Chapter 5: Women's Micro-enterprise Promotion in Silk Reeling (India)¹⁶

5.1 Background
5.2 The 'orientation' programme
5.3 The women
5.4 The impact of the training
5.5 Conclusions

¹⁶ Exchange rate (1998) 70 rupees = £1 sterling

5.1 Background

This project ran for three years, from 1996 to 1999, with financial and technical support from DFID (ODA at the time) and Intermediate Technology Consultants, UK. It was implemented by two Indian NGOs: EDA (Economic Development Associates) Rural Systems based in Gurgaon, and Chamarajanagara Parish Society (CPS). The former was responsible for managing the project and monitoring and evaluation, and the latter for day to day implementation. EDA is an Indian consultancy firm providing gender-focused management, research and documentation services to NGOs involved in rural development. CPS is a local NGO which has operated in Chamarajanagara district, Karnataka state in South India since 1984 in a range of development activities, especially with women. These include gender sensitisation, the formation and support of women's self-help groups and income generating activities. The village where this particular project was located, Mangala Hosur, is 170 kilometers from Bangalore, the state capital and six kilometers from Chamarajanagara town.

The village is located in a drought prone area with low rainfall. The livelihood of the local population is mainly silk reeling, beedi rolling (a local handmade cigarette) and other types of casual labour. Mangala Hosur is a medium-sized village, with about 200 households and a population of 1200. Hindus predominate, although there are also Christians and Muslims. More than half the village are scheduled caste (occupying the lowest rung in the Indian caste structure). As elsewhere, the scheduled castes live in a separate colony, slightly away from the main village. The nearest road is 1.5 kms from the village. There is inadequate electricity and piped water, sanitation and health facilities in the village. However, there is a primary and a middle school (up to 7^th grade) and an anganwadi (creche).

The main occupation pursued in the village is sericulture, both silkworm rearing and silk reeling. Nearly half the households are engaged in silk reeling as a family based occupation, using hand-operated charakas (reeling device). The majority of reelers own one or possibly two charakas but very few own more than two. At the time of the study, there were only two entrepreneurs in the village who hired labourers to operate their ten-charaka units. Seasonal variations which affect the sericulture industry allow the reelers to function only on a limited number of days, approximately 150 per year. Reeling is usually carried out between February and March, and between June and September. During the other months, when this type of reeling is unprofitable, the local population, both male and female, find work as agricultural labourers, e.g. in coffee and mulberry picking. Although agriculture is the other main economic activity pursued in the locality, not many people own land. Dairying and livestock rearing are pursued in a limited way. The local government office in March 1998 indicated that 90-95 percent of the population were living below the poverty line.

Silk has provided a traditional employment to rural families, particularly those from the poorest sections of society, for centuries. The skills are passed on from one generation to the next. Women constitute the major proportion (over 60%) of workers engaged in silk reeling. However, few women are independent entrepreneurs. According to the researcher, in the whole of the state of Karnataka there were only four independent female entrepreneurs some years previously (Sitaram, 1993). All public and financial transactions (obtaining loans, purchasing cocoons, selling silk) are carried out by men. Silk reeling requires considerable skill; those women who cannot reel serve as turners, i.e. turn the handle on the reeling device. Reelers earn approximately 30 rupees (40 pence) per day, turners 15 rupees (20 pence). Cocoons are bought locally from a number of government regulated cocoon markets and transported to reeling sheds where they are sorted, stifled, cooked and reeled. The silk is then sold either in the local Silk Exchange in Chamarajanagara, or preferably in the Bangalore Exchange where the much larger market attracts buyers and sellers from many regions.

As in many other economic activities, the division of labour disadvantages women in the reeling industry. They carry out the more physically tiring work and remain marginalised as paid labourers, while men manage and supervise the reeling units. Indian women experience difficulties in moving out of waged employment because of a wide range of social, economic and cultural practices that discriminate against their sex, e.g. their lack of access to technology, credit, extension and other support services, their limited ownership of land (to provide collateral for loans), the traditional taboo on women interacting with men outside the family, women's lack of involvement in decision making on production matters, and their lack of mobility which makes travelling to markets difficult.

The project consisted of a combination of training (both formal and informal modes), access to credit and follow-up support. Its long-term objectives were firstly to empower women and enhance their socio-economic status in the silk reeling industry and secondly to demonstrate that women can be successful, independent entrepreneurs in silk reeling. The assumptions behind the project were that:

· greater gender equity in access to, and control over, income is an important development objective

· women reelers with many years' experience as workers in the activity have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs

· women need particular assistance to overcome social barriers, and gain confidence and experience in business transactions

· direct access of women reelers to the cocoon and silk markets will result in more effective, market-linked, production decisions

· access to income will enhance women's involvement in household decision-making.

(EDA/CPS 1996, p 1)

The more immediate objectives were to develop the women's skills and confidence in managing all aspects of silk reeling and to enable them as entrepreneurs to earn more than 35,000 rupees (approximately £500) a year. This would compare with current earnings of around 8000 rupees (£115) or less from seasonal employment as waged labour in reeling and would require an increase in annual reeling activity from about 150 days as at present to 200 days. In addition, it was anticipated that enabling women to have direct access to the cocoon and silk markets would allow them to make their own production-related decisions and have more control over their income. In turn, this would enhance their role in decision-making in the household and community as well as increasing their mobility and self-confidence. It was also hoped that this approach to women's micro-enterprise promotion which sought directly to empower women economically and socially would be replicable in other economic sectors.

To qualify for participation in the programme, women had to be part of one of the mahila sanghas (self-help groups) which CPS had successfully set up in 22 villages in Chamarajanagara district. These groups run thrift and savings (rotating credit) schemes. When the programme was initiated, the local self-help group of 48 women in Mangala Hosur, which appeared to be the most active ¹⁷, was asked to select its ten 'best' members for training; the criteria were that they should be experienced reelers or turners, either working in household reeling units or as paid labourers in other units, that they had an interest in taking up entrepreneurial tasks and activities, and that their families did not object to them joining the programme. They would act as role models for others in the village, with the promise that the remaining members of the group would receive training. The group of ten women who are the focus of this study (Group 1) are the second group to be trained. Those trained in the initial round constitute the Group 2 women, i.e. those who would be interviewed at the start and at the end of the field work period.

¹⁷ This sangha had raised 7000 rupees (£100) by the start of the project, charging loans to its members at 18% interest.

5.2 The 'orientation' programme

5.2.1 The training process
5.2.2 Benefits of the training

This training and support programme which was called Spurti Kriya Saphalathe (literally translated as Inspiration Action Success) sought to target the very poorest illiterate women in small villages in the area and to provide them with the necessary means to become micro-entrepreneurs in an economic activity in which they were already engaged (in this case reeling). According to the project proposal (EDA/CPS 1996, p1), training programmes for women have tended to be urban-based, to assume that participants are literate and to have primarily a technical and/or business content. They usually consist of a short 'one-off training component with very little if any follow-up support. The designers of this project considered that technical and business training was insufficient to support these women in micro-enterprise activity because it did not address their marginal status in society or break down the cultural barriers which serve to restrict women's participation in business. The intention therefore was to overcome these barriers by providing the women not only with formal training but also with an extended period (12 months) of informal support in both financial management and marketing as they went about their business.

The programme sought to move away from conventional concepts of training and can be considered as particularly innovative (see 5.2.1). According to the programme designers, it should be considered more as 'an orientation' towards micro-enterpreneurship in silk reeling because of its multiple, interrelated and open-ended components, than training in the narrow short-term sense. It sought to facilitate rather than to train. The more formal component of the programme, which was delivered in blocks over a 28 day period, was linked to informal training inputs in the form of exposure visits to familiarise the women with silk reeling as an industry, 'escort services', and follow-up meetings and NGO visits. The escort services were provided by a male NGO worker who would accompany the women on each transaction to the cocoon market ¹⁸ and to the Silk Exchange. The aim was to help the women to gain confidence in their ability to become independent entrepreneurs, to control and manage their business and to participate effectively in the cocoon and silk markets. Marketing skills were seen as crucial to the women's success.

