E & Y in Bihar

Home Rural & Urban SHGs E & Y in Bihar

Formation and Strengthening of SHGs, VOs and CLFs

Interaction of VO members with Donor E & Y in Garkha Block

Backdrop


Bihar has high levels of poverty and deprivation in India. The efforts of Government of India, State Government and a host of civil society organizations have not yielded desired results in the state for a variety of reasons. Social mobilization and building organizations of the poor has not been done in a systematic manner and for the past few years it has gained momentum due to NRLM and NULM in promoting self help groups (SHGs) of women around savings & credit and livelihood promotion.

Since June 2012, APMAS has been working in Digwara and Garkha blocks of Saran district in Bihar. In these two Blocks APMAS as a resource NGO for NABARD worked with two partner NGOs (Narigunjan in Digwara, IKARD in Garkha blocks) as field implementing agencies. While implementing the project, APMAS has been facing many challenges in achieving expected results in the blocks. Keeping in view of the issues related to SHG bank linkage and to ensure sustainability of the institutions, APMAS felt that, while the process of promoting SHGs and SHG federations has been happening in these blocks, they would require at least another three to four years of support to become sustainable SHGs and federations to engage in financial and social intermediation. In this context APMAS signed an agreement with Ernst & Young Foundation to form 1600 SHGs, 100 Village Organisations (VOs) and 6 Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) in two blocks over a period 3 years time.

Project Info


Phase 1Phase 2
Goal Promotion and strengthening of SHGs and SHG Federations
Objective Formation of SHGs, VOs and CLFs and making them financially self sustainable and active in addressing health, livelihood & social issues Strengthening SHGs Federation and Livelihood promotion activity in Dighwara & Garkha blocks of Saran district in Bihar state
Location 34 villages in 11 GPs of Dighwara & 99 villages in 34 GPs of Garkha blocks in Saran district, Bihar    
Outreach 2000 SHGs, 100 VOs and 6 CLFs 18000 members by the end of third year.
Period First phase was from June 2015 to July 2018. APMAS signed an agreement with Ernst & Young Foundation to form 1600 SHGs, 100 Village Organisations (VOs) and 6 Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) in two blocks over a period 3 years. Second phase is from July 2018 to June 2021. The agreement was renewed by Ernst & Young Foundation for Strengthening SHGs Federation and Livelihood promotion activities in Dighwara & Garkha blocks of Saran district in Bihar for a period 3 years.
Donor Ernst & Young Foundation
Partnership BRLPS
Team  Project Manager ICBs (2), CBOs (2), Project Manager- Livelihood (2), Project Officer- Livelihood (1), Cluster Coordinators (6) and Samukh Sakhis (99)

Project Deliverables


The deliverables for the project are in terms of outputs and outcomes as mentioned below:

Phase 1: Major Activities and Achievements

The APMAS team worked in tandem with the Jeevika team to ensure that financial empowerment of women through formation of SHGs and provided required support. APMAS team adopted various training modules of Jeevika in providing required trainings to the SHGs and their federations. APMAS and Jeevika teams regularly hold block and district level meetings to discuss their progress and issues of concern. The following are the achievements between the years 2015-2018:

Discussion with VO members in Dighwara Block

SHG formation and strengthening

VO formation and strengthening

  • Promotion of Village Organization (VO): Against bench-mark of 100, 108 VOs (108 %) were promoted in the two intervention blocks and 1439 SHGs (88%) are directly linked with these VOs. 89 VOs (83%) were provided a grade ‘A’ upon rating.
  • VO Account Opening: 102 VO (95%) have their own savings account and been doing their bank transactions. The VO leaders were provided training and are now proficient in their dealings with the banks.
  • VO Received ICF Fund: 84 VO (78%) have received ICF fund from Jeevika and members are utilizing these funds to enhance their livelihood options.
  • VO Received HRF Fund: 82 VO (76%) have received HRF Fund from Jeevika and members are utilizing this fund to treat their health issues.
  • VO Received FSF Fund: 19 VO (18%) have received FSF Fund from Jeevika and members are utilizing this fund for bulk procurement of rice, wheat, oil etc based on the demands in their VO.

Seedling of Higher Saving to SHG

Earlier, the internal saving of SHGs was Rs 40 per month. The amount collected monthly wasn’t enough to cater to the requirements. The SHG members were motivated to increase their individual monthly contributions to Rs. 100. Currently, more than 50% SHGs have increased their monthly savings to Rs 100 and there is a plan to increase further to Rs 200 per month.

Phase 2: Major Activities and Achievements (July 2018 - March 2019)

The second phase from July 2018 to June 2021 focuses on strengthening SHG Federations and promoting livelihood activities in Dighwara & Garkha blocks. A livelihoods scoping study was conducted by APMAS and E&Y foundation to understand the different opportunities available such as Farm, Livestock and Non-Farm activities to enhance additional income for the farmers.

SRI Demos: Promoted 29 demo plots for SRI wheat and 50 plots for SRI paddy in three clusters of Dighwara with support of a local NGO, Pran. Farmers are prepared for the upcoming Rabi season through trainings on seed treatment, timely irrigation and harvest, appropriate disease and pest management and other aspects to ensure increased yield. The target is to place at least 5 seed treatment plots at each SHG level for the upcoming season.

Two major crops identified for Rabi season are Wheat and Potato and the interventions identified are Seed treatment; Fertilizer management and Pesticide management.

  • In the first season, a total of 3247 farmers were involved in undertaking seed treatment of wheat and potato seeds in 1456 acres and 288 acres of land respectively.
  • For the Rabi season, around 3000 farmers who have more than 10 kattha land, have been identified to showcase the impact of the interventions on the field.
  • To create awareness amongst the farmers about the seed treatment, fertilizer and pesticide management, several resource materials have been designed and distributed amongst the farmers during the awareness melas organized to promote the importance of seed treatment.

Challenges & Constraints

Creating awareness amongst the farmers about the impact of seed treatment, fertilizer management and pesticide management had been a major challenge as the practice was not observed until our interventions. Farmers also have very less information regarding the fertilizer management and pesticide management and dependent solely on vendors for such information. Garnering their interest and trust has been a challenge for the field staff.

Way Forward

The focus is to successfully promote farm, non-farm and livestock livelihoods in the two intervention blocks and support these farmers to have sustainable livelihoods in the future.

Photos

Training sessions underway for SHGs
in Dighwara Block to achieve higher Savings 		Devi VO paying Samuh Sakhi Sewa Sulk
in Manupur Village of Dighwara Block.
E & Y Team interactions with
Samuh Sakhis in Garkha Block		 Credit linkage camp conducted in Garkha Block.
VO birthday celebrations upon completion of
one year since the formation of the organization 		SHG members learning about seed
Treatment in Dighwara Block
SHG members doing seed Treatment in Ganga SHG in Garkha BlockWheat fields upon undertaking seed treatment