Decision Making Empowerment of Women Through SHGs

Transcription

1 Decision Making Empowerment of Women Through SHGs S. Rosita Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. Abstract- Women s position and the degree of their empowerment is governed by the gender and the gender relations in the society. Gender represents, not the biological sex of an individual alone, but includes the different roles and the rights and obligations that are attached by the society to the individuals born with male or female sex characteristics. Although, the sex differentiated roles, rights and obligations vary according to class and the lifecycle stages, they do exist in practically every sphere of human functioning. This makes the gender a fundamental dimension in social stratification. In almost every sphere of human functioning, the roles assigned for women are subordinated to those set apart for men and the rights given to women are fewer and less emancipating than those given to men and the obligations of women are more limited than those of men. Unequal gender relations imply that men not only can exercise greater power than women in almost all the spheres of human functioning but they have also culturally and often legally more sanctioned power over women and have a greater control of and access to resources and information. Hence there is a need to find ways and means to empower women. Keywords: Empowerment, social stratification, spheres of human functioning. Introduction: Mohammad Yunus of Chittagong University in Bangladesh introduced the concept of Nijeri Kori (which means literally we do it ourselves or self-help) for poor women (1976) to start small business through Grameen Bank. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in the year 2006 for the concept of SHGs and microcredit. Now the bank has more than 1000 branches and 12,000 workers and a saving fund of million. The self-help group movement became a silent revolution within a short span in the rural credit delivery system in many parts of the world. It has been documented that nearly 53 developing countries including India, have taken up this on a large scale. In 1997, at the world micro credit summit converged at Washington, the developed and developing countries took steps to tackle the serious problem of poverty by using micro-credit as a tool to empower the poorest section. The Empowerment of the women members of the SHG s had been analysed in this chapter. The study considers about their status both within and outside the in group activities. Their contributions for the growth and development of the village had also been discussed in the study. The involvement of the women in social activities, social programmes and social problems would enable them to have command over their life situations. When women could put an end to early marriages and could begin in taking life decisions, it would certainly improve their assertive nature and their leadership in managing small business. To begin with, let us look into the individual attributes that contribute to women s Statement of the Problem: The role of a woman as a traditional housewife is getting completely changed. Modern education, industrialization and protective legislation have all created greater opportunities for women aspirants. It is important to note that women take up jobs not only for augmenting their social status, but also due to economic necessity. In most of the families, particularly among the lower class families, both men and women are forced to contribute equally for maintaining and running the family. The present analysis is undertaken to find out the empowerment achieved among the socially deprived classes to improve health and nutritional status, educational achievements, access to resources and to increase the real per capita income. The emphasis is to make policy efforts aimed at making these developmental achievements sustainable, lasting well into the future. Their empowerment needs are to be looked at from different perspectives such as individual, group, community, collaborating organisations and the state too. The study area is confined to Madurai District of Tamil Nadu state. Objectives of the Study: To evaluate the decisionmaking empowerment of women in the SHGs of Madurai District. To offer suitable suggestions based on the findings of the study. Hypotheses of the Study: There is no significant relationship between the socio-economic factors and the decision making empowerment of women. Data Sources: Both primary and secondary data are used in this study. The total sample respondents taken for this study was 300. The 300 sample women respondents were selected randomly from different 15

