World Ark Magazine - March/April 2009 - (Page 14) The animals generate income, but the real priority is social change: improving women’s status in their families, laying the groundwork for self-empowerment and loosening the bonds of caste. from feminist critics. The U.N. women’s conference had long resolved to make women’s rights integral to all development programs. These newer, more simplified economic plans, they worried, could displace a more holistic approach that emerged in the previous decade, in which women’s rights, the environment and social justice are seen as deeply connected development issues. is the current fascination with microfinance fueling a backlash, overshadowing more nuanced problems in societies stratified by caste and gender? a.k. Behera, a former director of orissa’s rural development agency, offers an equivocal answer. women’s microcredit groups are a groundswell in orissa, he said. “we have more than 100,000 of them at present, more than any other state. obviously there is a need here.” But the problem for extremely poor women, he says, is that they rarely know how to use loans for earning potential. These self-help groups (as they’re called in india) can facilitate information exchange, but even with exposure to ideas, Behera says, women can’t become entrepreneurs without the skills and confidence to manage businesses. many studies show that for marginalized women, the success of a microfinance scheme hinges on the borrower’s position in her family and community. for example, access to credit could be disastrous for a woman whose husband could force her to borrow money he’ll use for alcohol. and “success” may not be measured simply by repayment of a loan. Quality of life is slow to change and difficult to put on a ledger. in a tiny village just down the road from akandalamuni, a small cement building bears a large sign: Bhodal milk production cooperative Society. Thirteen women founded this grassroots co-op 20 years ago, to ward off exploitation by milk companies. milk producers in india tend to have just one or two animals, but collective bargaining can earn them better prices. The Bhodal milk production cooperative Society has grown to 167 members who sell nearly 265 gallons of milk daily and recently earned india’s “Best cooperative” award. milk was their sole agenda until the massive cyclone of ’99, in which more than 80 percent of local livestock were lost, mainly because of the region’s lack of infrastructure— roads, electricity, emergency communications. The co-op’s entrepreneurs learned a difficult truth: no individual can rise far above the constraints of a wholly impoverished society. wanting to improve everyone’s security by helping the district’s poorest women, they proposed the “Small livestock livelihood program.” heifer international was invited to be a partner in the project. Sushant Verma, the project coordinator, has worked with many international development agencies but prefers heifer for one clear reason: the agency’s focus on community selfeducation. “The emphasis on non-material support here is key. a small amount of money and a little appropriate technology yield a big emotional attachment to the success of the program.” he’s not kidding about the small The only meal amount of money: a budget of $60,000 of the day is from heifer last year paid the coopera- prepared in tive outreach of india for Verma’s salary, a so-called office expenses, a veterinary program Untouchable and the poultry and goats that reached village. 14 m a rch / ap r i l 2 00 9 | world ark www.he i f e r .o r g http://www.heifer.org
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