WOMENS SMALL-SAVING GROUPS
This
is a project that we have just started this year, and as yet we are
only working with one group, in Chajogi, on a trial basis.
Women's small-saving groups is a concept that many NGOs are now working on with very good results. It is basically a small-scale cooperative banking scheme that, in our case, starts with women saving 1 rupee per day into a bank account that is shared by a group of approx. 10-15 women. At one rupee a day, i.e. 30 rupees each per month, 450 rupees can be saved by the group in one month.
This money can be used to support their own small-scale income generating activities, such as selling dried apples, jams, pickles, vermicompost etc. The role of the NGO is to train them how to keep accounts (we have printed special account books for them), and to assist with the income generating activities.
For example, the women in Chajogi are interested in selling pickles, so in the beginning we will provide them with glass jars, design their labels, acquire the license they need and do the marketing in Kullu and Manali. For dried apples, we would research solar drying techniques, provide them with the driers and help them with the packaging and the marketing. As time goes on, they start generating income and start learning how to do the marketing etc. themselves.
More information will be added to this section of
the website as the project develops in 2004.