Odisha Economic Forum

financial decision making power

microfinance programme of
SEWA Bank in India on women’s financial
decision making within the household
confirms that clients have gained from
programme membership which has
improved their knowledge, skill, attitude
and financial decision making power.

personal revelations

There was scope for intellectual sharing beyond workshop hours. Debates and discussions initiated in the business sessions were extended and carried over to pre and post dinner talks, breakfast sessions, experience sharing, walks and the encounters we had together. We shared, listened and connected, bonded and initiated friendships that were to last. We glimpsed and gained insights into each other?s worlds—were inspired or shaken up by personal revelations. We felt pampered and genuinely valued. It felt good to be able to talk about ourselves with the surety of knowing that our experiences would not be devalued or belittled, that we were being listened to empathetically, that nothing was „too personal? or „too trivial? to be voiced.

THE ACADEMIC IMPROVMENT

The academic researches (Falaiye, 2002;
Hema, 2003; Afrane, 2003; Doocy, 2004)
in some developing countries confirm and

acknowledge the positive impact of
microfinance. Falaiye(2002) in his study
on the impact of micro credit on rural
Nigerian women finds that the micro
credit has positively changed the clients’
self-esteem and confidence, leadership
abilities and decision-making process;
contributing to their household’s wellbeing
and increasingly seeking out solutions
to their own problems and the community.

Regional Co-Ordinator and Core Group Resource

The programme was initiated in the northeast in 2003 by the Regional Co-Ordinator and Core Group Resource the Director of WSRC, Guwahati and with her team from the centre and a support group of teachers from the university. Since then in the course of five years 12 workshops were conducted in Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur.Become a part of a nationwide movement of women for women in higher education - a women?s collective that was unique and the first of its kind because it sought to combine the experiential with the intellectual.

women's collective action

A participatory training methodology is used, which is essentially experiential.The emphasis is on group building, encouraging involvement and initiating dialogue.Methodological tools for unconventional, learner-centred training are used.Ice breakers, case studies, role plays, panel discussions, group exercises, games, brainstorming, group discussions, experience sharing group reporting are some of the techniques used to draw out the group and facilitate identification and sharing, as also non-threatening, co-operative engagements in the context of higher education. In this context, women?s collective action and collaborative efforts in terms of mobilizing resources to achieve the common goal of fostering gender friendly workplaces could be viewed as an alternative possibility of empowerment.

cross-section of colleges and universities

Train Motivational workshops are conducted at different levels and with various combinations linking a cross-section of colleges and universities. A select group of talented and committed participants who are willing to give their time are identified as potential trainers and trained at the Regional level Training of Trainers workshops. The ambit of the movement is widened with every consecutive round of SAM and ToT workshops and the community of sensitized women in the system grows by ripple effect.

DEVELOPMENT OF BANK

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

through its ‘Foundation for Micro Credit’

since January, 1999 has sanctioned

aggregate assistance of more than

Rs.1100million to about 180 micro-finance

institutions (MFIs), benefiting over

7,00,000 poor, mostly women IN SIDBI

Wednesday, 1 February 2017