¹⁸ With the second group to be trained, the women of the first group were expected to take over the task of accompanying the women to the local cocoon market as they already had experience of bidding and this reduced project costs. However, the NGO worker continued to accompany the second group to the Silk Exchange in Bangalore (see 5.2.1).

The pattern of production followed a five-day cycle: taking it in turns, two women in the group would go to the nearby cocoon markets on a daily basis to buy cocoons for the whole group using working capital provided by CPS. These cocoons would then be distributed among the members. Reeling would be done individually over a period of three days and then pooled (three days of reeling for each group usually produced 30 kilos of silk). Two women would then sell the silk in the Bangalore Silk Exchange on the fourth day accompanied by the NGO worker. On the fifth day, the account would be settled with the NGO (including 14.5% interest on the loan), minus 100 rupees (£1.40) per woman to cover labour and husk (fuel) costs. A new loan would then be made available to the group so that they could buy more cocoons. Records of these transactions, including how much each woman owed, were made by the NGO. It is important to note that at the same time as taking these loans, the women were expected to continue saving at least one rupee per week since they were members of a sangha.

This was a project that sought directly to empower women in a very real sense: the NGO insisted that the reeling licence be in the woman's name (and hence the unit belonged to her), that the purchase of cocoons as well as the sale of silk be carried out by the women, and the loans/working capital were made available only to the women. Other tasks associated with reeling, where there was no stipulation that the women had to do them, were sometimes carried out by men, e.g. purchase of husk, sale of jute (a by-product of reeling), hiring workers from other areas. The project was particularly daring in that it sought to create a reversal of roles: the women became the owners of the reeling units, their husbands the employees (even though neither men nor women saw it as such).

Although it was intended that the two groups of women would follow the same pattern of training and engage in buying and selling on the same basis, this did not happen in reality. The first group of women followed the full 28-day course in September-October 1996, including an eight-day residential component at the start, and then set up their enterprises in January 1997. This was despite the fact that the loan promised by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) had not yet materialised (EDA and CPS provided the initial capital). The second group started their training in May 1997. However, this was interrupted after only two days of the formal residential component as a result of two factors: the continuing delay in accessing the SIDBI loan and a drought which resulted in half the group leaving the village to look for agricultural work. They did not return until November, when the silk reeling season had started again. It was only then that they set up their reeling units. Further opportunities for formal training were complicated by the sudden death of one of the principal trainers in December. The informal aspects of the training, however, (the exposure visits, the escort services and the meetings) took place as planned.

In one other respect, the two groups did not conform exactly to the project requirements. With the first group of women to be trained (Group 2), one woman dropped out and was replaced by another woman, who had not attended the formal training. In Group 1, due to the shortage in funds, only eight women were selected initially to take part in the scheme and attended the (curtailed) training course. However, two women were added to the programme later because the NGO realised that to qualify for another loan to assist the women, this time from the government programme entitled Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA), there had to be ten women in the group. In a third case, a mother replaced her daughter who had been trained because the NGO was worried that the daughter would leave to take up salaried employment as she had completed secondary school. In the event, this did not happen and the mother and daughter worked together in the reeling unit. However, these three women who missed the first part of formal training did take part in the April 1998 two-day refresher course, which was laid on partly to provide those who had missed out with some exposure to training.

The fact that some women had not received the initial training caused tension among the Group 1 women throughout the research period, whereas this was not noticeable with Group 2, despite one woman not having been trained. The women in Group 1 who had not been trained felt that they were being undermined by the others and seen as less competent -despite the fact that one woman was an experienced reeler and (exceptionally for a woman) held a reeling licence in her name. ¹⁹

¹⁹ The field work revealed that in some ways these women functioned just as well as the others, despite not having attended the first block of training. This raises interesting questions about the value and necessity of training all members of a group and about informal peer learning. It also complicated the analysis of the impact of the training on the women's enterprises somewhat.

²⁰ The researcher reported that many of the women were tongue-tied when first interviewed, unaccustomed to being addressed directly by a stranger. Their husband or other male relative would often have to prompt them and they would continually look to him for approval or reassurance in what they said. The researcher reported that over time, in part due to continuous group interaction, most of them gained remarkably in self-confidence and became much more articulate.

5.2.1 The training process

This 'orientation' programme was targeted at a) providing basic business skills (bookkeeping, profit and loss accounts etc), b) marketing skills and c) motivation and confidence building. The women and their families were expected to be fully familiar with the technical skills of silk reeling and so training in these basic skills was not included. However, technical aspects related to the business dimension of silk reeling were included, such as how to assess the quality of cocoons and how to store them.

The formal training component took place at CPS headquarters as a residential course, which was a completely new experience for the women. For the first group to be trained (Group 2), this meant that they had almost no contact with their families for eight days. It was decided to make the course residential because meetings held in the village were always disturbed, with women arriving late or leaving early, or being interrupted by children. Further, it was hoped that being together for so long in the same place would create cohesiveness in the group and make them more open and communicative. Indeed, this appeared to have been the case. Sessions on entrepreneurship development, the qualities of an entrepreneur, confidence building, motivation and gender awareness were held during this part.

The methods used were determined by the two NGOs, having evolved from experience on similar courses. They involved a great deal of group activities. Preparation for the programme had included a workshop with three experienced female reeling entrepreneurs who advised on what skills and support the women would need. As the course progressed, however, it was adapted to meet the participants' expressed needs. The first group to be trained were able to help shape the training for the second group. Timing of the course was in part determined by the women's expressed preferences (May was a low season for silk reeling and so a suitable time for training).

This formal component of the programme used a new approach to entrepreneurship development which they called 'informal psychoanalysis'. This started with a 'defreezing' session when the women were encouraged to share their problems, to talk about their successes and failures, their aspirations and apprehensions. The women were asked to introduce each other, to ask questions like 'Why are we here?', 'What is our relationship to one another?' and to discuss their motivation to be part of a self-help group. Games played included musical chairs (to break the ice and test their entrepreneurial qualities), a game using a rope (to stress the importance of group solidarity), and a game with a piece of chalk (to teach them entrepreneurial skills of courage, confidence and determination). The broader aim of the games was to help the women to understand themselves and each other better, to build group solidarity and communication skills and to raise issues of goal setting, risk taking and problem solving. The games were supplemented by role play, discussions, elaboration of case studies, storytelling sessions and deriving lessons from watching TV and films. For the first group there was the opportunity to meet established women entrepreneurs, for the second group there was interaction with the previously trained group, who could act as role models and resource persons.

Everyday, at the start or end of the day, or in breaks between sessions, there would be work with simple mental arithmetic and practice in writing numbers; later, calculations for operating a reeling unit were also practised. The evaluation team noted that the women showed remarkable agility in carrying out mental calculations, as did the researcher.

The informal components of the programme consisted of:

· Exposure trips: these included visits to cocoon markets and Silk Exchanges to familiarise the women with buying and selling; visits to twisting and weaving centres; trips to different sericulture pockets in Karnataka and neighbouring states, where different types of silk were produced or different technologies used, and areas where the silk fabric is woven, etc.

· Escort services: this was an important part of the training programme and constituted a novel form of 'on the job' training. In recognition of the women's lack of experience in marketing and the socio-economic barriers which operated against women generally, a male NGO worker would accompany two women at a time to the nearby cocoon market as well as to the Silk Exchange in Bangalore. The aim was to build self-confidence in the women and to provide them with advice and support in the various procedures which have to be followed at the markets. This arrangement held for 12 months with the first group to be trained. In the case of the subsequent group, members of the first group took over the role of 'escort' for the newcomers when they went to the cocoon market to make their own purchases. Consequently, the NGO worker only accompanied the Group 1 women to the Silk Exchange.

· Follow-up: regular follow-up visits by the NGO staff to the village and weekly meetings of the sangha were considered essential to identify problems, resolve conflicts and reinforce group solidarity and discipline.

