Home | UNICEF in Action | Highlights | Information Resources | Donations, Greeting Cards & Gifts | Press Centre | Voices of Youth | About UNICEF

Country experiences

India: Credit and saving schemes in Andhra Pradesh

In two districts of Andhra Pradesh, thousands of women come togeth er in small groups. They each save 1 rupee a day (currently $1 = 35.5 Indian rupees), pool their savings and rotate the sum among them selves for production and day-to-day needs and as a source of capital for micro-enterprises. The Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) scheme, supported by the Government and UNICEF, then extends further credit to the women once they have demonstrated their ability to form groups and save. Women are proud to display their passbooks and speak of their experiences.

In one village in Nellore District, for example, women have acquired land titles in their names and taken Rs180,000 as loans towards construction of their houses. They have said that they will not tolerate wife-beating and have forced their husbands to stop drinking alcohol. The longest-standing group in the village has rotated the revolving fund 25 times and also has a savings deposit of Rs30,000 in the bank. In another village, a group has saved Rs800,000. In total, the women of the district have mobilized savings of Rs60 million.

The women have used the revolving funds for productive activities, emergency consumption, health needs, marriages and children's education. The Total Literacy Campaign launched in the district in 1991 has brought education and information, with the savings groups becoming important centres for disseminating information on health, education, water and sanitation. There are visible changes in the health and nutrition of women and their children.

Women have identified sanitation as a major problem and are exploring possibilities of financing sanitation improvements, with matching funds from the Government. Women in the credit groups have a positive self-image, recognize their own health needs better and find themselves consulted by men, who realize that credit and information can be accessed through the women's savings groups.

In 1992, in Anantapur district, 1.2 million families were destitute and another 1.3 million lived just above the poverty line. In this area, a women's savings group, which initially handled Rs500, developed its creditworthiness and capacity to handle Rs18,000 in just 18 months. There are now around 6,000 groups, 3,500 of which are functioning well. With minimal training, the women began managing their own money and after six to eight months had built up a small amount of savings and rotated the fund among themselves.

DWCRA funds were then made available to the successful groups. Almost all the children of the borrowers receiving DWCRA support attend school. As water is a major problem in this region, almost 6,000 dams and percolation tanks were planned, with the objective of harvesting rainwater. Efforts were integrated into the credit scheme to empower communities to safeguard their own environment.

Source: In Search of Synergy and Convergence, UNICEF New Delhi, undated

Home | UNICEF in Action | Highlights | Information Resources | Donations, Greeting Cards & Gifts | Press Centre | Voices of Youth | About UNICEF