Deepa lives in Nevalpada village, a typical, poor village in India’s Maharashtra state where women stay at home and look after the family, and during the busy harvest season, they also work in the fields with their husbands. Deepa has no income herself; she has little education and no training. Deepa’s husband controls the family finances and likes to gamble. With few resources, Deepa did not know how she could improve the family economic situation.

For 38 year-old Deepa, the changes brought by Prasad Chikitsa are welcomed and long awaited. Working with Prasad Chikitsa’s community development program, Deepa now plans to buy 50 mango trees. In time each tree will produce 25 kg of mangos a year. Deepa and her family will have an additional annual income of Rs25,000 or about US$550 – that is three times more than what the family now makes in a year.

Prasad Chikitsa, the PRASAD entity in India, first introduced the community development program in 2001 in the Tansa region in Maharashtra state. One of the projects is the self-help groups, or SHGs, which are formed by members of a village with the aim of pooling their financial and other resources together to improve their economic situation and living conditions.

When Prasad Chikitsa first proposed to help the people of Nevalpada to set up SHGs, the proposal was turned down because many villagers there distrusted outsiders. While the people of Nevalpada were reserved, other villages in the Tansa region were open to the idea and several SHGs were established producing tangible benefits to the villagers. After 18 months, the villagers of Nevalpada finally decided to give it a try and approached Prasad Chikitsa. Today, Nevalpada has one SHG while a second one is in the process of being formed. And Deepa will be one of the first people to borrow money from her SHG to buy mango trees.

What changed the minds of the people of Nevalpada is how the SHGs in the neighboring villages had transformed their own communities. Not only had members of the SHGs planted fruit trees and vegetables bought with money borrowed from the SHGs, but by coming together the villagers had grown much closer. With this new sense of community, villages with SHGs now work together to improve living conditions as well as come to each other’s aid when it is needed.

The financial benefits are also great. Before SHGs were formed, for many villagers when they needed money, they could only go to a moneylender for a loan. They were charged exorbitant interest rates of 120% to 180% per year. Even though the money was borrowed to buy grain seed, the high interest rates meant the villagers could never fully benefit from their labor, as what they made would mostly be paid back to the moneylender. Now members of the SHG each deposit money into a mutual account every month, and when a loan is needed, the member can borrow from the group at a fraction of what the moneylender charges.

As the majority of SHGs are run entirely by women, these groups have produced another benefit. Deepa says as the women begin to have access to money and are able to participate in work that brings in an income, their self-confidence grows. She says many women have learned they are good money managers and have gained more respect in their community.

Prasad Chikitsa helps the villagers set up SHGs by explaining to them the different income generating activities and providing the necessary training including how to run the SHGs. Other training courses have also been held. They include sewing and indigenous arts and crafts. In a number of villages, Prasad is working with villagers to experiment mushroom culture as a source of income during dry season. There is little farm work available during the dry season, which lasts about six months from October to April. Mushrooms can be grown cheaply and require very little land. In one bed made up of a polythene bag with husk and spores for mycelium growth, three harvests can be produced. In order to improve the environment, tree planting was organized in many villages. The schools helped, teachers and their students together with the villagers made tree guards to protect the young trees from animals. Prasad Chikitsa also organized several courses in hygiene and clean drinking water, as unclean water is one of the main sources of sickness in that area. Today there are 45 SHGs with more than 700 members in 30 villages.

For these villagers, they have come a long way since establishing the first SHG. They have learned to build community spirit, to pool their resources together, to help each other, and about the many ways they can improve their economic situation and to have better living conditions. They have learned much about the land and cultivation including how to look after the environment. Little by little their lives are improving, and their children’s future is looking brighter as they are empowered by their own efforts and unity.