The weekly sangha meetings could also be considered as part of the informal training programme. These were led by a female CPS worker and, at the insistence of the Group 2 women, the two groups met separately. For the Group 1 women, these usually took place on a Friday afternoon and lasted about two hours. They were well attended. The original intention was that they should be used to impart skills of bookkeeping, literacy and numeracy, awareness of silk quality parameters etc. However, as the issue of debt and income loss on the silk sales became more urgent (as is explained below), the focus came to be on savings and why the women needed to continue saving while incurring debts. Other community and family matters such as health, sanitation and nutrition were also addressed, and most significantly as time passed by, they became an important forum for conflict resolution. Some meetings were devoted totally to this, in one case dealing with the possible expulsion of a member of the group who was accused of being particularly quarrelsome, and of talking about the group's problems to others. Minutes of these meetings were kept both by the NGO and by the women (by the one literate member in each group). Minutes of 36 meetings between June 1997 and June 1998 were recorded for the Group 1 women.

There was also friction from the beginning between the two groups. The women who had been trained first tried dissuading the new entrants because they feared competition: they claimed that they had experienced losses and the scheme was not worth joining. They were also concerned at the increase in their expenditure as they had to pay the costs of the new trainees when they accompanied them to the cocoon market (which raises ethical questions about the provision of training in which one group is asked to contribute to the training of another group).

At a later date, it was decided to run a 'refresher' training course primarily for the Group 1 women. This took place in April 1998. The decision was taken in the context of the obvious tensions within this group (not nearly so significant in the first group). It would also be an opportunity for the women who were not trained earlier to be exposed to some of the concepts and information presented during the earlier course. Like the earlier course, this was residential and was held at the NGO headquarters. The first day was spent with the Group 1 women focusing on aspects of group building - leadership, coordination and motivation. They were joined by the Group 2 women on the second day, when issues of reeling productivity, profitability and earnings were discussed.

Hence, the vision of training projected by this programme was one that was on-going, flexible to emerging needs and changing circumstances, broad-based in the skills it transferred, and providing awareness raising and confidence building components.

5.2.2 Benefits of the training

Views on the benefits and outcomes of the training were obtained by the researcher from the chief trainer (who was also the founder of CPS) and the EDA training officer, as well as from both groups of women. In the opinion of the chief trainer, the outcomes were clear in that the women had acquired a range of skills and abilities which allowed them to engage in the silk industry as reeling entrepreneurs. He enumerated these as being:

· motivation to become entrepreneurs
· communication skills
· ability to judge quality in cocoons and silk
· some literacy and numeracy
· savings (the concept and goals of self-help groups)
· empowerment (having increased their bargaining power)

At the same time, he acknowledged that there were many constraints to women making full use of the skills acquired on the training: the age-old male domination, family structure, division of labour with the entire workload falling on women, their lack of decision-making power at all levels, were all barriers to women reaching their full potential. For example, in the cocoon markets, male dealers invariably raised the price of the cocoons when women were bidding, resulting in a decrease in their profit.

The EDA training officer saw the likely outcomes of the training as:

· greater awareness, self confidence and mobility in relation to the economic activity

· direct access to (increased) income earned and responsibility for loan management

· as a result of the above, an enhanced role in household decision-making and greater gender equality within the home

· ability to cope independently in case of a crisis.

The two groups of women were themselves articulate as to what they thought they had gained from the training when interviewed on the first follow-up visit. This included:

· awareness of how the reeling industry functions

· awareness of the need for quality silk

· awareness of the importance of training

· skill at identifying quality cocoons

· skill at calculating prices (mentally)

· familiarity with the different counters in the Silk Exchange

· greater mobility

· group solidarity/trust among members of the group

· increased confidence, boldness (especially in talking to men and dealing in the cocoon and silk markets), self-respect (especially in handling large sums of cash for the first time)

· increased economic and social status (being no longer treated as a paid labourer or 'coolie'), leading to increased family well-being and support from husband and other family members.

5.3 The women

5.3.1 The Group 1 women ²¹
5.3.2 Their lives
5.3.3 The impact of the project on the women's lives
5.3.4 The Group 2 women

5.3.1 The Group 1 women ²¹

²¹ These women's names have been changed to protect their identity.

In the Group 1 sample, the women were aged between 20 and 40. Only one woman of 22 was not married. All the married women had children, the oldest woman had four, the others one, two or three each. In some cases an older child was married and living elsewhere. Two of the women were co-wives (married to the same man). Many, if not all, of the women's families were related by kinship.

Prior to the training, all the women were working intermittently as labourers in the silk industry, either as reelers (skilled labour) or turners (unskilled labour). Even during the good months for reeling, most households did not work regularly. All but one of the women confirmed that they spent all the money they earned on food for the household, with the exception of the small savings they were required to make as members of a sangha. One (a co-wife) said that she saved ten rupees a day.

Most of the adult men in the household either worked as reelers or as agricultural labourers, but this work was also irregular and some were unemployed at the time of the training. Most thought it was beneath their dignity to work for anyone in the village and they would look for work outside. Two operated as reeling entrepreneurs, one being the husband of one of the women who joined the group later (and who held a reeling licence in her name), the other was not running the unit at that time. Two husbands were unemployed because of impaired sight and ill health (one was an alcoholic). All children over the age of about ten appeared to do some work. Only one household owned some land but all had some livestock (goats, chickens, sheep) and one had a cow. Livestock was essential to their survival in lean periods, as was observed during the research period.

The major burden of providing food for the family appeared to lie with the women, especially where the husband was unemployed or irregularly employed. They were required by their poverty to buy small quantities of food daily, often on credit at high rates of interest, and could not usually take advantage of cheaper options to buy in bulk.

Of the ten women, only the two youngest had had any significant education. Both had completed 10th grade. When the 20 year old Puttamma left the village for six months after the initial training (see below), Rajamma, her 22 year old sister-in-law, was the only remaining educated member of the group. She was therefore made secretary of the group and was responsible for doing their calculations, keeping the accounts and taking minutes of meetings (she was replaced by Puttamma when the latter returned). One other woman had had two years of schooling. This lack of education was in contrast to the Ethiopian Group 1 sample where seven out of the ten women had had some schooling, the Sudanese study where five out of the ten Group 1 women had had some schooling and another three had attended either Koranic or literacy classes for a short time, and the Peru study where all the informants, both male and female, had at least completed primary school.

In most cases the husbands were also illiterate. However, all the younger children of school going age were in school or in a creche. The older children had also had some schooling.

Household assets, including the house, any land and the reeling unit, were all registered in the name of the man. Livestock could be owned by both men and women, and in this sample some women owned livestock bought with a loan from DWACRA. Otherwise, small savings and jewellery were the only assets owned and controlled by the women. However, in five cases the women's jewellery had been pawned. The woman would not be able to sell her jewellery without the husband's permission.

Six of the households had very large loans; in four cases they amounted to 20,000 rupees (£285) and although these had been taken out by the husbands (and one brother), the burden of repayment appeared to rest with the whole family, which included the woman's earnings. As the men were often unemployed, it was frequently the case that what the woman earned was the sole income in the household. As indicated, the woman's income would be spent on food for the family and the husband's 'luxuries' (e.g. cigarettes and alcohol), while any income earned by the man would be spent on other items such as school fees, transport etc. Six women had also taken loans from DWACRA, usually of 1000 rupees (£14) and mostly to buy livestock; these had been repaid and the women had taken new loans for the same purpose. There was no indication whether the other loans had been repaid. The July 1998 fifth six-monthly report by ITC and EDA comments that:

The development environment is continually affected by wild political promises. In most areas, people have the idea that loans - when they are from nationalised banks to the rural poor - may not have to be repaid.

(ITC/EDA 1998, p9)

The women's level of involvement in household decision-making was negligible. All important decisions were taken by the closest male relative (the husband and, in the case of the unmarried woman, the brother). Women's daily decisions were restricted to the domestic sphere, in particular what to cook and what food to buy (but husbands or children went to the market to buy the food as instructed by the women). Joint decisions would only be taken on the education of the children, on whether a child should be sent to work and when he/she should be married. The women's mobility was also restricted, with two women reporting that even decisions about visits to friends or relatives were made by the closest male relative. All the women had to obtain permission from their male relatives before they could attend the NGO training.

Significantly, however, only one woman in the sample expressed a desire to have a greater role in important decisions such as the sale of a house or land. The others did not wish to have, or did not think it appropriate to have, a greater say.

