Interventions In Economic Empowerment

Part of Deepak Foundation's Annual Report, 2001-2002

The empowerment of women involves not just an improvement in their physical and social conditions but also an increased involvement in decision-making and control over resources. This empowerment of women depends greatly on the economic status they hold in society. But high economic status alone without capacity building that is facilitated by education, skill, knowledge and information, does not ensure empowerment. Thus DCT's approach towards empowering women has had a dual focus - increasing the income of women and increasing their capacity. DCT's interventions with a specific economic focus - the Women's Dairying program and the Self Help Group (Microfinance) program - incorporate both these elements. The women themselves manage DCT's co-operative dairying program. The thrust is on self-management. A predominant part of the intervention focuses on training that develops the capacities of the women to manage their co-operative dairy themselves. The same goes for the Microfinance program - the Self Help Groups are handled to a great extent by the women themselves - visits to the bank; filling bank documents; maintaining group level accounts; are the responsibilities of the members themselves. A continual challenge for DCT is in building the capacities and the skills of these women, who are by and large illiterate, to manage these programs wherein their incomes are increased.

DCT's Women's Dairying program had its beginnings in 1995 when the first women's dairy co-operative was set up in Sakariyapura village. There were a lot of teething troubles with the managing of the dairy - it was, after all, the first time women were managing the dairy, which was previously managed by men. It took a good two years for the troubles to settle and for the women to fully assume charge and responsibility. But once the dairy started making profits and the women demonstrated that they could manage a successful dairy, it had a snowballing effect and a large number of women demanded that women's dairy co-operatives be set up in their villages . Thus in 1998 three more women's dairy co-operatives were set up. This was followed by the formation of one co-operative each in 1999, 2000 and 2001 which brings the total number of women's dairy co-operatives to 7.

History of Women's Dairy Co-ops

The major activities under this project comprise of training women to manage the running of the dairies; giving technical inputs in order to increase milk production and milk collection; IEC activities to increase membership and milk collection of co-operatives; linking the women's co-operatives with the Baroda District Milk Producers Union Ltd. and linking the members with Self Help Groups in order to inculcate the habit of savings and providing access to loans.

Bonus Details

Within seven years of initiating the women's dairying program, the turnover of the seven co-operatives in 2001 has crossed one crore rupees to Rs. 1,05,48,258.48. This is an impressive achievement on the part of the women and has surpassed our expectations. The other highlight of 2001 includes the formation of a new women's dairy co-operative in Nandesari. 26% of the members of this co-operative are widows. For us this is a satisfying achievement keeping in mind that many widows in this area unable to sustain themselves take to brewing illegal liquor and commercial sex. Our hope is that these women can earn a livelihood from the sale of milk and sustain themselves from it.

Highlights of 2001

In 2001 we were able to get two dairy co-operatives - Gam Fajalpur and Rampura - registered as primary milk co-operatives of the Baroda District Milk Producers Union Ltd. Two dairy co-operatives in the villages of Sakariyapura and Dodka were able to procure the "Automatic Milk Collection System" (AMCS). This is a computerized milk collection system, which makes calculations of milk collected, amount of fat in the milk, payment due to the members etc. very easy. Milk fat testing machines known as "Milko Testing Machines" (MTM) have been installed in the co-operatives at Fajalpur and Rampura. All the seven co-operatives made profit and were able to pay their members a bonus. The percentage varied between 4% and 10%. The total amount paid as bonus to members was Rs.3, 23,652.86.

Achievements of the Cattle Care Program

An important component of this intervention is the technical inputs provided to the members of the dairy co-operatives in order to improve the quantity and quality of milk. Cattle care and Artificial Insemination (AI) are the two areas where these inputs are focused. Awareness of women is also increased regarding improved cattle rearing practices. Exposure visits for women regarding this are organized. The total numbers of villages where these inputs are offered are 15. The total number of cases taken up for Artificial Insemination was 1029. The success rate was 33.91%. The total number of women who benefited from these technical inputs, by immunization camps, cattle care camps and camps held to distribute medicines for cattle, was 2615. These camps are held in co-operation with Baroda Dairy and the DRDA.

In order to study the empowerment of women involved in the dairy co-operatives, DCT carried out a study of two villages where there were women's dairy co-operatives. We were interested to know what exactly the factors are that work towards the empowerment of women. Two co-operatives, Sakariyapura and Dodka, were studied, where the inputs provided by DCT were exactly the same yet the women in Sakariyapura seemed to be more empowered. Thus the study was carried out to determine what was it that caused the women in Sakariyapura to be more empowered than those in Dodka. The main conclusion of this report was that the level of involvement and participation in the management of the dairy was much more in Sakariyapura than in Dodka. Plus the contribution of the women's income to the household income was higher in Sakariyapura than in Dodka. It was mainly these two factors that determined the levels of empowerment experienced by the women.

The study has policy implications for our program intervention - we have to increase the participation and involvement of women involved in the dairy co-operatives to all of the members. Our efforts, which have mainly focused on the Managing Committee till now, will have to extend to all members of the co-operative. We also have to focus our efforts in trying to increase the income of the women from dairying so that their contribution to the household income increases. Thus a major part of our efforts for 2002 will be focused on these two points.

Documentary made on DCT's Dairying Program

The Ministry of External Affairs produced a series on Women's Empowerment in the new millennium called "Steps and Strides" for viewing at various Indian embassies across the world. The media coverage that DCT's dairying program had received in 2000 was instrumental in it being selected as the subject of one of the series.