Pancham Mahila Swayamsiddha Bachat Gat, based in Khopoli Nagarparishad, Raigad (Maharashtra) has been working as a self-help group for about four years now. The project of the SHG focusses on women empowerment, health of children and youth and drinking water interventions. Currently the SHG has about 15 members in the age group 22-45. While the average educational qualification of these women is secondary school certificate, a few of them are also graduates.

The SHG was formulated by Watershed Organization Trust, who built their capacities and familiarized the women with matters of health, education, social issues etc. They were also taught how to facilitate internal lending and were handheld through the process of applying for PAN card, bank account operations etc.

The SHG members started enterprises such as making detergent base product, incense sticks, food items etc. However, one challenge they had encountered was marketing of their products. To address this, frequent visits to exhibitions in Mumbai and Pune were arranged for, where they could showcase and market their products. A luxury hotel in Goa also showed interest and has been placing orders of 500 soaps a month. During peak times, the SHG women request help from other women in the community and offer them an honorarium for their efforts. Since 2017, this group has had a turnover of 3 lakhs. 

Nirmala (36), a member of the SHG, already knew how to make agarbatti (incense sticks) but was unable to convert her skills into an enterprise as she didn’t have sufficient capital. After she was provided an agarbatti making machine from the SHG, she now earns Rs 10,000 monthly out of which she saves Rs 2,800 a month and deposits in the bank. Similarly, most of these women who started small enterprises are now financially sustainable.  The collective has provided women a sense of empowerment and ownership which they had never experienced before. The men in their communities too have started involving them in decision making and they now sense a new found respect.

Under their childcare growth monitoring initiatives, the members conduct monthly weight & height monitoring camps for children aged between 0 to 5 years, and organize health camps, anemia detection camps, capacity building of village level adolescent girls and distribute reusable sanitary pads. These efforts have significantly reduced the malnutrition rate among children in the community, and girls too have now become more regular to school. The women also took initiative in the construction of a drinking water tank for the village with contributions from the people. The village gets sufficient safe drinking water, which has reduced incidences of water borne diseases and ultimately reduced expenditure on health issues caused from contaminated water.

It was remarkable to note the work done by the SHG members in mobilizing community support for breast cancer detection. 200 women were screened out of which 16 women were diagnosed to be in the first phase.  These women received immediate consultation and have begun treatment. 

To understand the village level problems and find appropriate solutions, the SHG conducted various PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) activities such as village mapping, seasonality calendar, wealth ranking, Chapati diagram, water budgeting etc. This helped them bring in interventions at multiple levels be it health, financial literacy, decision making etc.

These women now try to impart the knowledge to other women in their own village as well as in neighboring villages. Kavita (45) is frequently invited as a guest speaker by co-operative banks and other NGOs.

Plan India recognized their efforts and provided impetus for them to continue their incredible work through the Plan India Impact Awards 2021 in the ‘Best Women’s Self Help Group’ category. This also led the Gram Panchayat to applaud their initiatives and include their opinion for all village related decisions.