Although none of them appeared to have a strong desire to set up their own business at the start of the field work period, they did see that the training offered them the opportunity for greater economic independence and to cease being a paid labourer. At the same time it was recognised that silk reeling is a precarious and seasonal business, and so the women were anxious to have training in other skills such as basket weaving and beedi rolling, as these were all the year round activities and hence more secure; tailoring and dairying were also mentioned. Only one woman had no desire for further training.

The women's economic disadvantage and lack of exposure to the outside world had left them with few aspirations. The majority had never been far from the village, and although they might know the month, they did not usually know the date. They could not envisage any great changes ever coming to their lives, not even from the project and their establishment as independent entrepreneurs. Several stated that they saw no change possible; others expressed modest desires, e.g. to cease being a waged labourer, to be more economically independent, to have a better house and clothes or more jewellery, to have more livestock. They aspired for a better life for their children rather than for themselves. All said lack of capital prevented these changes and they anticipated this as being the greatest barrier to success in their new reeling enterprises. Other barriers cited were: the difficulty of women in business, lack of skills, including literacy and numeracy, lack of mobility, resistance from males, lack of confidence, uncertain markets, lack of electricity supply and ill-health in the family.

The following analysis focuses on the Group 1 women, with a short profile of the Group 2 women, who lived in very similar circumstances, given later. The analysis does not look at the changes to each woman's life individually over the research period, as has been done with the other case studies. This would seem inappropriate given that these women lived in the same circumstances of poverty, were engaged in the same productive activity and were organised as a group to receive training, credit and other support from the NGO. What follows therefore are brief details of the lives of each of the women. This is then followed by a consolidated account of what happened to the group over the field work period and the main findings of the study.

5.3.2 Their lives

Sudha and Mulamma were co-wives, both of about the same age (35 years old). The former had three children and the latter one, a daughter of four. The husband was apparently already courting Mulamma when his family persuaded him to marry Sudha. Since he continued his relationship with Mulamma after the marriage, which would have made it difficult to find a husband for her, the elders of the village decided that it was best to let them marry. Although the two wives lived under the same roof, they cooked separately and at the start of the field work period did not talk to each other. Sudha did not come from a reeling family and had no reeling skills. However, when her husband stopped working as a result of an eye operation she worked as an unskilled labourer (turner) for a neighbouring entrepreneur for a short time before joining the programme.

Mulamma was the only woman in the group to leave the scheme towards the end of the research period, despite being a very competent reeler, who had worked for years for a neighbouring entrepreneur, and a self-confident person. She left the scheme because she claimed she got no support from other members of the family. The husband was required to help his first wife because she did not know how to reel and the first wife refused to let her own children help the second wife, even though she sometimes used them in her own unit. She herself had to hire a turner to help. So, in the end the deteriorating relationship with the first wife, a sense of isolation, the fear of increasing indebtedness, the lack of support from other members of the family, and the opinion that most of the productive work fell on her (she was a faster reeler than her husband) convinced her that she was better off being a wage earner. On looking back, she said she thought it had all been a waste of time and the other women would only incur more debt by continuing with their enterprises.

Sudha, in contrast, thought enrolling on the programme had brought many changes to her life. Her experience was similar to that of others in the group. The only place she had visited before joining the scheme beyond the confines of the village was Mysore, 80 kms away. She had a very negative view of herself, was tongue tied and reluctant to speak in the early interviews, so that her husband had to prompt all her answers. However, as time went by, she became bolder and more confident, even moving freely around the village. She relished the fact that people paid attention to her now when nobody had bothered about her before. She felt particularly proud about going to the cocoon markets and the Silk Exchange in Bangalore. Whereas before, she knew nothing about the price of cocoons, reeling machines etc and was not interested, she ended by knowing exactly how much had been earned or lost in each transaction. Nevertheless, her increased self-confidence and sense of worth were fragile. She saw herself as a burden because she could not reel and when their circumstances grew worse, she lost much of her enthusiasm and said she was reconciled to being a 'coolie' again.

Bhagyamani was aged 28 and was better off than the other women. She lived with her husband and her children in her father's house, which she expected to inherit after his death. Her father also had a cow which provided the family with milk and this allowed the family to pull through difficult times without migrating to other areas in search of work. She aspired for a good life for her children. Unlike some of the other households, she never allowed them to miss school, even when facing hardship, as she had been a child labourer herself. She only allowed them to help out in holidays and after school hours. In the early days of the project, she was accused of causing conflict between the two groups as she had a close relationship with one of the women in Group 2: she had worked in this person's reeling unit prior to setting up her own. Later, the group chose to blame someone else and elected Bhagyamani to be the president. She also admitted to an increase in household conflict as a result of the project; her husband was always highly aggressive and tried to interfere when the women were sharing out the cocoons or pooling the silk. He was not a reeler and criticised the project openly for bringing them nothing but debts and conflict.

Ningamma and Dodamma were the two women who were asked to join the group later and so missed the initial training. The former (aged 25) was asked to join the project because she already had a reeling licence and that enabled them to sell silk while they were waiting for the licences for the other women to be acquired. She was also an experienced reeler as was her husband, who currently ran the family reeling unit. The researcher found her to be a smart and articulate person. Initially, she felt alienated from the group because the others treated her with contempt for not having undergone the training. She was therefore keen to attend the April refresher course so that the others would stop harping on about her 'non-trained' status. Ningamma was of the opinion that there was less conflict between husband and wife when there was more work. In her case, her husband was more flexible than the others; he would substitute for a turner when necessary and also attended to livestock and carried out tasks which were considered to be a woman's. One factor in this was that Ningamma's parents were better off and supportive of her, and she felt that they would safeguard her interests.

Dodamma was 35 years old. It was clear that she only joined the project because her husband insisted. Despite not having attended the initial training, she never felt alienated from the group. She was shy and withdrawn and had difficulty in answering the questions at first. Her daughter had to help her in this. Over time she became a little more forthcoming and articulate. She received no support at all from her husband who, as a relative put it, 'is only interested in dressing up smartly and moving around'. Even during the lean period he made no attempt to find employment as he considered it beneath his dignity to work for others - but it did not prevent him from drawing on the wages of his wife and at times their 12 year old son. It was only when they had their own unit in the house that he was gainfully employed. As the principal earner in the household for much of the time, Dodamma was often required to work as a waged labourer.

Rudramma said she was 25 years old (but as she had a son of 13 it was likely that she was older). Prior to joining this programme, she and her son worked as turners for the same entrepreneur. Her son had left school when he was in first grade and had worked as a turner since he was seven years old. He continued to work even after she started her own unit because she owed the employer money. Her husband worked for a time as a reeler for one of the women in Group 2 (although he would deny it as he did not like to work for anyone in the village) and previously worked in the neighbouring state where reelers earned a higher wage. After Rudramma set up the reeling unit, her husband sometimes substituted as a reeler and helped with other activities such as selling jute, buying husk etc. However, he was addicted to alcohol and gambling and she was openly contemptuous of his failure to earn for the family. He in turn was scornful of her lack of ability in mental calculations. Indeed, her business skills and awareness appeared to be limited. The researcher commented that even by the end of the research period she did not know the price of cocoons, or the number of bags of silk sold so far.

Chinnamma was about 40 and had a grown up son and daughter. She was originally elected as president of the sangha but within months she was replaced by Bhagyamani because they considered her as non-cooperative. However, she claimed to have a good rapport with other people in the village. She was the only member of the group to find waged employment when they were unable to access loans to continue their enterprises.

Chinnamma's husband was abusive. He expected her not only to feed him but also to provide 'pocket money' for his other habits (smoking, drinking etc). His abusive behaviour increased after she joined the programme. He would interfere when the women were dividing cocoons and pooling silk, and when she tried to stop him he beat her. In April, when they had been obliged to pledge their houses to the NGO because of their increasing debts (see below), he had tried to drown her in the water tank by holding her head under water. As a result of this incidence, she became ill from fear.

