On the occasion of International women’s day the father and son duo, Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh highlighted importance of the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) groups. Naidu said that the groups are playing crucial role in executing the development programs and are even facilitating woman to earn a minimum of rupees 10,000 per month. He also distributed a cheque of rupees 241.84 crore to 5,371 DWCRA groups of Krishna district.
However the reality of these DWCRA groups is something else. The whole idea behind the establishment of DWCRA self-help groups (SHG) has missed the groove. The funds allocated are taking an entirely different route. The scheme was aimed to improve the socio-economic status of the poor women in the rural areas through creation of groups of women for income-generating activities on a self-sustaining basis.
For any government DWCRA women are the primary voters and audience for any development or party program. Even the governments have used DWCRA women as their campaigners. In both Telugu regions the loans given to women amount to 1.15 lakh crore rupees. Each year close to 7000 to 8000 crore rupees are allocated in each Telugu state. This should have increased the productivity and even have an impact on the revenue. However, the government needs a reality check because there is no follow up on what’s happening with the assigned loans.
To avoid the problem of moneylenders who collect lot of interests, government initiated DWCRA so that women can get loans directly from banks. Surprisingly the role of these financers is now taken by the DWCRA members. Instead of using the funds productively, a lot of them have started mini banks and have, thereby, become the moneylenders. These SHG women who had to suffer the pain of bankrollers have now become a sting. Furthermore, in few villages, these groups are collecting interests on daily basis. They not only harass outsiders but also the members of DWCRA who do not pay their interests on time.
In both the Telugu states, several successful DWCRA groups have been formed which led to the empowerment of women. The range of activities pursued by these groups are also fairly diverse. Each year the number of such groups have been increasing and so is the burden of loan on the government. At first instance, bank gives a loan of 5000 rupees to each member, if they repay it in 12 months, they will be given loan incrementally from ten thousand to one lakh rupees. On an average a women of SHG get around 7.5 lakh rupees as loan facility. However few banks set max loan amount as 6 lakhs, which has to be cleared in 36 months.
The banks were giving loans under SHG Bank Linkage program with different rates of interest ranging from 8% to 12% and at times 14percent as well. The groups were facing difficulty in paying such high rates of interest. YS Rajashekar Reddy introduced Pavalavaddi Scheme (Interest Subsidy) scheme with an objective to provide interest subsidy on the loans taken by Self Help Groups. The incentive was that SHGs had to pay only 3% interest and anything above it will be borne by the government. This was a successful and most profitable to the DWCRA groups.
With so many subsidies and investment from the government, the productivity should be amplified. Unfortunately only few institutions are functioning as per the rules. The textures from Narsapuram in West Godvari and Mango bar (mamidi thandra) from East Godavari are being exported to different countries which are made by the DWCRA women. The pickles business in Srikakulam have turned into corporate businesses. However the contribution of such groups is only three percent. Rest of the DWCRA members are just moneylenders.
They get loans from banks for less than three percent interest but they are lend it for interests ranging from 5to10rupees per month. In East Godavari a few groups employed bouncers to collect the money. If the defaulters do not pay in timely manner they are harassed. This is creating a fear about the DWCRA groups among the villages.
Because of these spoilsports, the whole idea and the motto of DWCRA is gone astray. Moreover the government is not marketing the DWCRA products well. All they do is exhibit DWCRA products, take a picture with them and leave. At least now the governments should realize and form a review committee which can keep a check on the wrong doings of these SHG.