The self help group

Interview with the manager of the Self Help Group, Mr. Murgan K:

1. How many tailors work at the self-help group?


16 tailors and 2 helpers work at the self-help group currently, and the group is set to expand soon.

2.How many hours a day do they work?


6 - 8 hours a day for 6 days a week


3.How much do they earn?


Males earn 80 to 250rs per a day, whereas women earn 80 to 150rs on piecework basis to support their families.


4.Do men and women both work?


Yes.


5.Does the income they get help support their families?


The continuous work and the steady income they receive from the centre will definitely help support their families.


6.Do they enjoy working here?


Yes they enjoy working. Aside from providing them with an income, the work here enables them to utilise their craftsmanship and skills and provides them with a feeling of satisfaction on a job well done.


7.For how many years / generations have they been tailors?


60 % of the tailors here have been working as tailors for generations. The others have been working as tailors for the past 8 to 10 years


8.What work did they do before they joined the shg?


They worked for salaries and the income was very low, at around 1500 to 2500 per month.
Earlier women had to travel a great distance to reach the factories they worked in, but since the Self Help Group is located right next to their villages, it has decreased their commuting time a great deal, allowing them to spend more time at home with their families.


9.Do they think the shg will help them economically?


They hope the support system and group savings will help to fulfil all their financial needs and up till now it has managed to do just that.

10.How much work are they doing now?


Average of 6 hours per day

11. Is it often that they do not have work?


Normally around the 2nd Quarter of the year there is absolutely no work for them and they don’t have work for an average of 5 days a week during this low season.


12. Where do they get the bulk of their other orders?


Industree crafts pvt limited


13. What are the major problems that they are facing?


The major financial problems are with overhead expenses and if they invest on materials they loose interest from the bank. For working capital they had to take loans from local pawn brokers who charged huge rates of interest {4 - 6% per month}, but now with the micro-finance group collateral system employed at the SHG they collect money amongst themselves and use this to buy materials or take a bigger loan from a professional and official banking system with lower rates of interest.


14.How will this money help them?


It will help to pay the loans to free themselves, and provide capital with which they can expand the self-help group and generate more revenue.

More information:

Producer group:

The Krishnagiri Self-Help Producer Group is run by a Mr Murgan. K and was registered 6 months ago. This is a self sustaining self help group in a rural area. Some of the group's earlier projects have included work with the indigenous Kalamkaari artform.

1. The whole process has been organized by a producer self help group
{a group of 20 tailors}
2. who collect money from all the members and use that sum as greater
collateral when dealing with banks for loans.
3. This system is based on a group collateral, micro finance system
developed by Mr. Mohammed Younis of Bangladesh who has recently won
the noble peace price for his work.
4. For poor rural people to raise themselves from poverty they need
access to small loans, for this banks have usually demanded collateral
/ security, which the poor people have not been able to collect.
5. In the absence of banks lending them money they have been forced to
go to moneylenders who have charged crippling rates of interest thus
not allowing the poor to raise themselves from their extreme poverty.
6. In this new micro finance system a group of 10 – 15 artisans come
together and form a group collateral system. they are each a security
for the other, the group ensures that the money is paid back to the
banks. Each member saves, and their savings are added up and the bank
provides two or three times the saved amount as a loan to them.
7. This enables them to invest in small businesses and also to take
care of emergency expenditures such as illness, marriages and so on.

Krishnagiri: is a municipal city and the headquarters of Krishnagiri District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
It is a part of Kongu Nadu region of Tamilnadu ruled by the ancient Western Ganga Dynasty.
Mango is cultivated as the main crop and its considered as the birth place for Mangoes.