Rajamma, aged 22, was the only unmarried member of the group. Since her father's death ten years previously she had lived with her brother. She was the youngest in her family and the only one to be educated (up to 10^th grade). When the silk reeling project began, she was considered to be an asset to the group in that she could maintain the accounts and take minutes of the weekly meetings. However, she knew little about silk reeling and her brother, who was a skilled reeler, was for all practical purposes in charge of the enterprise. She would hand the NGO loan over to him, in the same way as she had always handed over her wages as a turner earlier. When times were good, her situation in the home was tolerable, and at the time of the first follow-up interview she had even been able to buy some clothes for herself. However, whenever they could not operate the unit, her brother became abusive towards her. She claimed that he had beaten her many times, even on one occasion striking her with a copper pot on the shoulder. The fact that she was unmarried posed severe constraints on her movements for fear that the villagers would start to gossip, which would reduce her chances of finding a husband.

The group made many allegations about Rajamma's negligence in keeping the accounts, especially for the silk sales. The NGO worker even claimed that she altered the figures for her own transactions. She was therefore happy when this task was given to her sister-in-law, when the latter returned to the village towards the end of the field work period.

Puttananjamma was aged 40. In fact her eldest daughter had been selected for the scheme, but the NGO insisted that the mother take her place because the daughter was unmarried and was seeking a job. She could not be counted on, therefore, to remain in the scheme. In the event she did not find one and so helped her mother at times with the unit. Puttananjamma had four daughters, of whom only one was married, and her husband did not work because of poor eyesight and alcoholism. She was therefore the only breadwinner in the family. Her husband would nag her constantly about her failure to make any profit out of the reeling unit, commenting on her inabilities, her lack of knowledge and awareness because she was a woman. His wife appeared not to care.

Puttamma left the village soon after the training to stay with her mother until she gave birth. The trainers had considered her to be the best of the group. When she returned in March and was allowed by the NGO to purchase a charaka and join the group, she was made secretary in Rajamma's place as she was also literate, having received ten years of schooling. She never went to the cocoon market or the Silk Exchange as by this time the NGO had allowed the men to participate. It was now her husband who did the buying and selling but she had arguments with him over this, as he often insisted on using part of the NGO working capital on other things. This meant she was already indebted to the NGO to the tune of 1000 rupees (£14).

5.3.3 The impact of the project on the women's lives

There is no doubt that the project as a whole, of which the training was a major component, had had a dramatic impact on these women and that it met its intended objectives of developing their skills and confidence to become independent reeler entrepreneurs.

The following section paints a picture of the women's situation at the time of each of the four follow-up visits paid to them by the researcher. The second and third visits took place during the low season for silk reeling and the final visit at a time when cocoons were plentiful and the women working at full capacity.

First follow-up visit

When the nine women ²² were first interviewed in January two months after the two day training, all of them (including those who had not received the initial training) expressed considerable enthusiasm and optimism for their new venture, their own silk reeling enterprise. Shortly after this first phase of the training, the women had all set up their own units with one charaka which was purchased out of the loan from the NGO. In most cases they already had a shed (in their husband's name) which had been used in the past for reeling, and they only needed to make some repairs to it and to buy the reeling licence.

²² Puttamma had already left.

Observations made by the researcher of the women buying cocoons at the market during this period explained how the loss might come about. The auctioning of cocoons would start at 9 a.m. The women would arrive too late to inspect the lots of cocoons and work out how much they were worth as their male counterparts did, because they had to first collect the loan from the NGO. They then bid for the best cocoons without bothering much about the price, since to them the money came from the NGO and they felt no sense of ownership of it. In fact, they failed fully to understand that this was a loan which had to be repaid. Instead, they were more conscious of the quantity that they needed to purchase as they had to provide the required amount for each member of the group. If they were short, conflict within the group would ensue. In the meantime, the male reelers would hike the price when the women were bidding, by signalling to each other. One male reeler told the researcher that he would had offered two rupees less per kilogram for the quality of cocoons being purchased. It was therefore not surprising that the women were unable to make a profit on the reeled silk. Other factors such as the claim by the women of poor record keeping by the NGO, poor storage and handling of the cocoons and the silk, and the low price paid for the silk that the women had to pool for sale and which was inevitably of variable quality, also contributed to the loss.

However, the women were still confident in the future. All were happy to expand their production and some wanted to have a second charaka (through taking out a larger loan). Only Mulamma urged caution and said they should not get too indebted.

The husbands felt obliged by social convention to escort their wives to the bus stop in the next village in the middle of the night when it was their turn to travel to the Silk Exchange in Bangalore, and to meet them the following afternoon. Although they agreed to do this, several were reluctant and only did it because the NGO insisted that it was the women who did the selling. If given the choice, they would have gone themselves to the Silk Exchange (as was customary for men). As it was, after taking the women to the bus in the neighbouring village, they had to return home (a two hour round trip), then go back to the village again in the evening to wait for them. They may have to wait several hours as there was no specified time for the women to return. Not surprisingly, they found this an onerous chore.

In this early period, the women saw many positive changes to their lives. Most importantly, they perceived an increase in their economic and social status, stemming from the fact that they were now earning their own income. Although they had not yet experienced any overall increase in income, they saw this as merely a question of time. The fact that they were working as independent entrepreneurs and no longer as waged labourers was obviously important to them. Their new economic status made them feel that they had more respect in the community and their own self-esteem increased accordingly. They realised that they could do something with their lives. The researcher noted that they became much more articulate and self-confident. They had a sense of security, as they felt confident that they could earn money and provide for their children independently of their husbands.

The increased mobility and remarkable boldness and confidence acquired during training continued in their daily lives. They were moving around the village more freely, even talking to men, and going to the cocoon market and Silk Exchange without their husbands (although they disliked having to do this). Even the two who had not received the initial training in motivation and confidence-building had imbibed these strengths from the others.

Remarkably there had been a reversal of gender roles, at least in the economic arena, in so far as the women had taken over the role of entrepreneur/employer and (some of) the men were now working in the women's unit. This made them in effect her employees. However, neither the men nor the women saw it in these terms; they merely saw themselves as working in the family unit. Three women had hired labourers and were proud to be employers now instead of employees.

In terms of their immediate needs, five women reported that they had been able to repay previous small loans, two that they no longer needed to buy food on credit and they could now buy weekly or even monthly and so save considerably on expenditure. One said she could borrow money more easily because they were now considered as businesswomen. They were able to buy more nutritious food, especially non-vegetarian food. Two women said they had recovered pawned jewellery.

They were also more conscious of time and money, more motivated and they appreciated the importance of producing good quality silk. Now that they were themselves entrepreneurs they had come to realise that hired labourers were not efficient because they did not work hard and they produced poor quality silk (as they themselves had done). They prided themselves on thinking as business women. In turn, they were no longer exposed to abuse and insults from their employers, to not being paid on time or not being paid for over-time.

They therefore had an increased interest in their work and a new sense of responsibility, handling large sums of money for the first time in their lives (up to 35,000 rupees - £500 -when they collected the money from the sale of the silk) and storing large quantities of silk in their houses. They had begun to appreciate group solidarity. Overall the women were happy and contented, even though they were working much harder. One said she dressed with more care, her brothers had bought her some sarees and she was able to buy things for the children. Another said she had bought clothes for herself. One said she could see a future for herself, a path out of poverty - she could have aspirations. On the whole, their husbands and other family members had become very supportive and encouraging; they appreciated the women more. Some husbands assisted in the unit e.g. Ningamma's husband and Sudha's and Mulamma's husband, who had earlier claimed he could not work because of poor eyesight. Sisters, brothers and children also helped, as was expected in any family occupation.

These gains, however, were not without their downside. The women complained of excessive work and feeling very tired. One said she snapped at her children, others that they did not have enough time to do domestic work or eat properly; sometimes they were ill as a result. Despite the extra work, there had been only a marginal increase in income, once the loan repayments were taken into account. Moreover, the establishment of their own units had resulted in increased use of child labour. Some children occasionally had to be absent from school to work as turners or to look after the house while the mother went to the market. In numerous cases, the children worked in the unit for an hour or so before they went to school. One 14 year old boy had to sometimes absent himself from school to help out as a turner, and a nine year old girl had to stay away from school when her mother went to the market so as to look after the house. In another household, both the 12 year old daughter and eight year old son sometimes worked in the unit. In addition, daughters always had to help with domestic work.