2 NGOs by adopting proportionate random sampling technique. Framework of Analysis: To evaluate the decisionmaking empowerment of women in the SHGs of Madurai District, chi-square test has been used. The chisquare test ( 2 ) has been applied to test the hypotheses, and to find out the association between the socioeconomic factors of the respondents and decisionmaking The formula for the chi-square is; (O-E) 2 2 = with (r-1) (c-1) degrees of freedom. E where, Row Total x Column Total E = Grand Total O = Observed frequency E = Expected frequency r = number of rows in a contingency table c = number of columns in a contingency table The computed 2 value was compared with the table value at the 5 per cent level of significance to draw inferences. The null hypothesis was rejected when the computed 2 value was found to be higher than the table value for a given degree of freedom and vice versa. DECISION MAKING EMPOWERMENT Woman is the companion of man and she is gifted with a high level of mental capabilities. She has the right to participate in the minutest of the activities of the man and she has the same right to freedom and liberty as that of the man. At home, there is very little interaction by way of consultation or discussion or collective decisionmaking. This is mainly because of the fact that women, especially rural women feel shy and would not like to come out of the house for exchanging information and for interacting with others. The self-help groups women members should be in a position to take decision in the family, in the group, in the society and in public politics. In family they should be able to take decisions in the problems, of the families, in sending children to schools, in motivating the female children to get better education, creating awareness about health and education and in appropriate situations. In the society and in the group, the decision making process of women is needed to express their collective power and women had to exercise their power by using pressure tactics and by negotiating with the bureaucracy so that they may secure a favourable outcome in their decision-making endeavours. Being the leaders of the self-help groups they have to fulfil the communal need or a change in certain traditional practices, gain confidence and change the traditional socio-economic and political power of the community. For the benefit of the group and that of the society women should contact the higher level decisionmakers to secure benefits. Only by participation, they could resolve their communal problems, secure better services for the benefit of the individual and for the society. The level of awareness, the commitment and involvement of women participating in panchayats, particularly their autonomy and independence in their political action and their behaviour are the important indicators of their political status. The main aim of the NGOs and the SHGs had been to motivate the rural women to obtain a better decision-making power. In order to findout the decision making capacity of the SHG members 20 statements were given on empowerment and the results obtained by way of their respondents were tested with the personal characteristics and the variables of the respondents. The twenty components to study the decision-making empowerment of the sample respondents of SHGs in Thanjavur district are given below. 1. Freedom to communicate their thoughts and ideas 2. NGOs trained rural women to acquire good decision-making 3. SHG women have ability to compete with men 4. SHG women are free to choose their career 5. Take decision in financial activities of the family 6. Opinion of the SHGs are asked to make huge investment 7. Giving suggestions when immovable property is purchased 8. Free to take part to franchise their vote 9. Not compelled by men to take part in politics 10. Local panchayats encouraged the skill, talent and ability 11. SHG gives confidence to women to solve their problems 12. Free to take decision in children s education 13. Confidence to solve group and community problems 14. Take decision to send the children to proper school 15. Allowed to take decision on girls higher studies 16. In all types of functions SHG women decision is considered 17. Play a major role in family occupation 18. Women only decide about the size of the family 19. Take decision in healthy habits 20. Fully satisfied with power given The above mentioned 20 components were given as positive statement. The decision-making empowerment of the sample respondents were analysed through the opinion of the respondents by using Likert s scaling technique. 16

3 Positive Statement Strongly Agre Undeci Disa Strongly Agree e ded gree Disagree After giving scores for each component, total scores of each sample respondents is computed. Empowerment scores of 300 SHG members were computed as per the scores stated above. Arithmetic mean ( X) and standard deviation ( ) of the total opinion scores of 300 respondents have been computed. Score above X + is considered to high level of opinion. Score below X - is considered to be the low level of opinion. Scores in between X + and X - are considered to be the medium level opinion. Arithmetic mean score is or 47 and standard deviation score is or 19. Respondents whose opinion scores above 64 ( = 65.62) are considered as having high-level opinion and whose opinion scores below 28 ( = 28.28) are considered as having low level opinion. The respondents whose opinion scores are in between 29 and 63 are classified as having medium level of opinion. Factors that influence the Decision-making Empowerment There are some factors, which influence the empowerment of women respondents. The relationship between dependent variable and independent variable has been studied by means of chi-square test. One of the important conditions of applying chi-square test is that the cell frequency should not come less than five. Since only 300 women respondents alone interviewed, there is a possibility that the cell frequency may be less than five, in case of three way classification. So for the purpose of chi-square analysis, the women respondents were classified into three categories namely, high, medium and low. The following seven factors which were influencing the level of decision making empowerment were tested like Age, Education, Occupation, Caste, Marital status, Nature of the family and Experience in SHG of the respondents Generally in villages and in rural families women do not play any significant role in the decision-making processes. Nowadays slowly this trend had changed. In general the involvement of women in the decision making process is very low compared to men. As the earning members of the family it is mostly the men who take the decisions either in relation to family matters or even in outside matters. In some families the educated women are allowed to make decisions. The occupations of the respondents were classified into housewives, agriculturists and private duties and others. When women take up some jobs and earn some income for the family she has a major role to play in the decision making process. So the occupation of the respondent is important for getting the decision making In some communities women have a dual role to play in the decision making process of the family and in the society and in some communities they do not prefer women to take any decision. The marital status of the respondents was divided into two categories. The respondents who were married were in one group and the unmarried and the others were in the other group. The nature of the family of the respondents was divided into two groups; single and nuclear families and joint families. Empowerment scores of the respondents were collected on the basis of their experience in the SHG s. The respondents were divided into two groups based on their membership. The span of membership in the SHG was divided into 3 years and more and less than 3 years of experience. Table 1 shows that out of 300 respondents, 22 respondents had a low level, 247 had a medium level and the remaining 31 of the respondents had a high level of decision making Based on this level of decision making empowerment the personal variables of the respondents were compared and the results were tested with hypotheses certain assumed. The ages of the respondents had been classified into 3 groups; namely, 20 to 30 years in one group, 31 to 40 years in another group and above 40 years in the third group. Twenty two respondents in all the age groups put together were having low level, and 247 members had a medium level and 31 members had a high level of empowerment in their decision making situations. Table 1 explains that 22 respondents had a low level of decision making empowerment which included both the literates and the illiterates. Two hundred and forty seven of them had a medium level and 31 members had a high level of decision making The respondents who were occupied either as agriculturists or in private jobs were found to have been more empowered in decision making than the housewives. When they become the member of an SHG, they could earn some income to the family so that they can take part in the decision making process in their families. Out of the total number of 300 respondents 41 belonged to the forward, 210 to the BC/MBC and 49 to the SC/ST communities. Twenty two respondents belonged to the category of a low level of empowerment which included all castes, 247 were found to be at the medium level and 31 were at a high level. In some communities importance was given to respondent s decision after they joined the self- help groups as members. Table 1 shows that out of the 300 sample respondents 263 were married and from married respondents 17 were at a low level, 222 were at a medium level and 24 were at a high level of decision making Out of 37 unmarried respondents 5 were at a low level, 25 at a medium level and 7 were at a high level of decision making 17

