India

For most poor women, the money-lender is the only source of cash. But they have to pay a high price for this credit, and frequently end up worse off than ever. Here is the story of some women who found a better bargain when they took events into their own hands.

At three in the morning, Leelatai Adav gets up and starts preparing food for the ten boarders living in her house. Her day will be a long and busy one, but she is not afraid of hard work. She has been doing it for a very long time now, well over twenty years. What lightens Leelatai's step as she gathers the food and utensils together is that nowadays she makes a reasonable profit on her labour.

In Byculla, India, several women like Leelatai take in boarders — usually men who have left the countryside to work in the factories. The women, often themselves wives of factory workers, are from low or intermediate castes and many are illiterate. They saw their work as a way of earning money at home, but all too often it didn't work out like that.

Why? 'Well,' explains Leelatai, 'I didn't have any money to buy the meat and vegetables for the meals. So I had to go to the money-lender.' And this is an expensive way of raising credit, with interest rates often as high as 20 per cent a month.

But things changed in 1975 when women formed the Annapoorna Mandal, an organisation whose main purpose is to give its members easy access to credit.

The scheme was started through the Bank of Baroda and had 200 members at first, growing to over 4,000 by the end of the decade. Any woman who has at least ten boarders can apply for a loan — up to Rs 1,500 ($119) initially. Interest on a loan this size is four per cent (per annum) with rates going up to 15 per cent on bigger amount. Repayments are normally made monthly with some of the money earmarked for a compulsory savings deposit scheme. 'Each woman receives a pass book and an account book,' says Prema Purav, an initiator of the Mandal. 'Stamps of different colours are stuck in them, one colour for credit entries, another for debits so that even though she may be illiterate, a woman can quickly learn how to keep account.'

And this is not the only thing the women can learn from the Mandal. It operates with their involvement on committees where they act as contacts for other members in their area, collecting repayments, dealing with loan applications and keeping records. All members of the Mandal can go to literacy classes, and social workers come along also to give advice about health and hygiene. Committee members go to the bank and municipal offices so that they learn something of financial management, how to deal with various officials and take part in decision-making.

'It means I don't have to go to the money-lender and mortgage my jewellery any more,' says Leelatai. 'As a member of the Mandal, I now have the cash to buy the things I need every day — grain, vegetables and fuel for cooking.' The women like Leelatai will probably never be rich, but they are making money now. And they have gained more than rupees through the Mandal — they manage their businesses better, they can deal with the authorities, their self-confidence has grown. Leelatai's own room is still 10 feet wide by 10 feet long, but she is no longer confined.

Adapted from 'The Other Side of the Picture' in Manushi, March-April, 1979.