Already some conflict was emerging within the group, especially between those who were 'trained' and those who were not. The task of sharing out the cocoons was often acrimonious. The women resented the time they had to spend at meetings, also the fact that when it was their turn to go to the market they had to stop reeling. In some cases there was no one to help out which meant they lost on production. They could not all afford to hire a labourer and in some cases labourers were not easy to find because they thought it was beneath their dignity to work for an ex-labourer. Some women tried to excuse themselves from travelling to the Silk Exchange because of the inconvenience. Another downside was that when their own units were idle, the other entrepreneurs who used to employ them no longer called them to work out of fear that they would be called away to meetings.

Some husbands complained about escorting their wives to the bus in the middle of the night. Other relatives complained that the woman was always working and was never at home. A few husbands were uneasy at their wives' boldness - Dodamma's complained that women have become so bold, they now beat their men! At the same time, however, there had been no change in household decision making. The women were surprised that the researcher even asked the question. Making important decisions in the household was an alien concept to them. As Rudramma said, 'How can this be changed just because I am in business?' And in relation to the reversal of economic roles, Mulamma asked 'Do you think my husband would work if he thought I was paying him wages?'

Second visit

By the time of the second set of follow-up interviews in March, the women were expressing serious doubts about their enterprise, even despair in some cases. Between January and March, only two bags of silk had been sold (compared to nine in the period November-January), with a third bag being hoarded at the Silk Exchange, waiting for the price to rise. Until the bag was sold and the money taken to the NGO, they could not access more working capital and therefore could not buy more cocoons. In addition, when the supply of cocoons became plentiful and cheap again during February and March, they had been unable to buy because the previous loan had now been used up, the director had been away during February and the expected SIDBI loan had not yet materialised. ²³

²³ As the researcher was completing this round, a fresh set of loans was made available by the director and the women started reeling again.

To make matters worse, the three women who had hired labourers as turners when work in their reeling units was plentiful had not been able to retain them. They had all left, taking with them the advances of 250-300 rupees (£3.50-4.25) which they had demanded at the outset.

While the weekly group meetings under the auspices of the NGO continued, and the women continued to make small savings, as was required of them, they were beginning to feel that these meetings were a waste of time and they were resentful that they were being required to save, even while borrowing to survive. As one woman said 'We have to borrow in order to save'. The meetings had become increasingly directed at the resolution of conflict within the group.

Each woman had requested a further loan from the NGO so as to start up another productive activity but these requests had not been met. And, although the women had saved 2500 rupees as a group (£35), they were reluctant to release it as everyone's needs were so great that they would be unable to share it out equitably. They also did not know how to prioritise its use.

The researcher documented a building up of resentment - among the women towards the NGO and towards others in the group, and among their husbands, some of whom were now regretting that their wives had joined the group. Some men congregated outside the weekly meetings and encouraged the women to argue. Recriminations within the group centred on Rajamma, the young unmarried woman, who had been given responsibility for the accounts. She had been accused of not keeping accurate accounts and of mismanagement (the NGO was also accused of not keeping proper accounts). Chinnamma, who was elected the president, had been replaced since February by Bhagyamani. There continued to be friction between those who had been 'trained' and the three women who had not.

The women were disappointed and disillusioned that being in business had not yielded the anticipated results. Their enthusiasm had gone and some of them were more withdrawn in interviews and had reverted to a fatalistic attitude. Overall, the women saw no changes to their lives (in marked contrast to the earlier interviews when they felt their lives had improved dramatically and for the better). The researcher made the comment that all the women in the group associated change with progress and as there had not been any progress recently, they were unable to see any changes to their lives (even though they were clearly worse off materially). However, within the group were some who felt this was only a temporary setback and they did not regret joining the scheme. Most continued to feel that their status in the community and the household had been enhanced. One woman had even been insisting that her husband tell her what his earnings were! Positive features, however, were rare - one was that the women continued to save according to the project requirements.

Third visit

In April, the two day refresher course had been held but there were mixed opinions as to its usefulness. Some of the women were critical of the trainer, who was an outsider whom they claimed had only limited knowledge of the silk industry. Most had also found offensive his remarks of a personal nature which criticised the way they had conducted their business and their failure to think and act according to entrepreneurial principles. The perceived usefulness of the initial training received was also diminishing by the day.

By May there was real despair in the group. The women had only sold one bag of silk and they had made a loss of 4000 rupees (£57). After this, they did not operate their reeling units because it was the lean season for cocoons and the market conditions were unfavourable. In addition, the NGO refused to give them more loans until the existing debts were settled. Only Chinnamma was working for an entrepreneur. A little agricultural work was available for some but they were unable to leave the village to look for work as they usually did at this time of year because the NGO had instructed them to stay as the SIBDI loan was expected imminently. All had to rely on their livestock and what other family members might earn. In some cases the women and their families were experiencing real hunger. One spoke of borrowing grain from her relatives as humiliating, another said she had to sell her poultry at a low price, she had no money for soap or medicine. Dodamma was in a particularly pathetic condition.

The menfolk were now furious because they and their wives had been forced to sign a bond paper by the NGO as a result of their escalating debt, in which they pledged their houses for 15,000 rupees (£215) in the event that they were unable to repay their debts. Some were nagging their wives constantly, accusing them of having been gullible, knowing nothing about business. They knew that the price of cocoons was hiked by the dealers in the market because the buyers were women. They were also very critical of the NGO, accusing it of not keeping accounts properly and of exploiting the women. The NGO had insisted that only the women could be involved in the project but now they were insisting that the man also sign the bond because the house was owned by him. The male escort was also accused of being untrustworthy. The men continually interfered with the group's activities by assembling outside the meeting place on Fridays, encouraging the women to fight among themselves and participating in the women's arguments when these arose.

Bhagyamani reported physical abuse from her husband because the refresher training course had led to nothing. She was now president of the group but her husband was compelling her to withdraw. It was during this period that Chinnamma also reported that her husband tried to drown her by plunging her head in the water tank. Only Ningamma felt less affected by the negative turn of events regarding the bond paper because her husband had a second house so if this one was repossessed they would still have somewhere to live.

Again the only positive features were that the women continued to save and that some women were not in total despair but were still hopeful for the future.

Fourth visit

By July, the time of the fourth visit, the women's circumstances had changed dramatically. Their signing of the bond paper meant that the SIBDI loan had now been agreed upon. The reeling season had begun again in June with the arrival of the rains and the cocoon supply was plentiful. It appeared to be a particularly good season. All the women were working in their units and remained in the programme, with the exception of Mulamma (one of the co-wives) who had decided to leave the programme because she had no one to help her to reel the silk (her husband having chosen to reel for his first wife). She had returned to being a waged labourer and appeared content with this, bearing no bitterness towards her family or the other women; she thought she was better off than them because they were operating in a volatile market and would never have security. She did however remain a member of the sangha.

As is explained in more detail in the following section, in December 1997 the Group 2 women who had started their enterprises earlier had told CPS and EDA at a meeting that they wished to cease operating as a group and to work separately - the collective purchase of cocoons and sale of silk (of variable quality) had not produced good profits. CPS and EDA agreed to this and a new arrangement resulted for the Group 1 women too. Each woman now received 5-7000 rupees (£70-100) as an individual loan, provided that she had repaid the previous loan promptly, and she repaid each loan with interest after the silk was sold. The new arrangement also required the women of both groups to make an additional repayment of 50 rupees (70 pence) each time they made a sale, towards clearing their outstanding debt. Since June, therefore, the Group 1 women started receiving loans individually and no longer as a group. Moreover, the men were now allowed to be involved in the buying of cocoons and the selling of the silk. This meant that in practice the women now went rarely to the cocoon market or to the Silk Exchange. However, some pooled their silk to sell because they still saw the advantages of this, but they did it on a voluntary basis.

