Engagement Activity

An interview with Mr Arasu, the founder of India Volunteer Care, was very important in enlarging my understanding of the depths behind the tool that is microfinance. Whilst all of his answers were provided in great detail, one that stood out to me was what he thought were the primary obstacles that women using microfinance faced. There were two parts to the response provided to the one question, as given below:

“Sometimes, her spouse may take money from her and put her into trouble of borrowing [from money lenders]”. I think there is a lot to be learnt and understood in this one sentence. Firstly, it speaks to the everlasting presence of the patriarchy subjugating women to the control of men, who impose their will on the decisions and actions of women. I think this is one of the chief deterrents to the success of microfinance to achieve one of its aims of female empowerment. It shows that even though there may be the opportunity for women to thrive and earn respect in their community, social factors that play a great role in the way in which women behave or can behave, inhibit the human or personal development of women. In the context of analysing the effectiveness of microfinance as a tool of female empowerment, it represents one of the aspects that I will have to take into consideration, particularly in the cultural and social backdrop of India. Furthermore, Mr Arasu’s answer also reveals to me about the scope for exploitation of microfinance in India, something I was completely unaware about until now. This may be attributable to the fact that no fraudulent organisation candidly reveals their schemes on their website or to the women who may have to use them. This is always why my active engagement was so important in revealing the intricacies that go on in Pondicherry, with regards to microfinance, that may not necessarily be explicit online. This form of exploitation takes away from the goal of female empowerment by converting microfinance into a service for profitability.

“Often being uneducated, a woman may not know how to use the money for the purpose for which it was offered. She may use the money for her own domestic needs”. This is a common problem that I have previously identified through reading online reports or assessments of microfinance. I think this reveals one of the most important factors that are into play while determining the success of microfinance: education. Given that it is rational to assume that many impoverished women, who have likely not received sufficient education in their past, are the main users of microfinance schemes, it must be analysed just to what extent this lack of education has one the success levels of the businesses run by the women, and their subsequence empowerment. As such, I also learn about the importance of banks/NGOs in facilitating regular checks, in order to ensure that the women use the money to generate long-term, sustainable income, which cannot be attained if it is spent on domestic needs for example.

Here is a photo of the founder, Mr Arasu, and I on my final day, where they gifted me the scarf and handed me my certificate for volunteering with their programs.

The NGO I worked with, India Volunteer Care (IVC), is greatly involved with the microfinance programs offered in India, linking them with banks and assisting them to secure finances in order to generate sustainable income. In fact, they help 150 Self-Help Groups with roughly 10-20 women within their organisation, which was tremendously beneficial for my engagement, since it enabled me to meet more women involved in microfinance programs, eventually strengthening my knowledge about the program.

I had the opportunity to meet 12 SHGs, which I believe allows me to acquire a broader understanding of the perspective of the women most actively involved in the microfinance program. One of the commonalities between the majority of all the women I had interviewed was that they made all, if not the majority of, the decisions for the family following their participation in the microfinance program. Not only is this a remarkable change that has been successfully created solely by the hard-work and determination of the women, but it speaks to the effectiveness of this program to empower women in Pondicherry. Throughout the interviews, I was in awe of the independence of the women that sat before me, as I learnt about what invigorated them to form SHGs or about the benefits the program has caused to their lives. I think the women have been able to earn themselves respect in their households, especially given their preceding poverty status, because it shows them shouldering the burdens of the household in a more modern and equal way. In small towns or rural areas in India particularly, there is a belief that women are best to remain in the households, caring for the children, whilst the man assumes the role of the breadwinner. However, with the growing presence of microfinance all over India, there is a way for women to generate an income for themselves and their family, even if they haven’t yet had the sufficient education or training required for that field. As such, I believe that microfinance provides women with a way to challenge commonly-held and regressive social norms in a patriarchal Indian society, which inhibit the ability to improve their well-being themselves. Another thing that I learnt from the greater decision-making power of women under this program is that the impacts of empowerment through microfinance are social, and thus culturally relative. In fact, when asked about the familial decision-making power held prior to participation in microfinance programs, one woman said: “husbands stay quiet while women make the decisions of the house”. Since I am from the north of India, where patriarchal demonstrations occur at a far greater frequency, this greater gender equality of the South of India was a revelation for me. I think this allows me to broaden my scope of analysis into my political issue when the time comes to actually write it.

Here are some photos I took during my visits to different self-help groups.