrition workshops, which the women had enjoyed, and they said they used the recipes. The PRA exercise aimed to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of DEEDS' projects and to spread awareness among staff on management techniques through a series of workshops. The exercise seemed to be based on the, ostensibly logical, assumption that, if work in so many various but interconnected areas is to be successful and eventually be run by people in the areas, they will have to have the skills to monitor and evaluate their work. Without proper management it seems unlikely that, as Miss Vijaya plans, membership of the union could realistically be expanded from its current membership of 250 to 500, in order for it to attain co-operative status. Ensuring that the awareness programmes reached all of the members would present a number of challenges: how would the union committee ensure that information was reaching as many people as possible and that it was being used? At present the small size of the centre restricts the number of women that can attend workshops to around 45 at one time. How would they ensure the women could participate in the union?

A holistic approach to development seems not only the ideal but also the only effective means of improving life in Rammanna Garden. Child development is inextricably linked to women's development and both are linked to the development of the community. The DEEDS project is unarguably having a very positive effect; increasing numbers of children go to school and women I spoke to were proud to say that their children attended. Women play a greater role in the life of the community and living conditions are improving. However the wide range of target areas means that ideals must, it seems, be married to some kind of effective management. For a project such as the credit union this marriage is not uncomplicated as they endeavour to expand their programme, reaching more families whilst attempting to keep to their founding principles.

This article draws from a report produced for DEEDS in May 2002, by Ruth Bergan. The references for the report are as follows:

A series of interviews with Tiger, Director of DEEDS, Miss Vijaya, Director of the Credit Union, Miss Kavitha, programme manager, Mr. Paul, social worker, and 6 women from the area: Chanma, Prema, Vasanthi, Azmat, Selvi and Kanyakumari.
1 Nagaraja, Y; "Report of a study of female child labour in four slums of Bangalore" (DEEDS report, no date given).
2 (Author's name not given); "Study on the benefits of the credit union programme to the families of children, the direct benefits to children, in particular - as a preventive measure for child labour practice" (DEEDS report, no date given).
3 Sekar, Dr. K. and Gandhi, Dr. L.S; "Profile of child labour in Bangalore city" (DEEDS report, date not given).
4 (Author's name not given); "Deeds second yearly report, 31March 1995" (DEEDS report, 1995).
5 Thiagarajan, Dr. B.C and Sundaresh, Mr.; "DEEDS Participatory Rapid Appraisal Report" (Bangalore 2002).

List of websites used for information:

www.unicef.org: - "What do you know about child labour?"
- "The convention on the rights of the child". http://wcd.nic.in/npac.html; "National plan of action commitment to the child" (The Government of India, Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1992 (1996)
www.indiatogether.orgwcd.nic.in/npace
www.unifem.org
www.indiatogether.org, articles provided by:The Women's
Association for Mobilization and ActionThe National Federation of Indian WomenAll India Progressive Women's Associationg)
www.apne-aap.orgh)On dowry
prohibition:http://law.indiainfo.comwww.sudhirlaw.com/DOWRYACT