At this final stage of the field work, the women's circumstances were as follows:

As it was a good season for cocoons, the women all spent between seven and nine hours a day reeling (or turning). Despite the long hours, all but two (Mulamma, who had already left, and Rajamma, who was upset by the situation) said that they would like to spend more time on silk production. Even where the existing workload was seen as too great, at least it was for themselves. Some husbands (Bhagyamani's and Chinnamma's especially) still helped in the unit and substituted for a reeler or a turner when necessary; other family members also helped. Where a husband could not do the marketing because he was not a reeler and therefore could not judge quality and prices well, they combined with another household e.g. Bhagyamani's with Ningamma's. Despite the reduction of the women's involvement in the business and marketing side of silk production, they were still handling the money for the time being. Only Rajamma, the young unmarried woman, appeared to have lost out in this respect: since they started to operate individually, her brother had taken increasing control of the business. When Rajamma collected money from the NGO, she handed it to her brother. He gave her nothing and she always had to ask him for money. She told the researcher that he did not at all like the idea of being employed by her and he considered that he should receive not only wages from his sister and his wife (Puttamma had now returned to the village and had been allowed to join the scheme) but also a share of the profits. In reality, she had no power at all but she did not appear to be upset by this situation.

The women's income had also improved. By the time of the interviews in July, those continuing in the programme had made between three and five transactions, on each occasion paying 50 rupees to the NGO against their outstanding loan as per the new agreement. All the women with the exception of Mulamma (who had left the programme) had repaid part of their loan, the lowest figure repaid to date being 200 rupees and the highest 1200 rupees. However, the women still had significant levels of debt, several owing as much as 5-6000 rupees (£70-85). All of the women had still managed to save. Sudha, Bhagyamani and Rudramma commented that they no longer had to borrow to buy food.

They were relieved that they no longer had to go to either the cocoon market or the Silk Exchange - they had always felt uneasy there in the presence of strange men. Several talked about being more at peace, calmer. They also expressed satisfaction that, because they did not have to engage in purchasing and marketing activities, they had more time to concentrate on producing silk, and they only needed to go to the NGO office every 7-10 days. This also meant that the burden placed on other household members to do domestic work was reduced. Some children expressed pleasure that their mother was spending more time at home. One woman (Ningamma) said that she would also like her husband to go to the NGO office to collect the loan. Three women had also hired new labourers and Chinnamma had built a shed on neighbouring land belonging to her brother-in-law to house the reeling unit (previously she was using the kitchen which was very inconvenient).

Now that the women were allowed to sell silk individually, it was easier to ensure good quality (and a higher price). However, a number of women pooled it with chosen partners so as to get a better price for a larger quantity. None of these arrangements however appeared hard and fast, with the exception of Rajamma who pooled it with her sister-in-law, Puttamma. With loans given individually by the NGO, they could make transactions when it was desirable to them, not when the group decided. With the women no longer operating as a group in accessing the loan, buying cocoons or selling the silk, the major sources of conflict had disappeared and there were fewer recriminations. As Chinnamma said 'There is no longer this "passing the buck" attitude as when times are bad', and the women now felt more responsible for their own production and loan.

The weekly meetings continued, with emphasis still on savings and loan repayments, but also discussion of alternative productive opportunities, in employment or in business, and health and sanitation. The savings which the group had accumulated and which they had not wanted to spend, were now being used as a revolving fund, which the women could draw on.

The husbands were no longer angry and disparaging of their wives. They were particularly happy that they no longer had to escort the women to the bus in the middle of the night to go to Bangalore. Most were happy to be participating in the programme. This relieved the tension in the household, which the women appreciated. In households characterised by male violence (Chinnamma's in particular), the abuse had lessened. Only one husband still appeared angry at having had to sign the bond paper.

Despite the changes in the way the programme was run and the involvement of the male relatives, the women still felt proud that they were perceived by the community as businesswomen and respected as such. Two informants said that there were other women in the village who were anxious to join the scheme now that the men were involved. This increased status in the community and their newly acquired skills in ensuring good quality silk had together given them considerable confidence. In particular they felt more at ease over having large loans to repay and were confident of being able to pay them back. While there was still distrust of the NGO, some expressed appreciation that it had helped them in times of distress and made working capital available to them at a low rate of interest. However, only time would tell whether their enterprises were sustainable and whether they had genuinely been empowered in any way.

5.3.4 The Group 2 women

The background of this group, who had been trained first, was similar to that of the Group 1 women who were the focus of this case study. As with the other group, their households were characterised by poverty, debt and in some cases ill-health and ill-treatment by their husbands. Eight of the ten women were married, one was widowed and one separated. They saw the same constraint to their increasing productivity as being lack of capital, and the same benefits and changes to their lives in the early days. Most received cooperation from other family members. As with Group 1, they grew in self-confidence and motivation, and became more articulate and mobile as a result of the training received and their transformation into entrepreneurs.

This first group had been selected for training because they were considered the most promising and could act as role models for subsequent groups. ²⁴ One woman dropped out immediately after the initial training and was replaced by an experienced reeler. All the others were exposed to the original training strategy, which consisted of 28 days of mixed formal and informal components (as explained in 5.2 above) in September/October 1996 and began their businesses in January 1997, with CPS lending them the capital and providing an escort to accompany them to the cocoon and silk markets. The agreement was that the escort would accompany two women at a time over a 12 month period.

²⁴ However, at the time of the refresher course when the two groups came together, the ITC/EDA evaluation team had the impression that the Group 1 women had greater business acumen than the Group 2 women.

Also, the cost of production was increased because two women had to go together to the market because of social conventions whereas only one man need go (whether to purchase cocoons or sell silk); hence the cost of transport and food was higher. It was felt that participation by men would make their enterprises more profitable. They were likely to secure a better price, given that the male dealers conspired to take advantage of the women's low social status and inexperience.

CPS and EDA agreed to the women's request to provide loans on an individual basis. They could see that the women would be more responsible for the money and might cease seeing it as 'wages'. In January, the NGO agreed to loan 5000 rupees to each of the Group 2 women which they had to pay back four days later with interest once the silk was sold. However, the women were either unable to pay back the full amount or to pay it promptly and so in February the NGO decided to suspend all further loans until the debt was settled. In March the group asked the NGO to increase the loan for those who repaid promptly and so six of the women were able to access loans of 7000 rupees (£100). The women also agreed to pay 50 rupees after every bag of silk was sold so as to reduce the outstanding amount owing. At this stage two women opted out of the scheme; one started running a canteen, the other did agricultural labour.

This group of women felt that the escort service had been inadequate and inefficient because it had allowed them to get into debt. They insisted later on the NGO worker who escorted them being removed from the programme for misappropriating the funds. They felt they were having to repay a debt which had been incurred as a result of someone else's misjudgement. They were also of the opinion that the NGO's book-keeping (carried out by the female worker) was inaccurate, that wrong entries had been recorded and that they were not told what was written down after each transaction (all but one was illiterate). They also claimed that the record of their savings was not accurate. They were therefore always uncertain about how much they owned and how much they owed. This mistrust made the women realise only belatedly the importance of maintaining their own individual records (and hence of being literate).

Whereas they continued to be ready to be part of a savings group, they wished to operate individually for accessing loans and buying and selling.

5.4 The impact of the training

5.4.1 Benefits
5.4.2 Failures

5.4.1 Benefits

The benefits of the training component of the programme on the women's lives can be summarised as follows:

The women had acquired a business sense, and although by the time of the final visit by the researcher they were no longer using these directly, their awareness of how the silk industry operated and how transactions were carried out would stand them in good stead. Some of them were still going occasionally to the cocoon markets. Rajamma, the unmarried woman, said that she checked on the price of cocoons because she thought her brother might be cheating her. Only Mulamma, who left the programme, thought that everything had been a waste of time.

The women had also learnt how to handle funds and the importance of profit and loss accounts; they were more articulate and expressed their own views on business matters in front of their husbands. The researcher commented on this on numerous occasions, stating that at first many had been tongue-tied and their husbands had often to prompt them or to answer for them. The women had also gained confidence in moving about the village as well as in their reeling activities; even when the men had taken over the business and marketing aspect, they still felt less dependent and more confident than previously. An outcome not associated with the programme was the confidence and readiness of the women to mobilise against injustice. This was illustrated in a case reported to the researcher, where a scheduled caste girl from the neighbouring village was accused of the theft of a saree by an upper caste man, who removed it from her forcibly. Along with other women belonging to self-help groups in the area, they submitted a memorandum to the police in protest, who then launched an enquiry. It was unlikely that the women would have taken this bold action before joining the programme. In this respect, they had gained some political empowerment.