4 Table 1 explains that 235 respondents were living as nuclear families and 65 respondents were living in joint families. Out of the 235 respondents living as single family members 15 women had a low level of empowerment and 200 women had a medium level of empowerment and 20 had a high level. The number of respondents who lived as joint families were only 65 and their role was less in decision making experience within and outside their families. The experience of the respondents in the SHG s was divided into two groups as respondents having an experience of upto 3 years and those with an experience of more than 3 years. The table value showed that there is a significant difference in the empowerment of those who had been in the group for less than 3 years and those with more than 3 years. In order to find out the significant relation between socio-economic factors and decision-making empowerment the Chi-square test was applied. H o = There is a significant relationship between the socio-economic factors and the decision making TABLE 2: Opinion about Decision-making Empowerment (Results of Chi-squares test) Factors d.f Calculat Table Inference ed 2 value value of 2 Age Ho: Educational Ho: rejected Qualification Occupation Ho: Caste Ho: rejected Marital Status Ho: Nature of the family Ho: Experience Ho: rejected Under decision-making empowerment the factors like age, occupation and nature of the family have no significant relations. The factors like education, caste, marital status and experience in SHG have significant relation with decision-making Summary of findings: The results of the educational empowerment of the persons show that education, caste, marital status and experience are significant factors and age, occupation and nature of the family of the respondents are non-significant factors. Age and Decision-Making Empowerment: The calculated value of 2 is and the table value was Hence there is no significant association between age and decision-making Education and Decision-Making Empowerment: Education of the respondents influences decisionmaking The respondents who were educated play a major role in decision-making within the family and in the group. So there is a significant relation between decision-making empowerment and education. The calculated value of 2 was Occupation and Decision-Making Empowerment: There is no significant relation between occupation of the respondents and decision-making Caste and Decision-Making Empowerment: The caste of the respondents influences their decision-making. In some caste the decision of the respondents was given importance and in other castes it is not given much importance. In this study also the calculated value is (24.7) which is greater that the table value. So there is a significant relation between the two. Marital Status and Decision-Making Empowerment: There is significant relationship between marital status of the respondents and decision-making. The calculated value of 2 was and the table value was Nature of the Family and Decision-Making Empowerment: There is no significant relationship between nature of the family and decision-making Experience and Decision-Making Empowerment: Experience of the respondents plays a major role. The calculated vale of and it is greater that the table value. As the respondents gained more years of experience they play a major role in decision-making. Under decision-making empowerment age, occupation and nature of the family are insignificant and education, caste, marital status and experience are significant factors. The factors like age and occupation of the family of the respondents have no significant relation with all empowerments. CONCLUSION: Empowerment of woman, in the true sense of the word, is the only solution to this pathetic and desperate condition, particularly in the rural sector. The study is inspired by the desire to share with the world, the heroic role of the SHGs in Tamil Nadu, with special reference to Madurai District, in liberating women from caste prejudices, meaningless social taboos and male chauvinism. Mahatma Gandhiji s had dreamt of. REFERENCES: [1] K.R. Lakshmikantan, Self-help groups in the life of rural poor Women s link-april-june 2000 (Page 9-14). [2] N. Manimekalai and G. Rajeswari, Empowerment of women through self-help groups (SHGs), Margin vol-32, No-4, July- September 2000 (Page 74-86). [3] S.K. Panda Micro finance in Economic empowerment of weaker sections Yojana, March-2003 (Page 21-25). 18

5 [4] Chiranjeevulu, Empowering women through self-help groups - Experiences in experiment, Kurushetra, March-2003 (Page 16-19). [5] K.R. Lakshmikantan Self-help groups in the life of rural poor women s link, April-June-2000 (Page 9-14). [6] Puyalvannan, Micro-finance and women empowerment through centre for Rural systems and development (CRUSADE), Kurushetra, vol- 49, No-7, April 2001 (Page 41-45). [7] Ritu Jain, R.K. Kushwaha and A.K. Srivastava, Socio-Economic Impact through self-help groups - Yojana, July 2003 (Page 11-12). [8] Empowerment study methods. [9] Policy for the Empowerment of Women. [10] Policy for the empowerment of women (2011). 19