5.4.2 Failures

It has to be acknowledged that, in terms of the project's overall objectives, there were a number of failures. In particular, the changes that were made towards the end of the research period in the way the business was run had reduced the extent to which the women were operating independently of their menfolk as entrepreneurs. In that respect, the project had failed to re-distribute power and to provide the women with their own source of livelihood, thus defeating the overall aim of empowerment. Not surprisingly, the women felt much more at ease with this half-way arrangement because it was less of a challenge to the traditional gender relations in the household and no longer required that they transgress conventional socio-economic practice by buying and selling in the market. The project had neither provided them with a sustained income nor addressed their strategic needs in terms of reducing their subordination to men (see chapter 2).

Even in terms of their practical needs, lack of hands-on experience in business meant that skills taught during the training course were not fully acquired, and their understanding of the mechanics of the marketplace and of finance, usually gained over years of experience at the interface, was poorly understood. The silk industry is volatile, with much fluctuation in the price of both cocoons and raw silk, and it is also highly susceptible to drought. The women, as newly created entrepreneurs, made mistakes. Fundamental was their perception that the 100 rupees which they kept after each sale of silk was a form of wage from the NGO - that they were being employed by the NGO. The fact that everything had to be repaid was not fully grasped. Their lack of literacy skills, which would have allowed them to check how much was recorded in their name by the NGO, would have given them a better grasp of their financial situation. As it was, the system set up by CPS was that there should be a continuous flow of working capital regardless of profit or loss, but it deducted loss if any after every transaction, added interest on the loan, and produced a final figure which included the total owed by the woman. This was not revealed to the women after each transaction. It was not surprising, therefore, that most women did not know how much they owed.

They also did not understand the significance of the price being paid for the raw material (cocoons) on the profits they would get for the silk. When buying in the cocoon market, they were more concerned about buying the required quantity of cocoons so as to avoid dispute when it came to sharing them out in the group.

At the same time, their gender placed them at a severe disadvantage in the market place. The market was totally dominated by men, both rearers and reelers; according to the researcher, there were only 10-12 regular female cocoon rearers who participated at the local market and only 3-4 female reeler entrepreneurs in the whole state. This combination of constraints is well illustrated by her interesting observations of the women bidding at the cocoon market:

The reelers (men) at the market function in groups and by signalling to each other - showing signs with their hands - hike the price, leaving the women helpless .... The solidarity exhibited by the reelers cannot be broken either, unless women reelers participate in large numbers. This may happen in due course of time. The question of women being a part of the men's group does not arise at all considering the barriers imposed on them by the rural society. The cocoon market also acts as an important focal point of dissemination of information. The reelers, interacting with each other, gather information on the cocoon prices at various markets in the state and also the price at which silk is being sold at the Silk Exchange. Women miss out on such exchanges as they find it difficult to interact with strangers/men.

As indicated above, there was also no evidence that there had been any change in the pattern of decision-making in the household. Several women commented that they would not expect any change. Only one woman (Puttananjamma) felt that she made all her decisions independently and that was because her husband was in ill-health and had not worked for a long time. This not only questions one of the assumptions underlying the project, namely that access to income enhances women's involvement in household decision-making (EDA/CPS 1996, p1), but also undermines a major pillar of the micro-finance ideology (Mayoux's 'virtuous spiral', 1999). At the same time, the change in relationship between husband and wife brought about by the programme, whereby the women have become ostensibly the employers and the husbands the employees, was a superficial change - and in fact was not perceived as such by either the women or the men, as has been noted. The reality was that the woman had no control over the man's work, in terms of whether he worked in the unit or not and for how many hours per day. The men considered themselves as working in a family unit, and not at all for their wives. Moreover, when the situation turned bad in early 1998, the men, who had earlier given permission - and in one case insisted - that the women attend the training, were only too quick to blame them and belittle them in front of others, and in some cases they became violent. In general terms, their behaviour towards the women was determined by how much income they brought into the household.

On this project, therefore, setting the women up as independent entrepreneurs had not given them more control over income, nor over household decision-making. In contrast, however, the women were clearly conscious of an increase in their status in relation to the community. In the long term, the possibility that there might be similar gradual changes in status at the household level as a result of this 'experiment' in women's empowerment should not be discounted. The women had been part of a bold challenge to the patriarchal structure of their local society and their future lives would never be quite the same.

While the project failed to empower the women in terms of (significantly) increased income, increased access and control of resources, and increased status in the home, it had been particularly disempowering for Rajamma, the unmarried woman. It had allowed her brother to increase his hold over the micro-enterprise, her loan from CPS and the income. His wife too (Puttamma) experienced conflict with him over who should control the loan. This supports the evidence from Asia provided by Goetz and Gupta (1996) cited in Mayoux (1999), that micro-finance can disempower women because men use them to access loans, which they then take control of. Moreover, Bhagyamani's and Chinnamma's experiences of abuse provide further evidence that household tension and male violence can increase as a result of women's access to credit.

The fact that the women operated as a group also contributed to their reduced effectiveness in the silk industry. As the researcher has clearly recorded, the actions of the second group were plagued by conflict. They were at loggerheads ever since the programme began, unlike the first group. Many reasons were cited for this: the fact that three members of the group had not received training, that the training was inadequate, that the first group tried to discourage them by saying that they had lost money etc. Not surprisingly, these conflicts had an influence on their business dealings, as well as on their own relations within the group. Dissatisfaction and suspicion towards the first chairperson and the secretary led to them being held responsible for the group's difficulties. Conflict usually manifested itself when the women had to decide on their turn to go to the cocoon market or the Silk Exchange (which they all disliked doing), when dividing the cocoons among themselves and also while pooling silk together. These conflicts were fewer while the transactions were made directly under the supervision of the NGO, as in the first six transactions (which made a profit). When the NGO decided to let the women take this responsibility, the men also interfered, with for example the weight of silk produced by each of them becoming the subject of conflict. The Friday meetings were increasingly used to try and resolve these conflicts. The men made matters worse by assembling outside the meeting room, encouraging the women to fight among themselves and actively participating when arguments did ensue.

The decision to support the women as a group rather than individually would appear to have been rational. The women already operated in self-help saving groups. The need for a minimum amount of silk (about 30 kilograms) to be accumulated to make a viable sale at the Silk Exchange meant that it was impossible for the women to operate as entrepreneurs alone. However, the fact that the silk was pooled meant that differing qualities were mixed and there was no advantage to any woman working particularly hard to produce a high quality product. This encouraged some women to be negligent.

5.5 Conclusions

This case study raised a number of very important issues relating to training for empowerment among the poorest and the most vulnerable. It shows that the benefits of well conceived and delivered training can be undermined by a number of negative factors: in this case, continuous conflict between members of a group, where the group is the unit of support; hostility from men who feel threatened and marginalised by a project strategy which only deals with women, and once the anticipated benefits are not forthcoming are able to sabotage the project; over-ambitious goals which rapidly lead to disillusionment, especially when the promised support is not forthcoming or is not regular ²⁵; and the difficulty of bringing about radical change of attitude and behaviour in a very short period of time.

²⁵ The original project proposal specified two charakas per household were required for the desired income to be achieved; the women only received funds for one. There were also numerous delays in accessing the loans promised them.

This project failed to empower the women to any significant degree; it left them with a much greater level of debt at the end of ten months than at the start of the project, and this debt was owed to the very organisation seeking to help them. Even the income that they were generating as entrepreneurs at the end of the research period would not be sustainable once the NGO withdrew its support. One has to question, given the very low level of income that they earned before setting up their own reeling units, whether it could ever be raised to a viable level to support the whole household.

Finally, this case study has a cautionary tale. Projects which seek to help the poorest and the most vulnerable are making interventions in very fragile livelihoods, with people for whom it may be a difference between subsistence and starvation. This project, with the best of intentions, almost tipped these women and their households over the edge of survival. There is great risk in involving the vulnerable in innovations as 'experiments', where the outcomes cannot be predicted.