MODEL OF MATURITY (MOM) : LESSONS FOR NEW SHG's

This article analyses the problems and constraints faced by the matured n SHG members in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. The researcher collected responses from 450 women respondents from two blocks in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu and the study concludes that rotation of leaders, lack of cooperation and family member criticism are the major problems experiences by the matured SHGs which will be a lesson to the newly formed SHGs. Discriminant analysis was used in analysing the data collected from the women respondents. The study will be helpful to the Self Help Promoting Institutions (SHPI) rural development practitioners and NGOs to ensure that these problems do not recur or and in evolving an efficient mechanism to handle the issues.


INTRODUCTION
The governments -both federal and in a number of states -have been encouraged with the success of the SHG and micro-finance as a strategic asset oriented approach and extend its scope and investments. For any strategic approach to be sustainable, it is always profitable to track the deficiencies-constraints and problems faced on the way and cause corrections; they may be at policy level and during implementation. The SHG and micro-finance approach is no exception.
The researchers found quite a few issues associated with the commencement, continuation and sustainability aspects of SHG activity When any SHG starts any income generating activity, some of the problems that surface, generally speaking, nclude, among others, timing [when to start], location [where to start the activity], source of raw materials

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Many studies indicated the problems and constraints of micro finance through SHG. The recent studies on microfinance highlights some issues like the lack of access to formal credit (Wenner and Chalmers 2001), lack of funds, delinquency in repayment and political intervention in the identification of activities (Rahman 2002),political interference in the selection of the beneficiaries, lack of timely and adequate credit and lack of women oriented schemes (Vadivoo and Sekar 2004), Lack of clear information and guidance and low support from the family (Vanitha and Krishnamurthy 2004),inadequate capital, delay in sanctioning of loan and inadequate understanding of market and market conditions ( Ramanunny 2005), lack of orientation and initiative of bank staff to the concept and the needs of Self Help Groups (Rao 2005),loans to members not based on purpose of loans, irregular group meetings, lack of proper maintenance of book keeping (Chaim 2006), restrictive government procedure (Bhuvaneswaran 2006),lack of training (Lalitha 2007;Swain 2009), low returns and overemphasis on repayment (Ahmad 2006),inadequate loans and long waiting period to get loans (Ghate2007), lack of cooperation and understanding among members, conflict between leaders and members based on caste and locality (Kumari and Malathi 2009),lack of capital and labour (Kallur2009),

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The above brief review of literature has shown some of the problems and constraints in microfinance. There was no study was conducted in Vellore district about the problems relating to micro finance among rural women. Though many studies were conducted in various districts of Tamil Nadu, no study was conducted in Vellore district to explore the problems and constraints of SHG micro-finance. f\/loreover, Vellore district in Tamil Nadu is one of the important districts, the researcher has chosen Vellore district for the current study. With these issues, the main focus of this study is to the problems in micro finance in Vellore district. With this background a study was conducted in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu(lndia) focussing on SHGs formed in the last ten years.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The present study is undertaken with the following specific objective; • To identify the problems in micro finance through SHGs in Vellore district.

METHODOLOGY
The present study is a descriptive one and the required primary data were collected by using a structured questionnaire designed exclusively for this study. The data were collected from phmary sources through direct contact with the women SHG groups during the period 2008-09. Two blocks in Vellore district such as Natrampalli and Nemili were selected for the study, as the two blocks have similarities in number of SHGs and population below poverty line.
The researcher has selected 225 respondents using random sampling from each block representing 90 SHGs formed in the last ten years and 5 respondents were selected from each SHG.
Therefore total sample of 450 respondents was collected and analysed. variable is included in the model.

CRITICISM.
There are non-members of Self Help Groups who may criticize the members of Self Help Group and micro finance. To understand the significance of the criticism by non members influence on the groups, the vahable is included in the model.

Criticism by banks
Sometimes bank officials may criticize the Self Help Group members and they may think lending to small borrowers is a burden/overwork to them and it is widely believed that rural borrowers may not repay in time. Lack of initiative by the bank staff, bank's insistence on collateral and discouragement by the banks as it is more work for them (Rao 2005), lack of confidence among banks to finance SHGs and treatment of entire savings as collateral Chaim (2006) and overemphasis on repayment Ahmad (2006) were some of the constraints identified by the earlier researchers. In Andhra Pradesh, a study was conducted by APMAS during 2005 which reported that staff in some of the branches behaved indecently/ or talked arrogantly with the leaders and owing to this reason some of the good SHGs did not seek repeat loans. To bring out the importance of criticism of the employees of the banks and its ability to discriminate the newer and older group, the variable is considered in the model.

Lack of training
Rural women, especially the first generation micro-entrepreneurs, need training to undertake income generating projects/activities. Training enables women to undertake new activities with self confidence and courage. Lack of training (Lalitha 2007, Swain 2009), lack of technical know how (Ramanunny 2005) (2010) identified that time is a constraint for many of the rural women, particularly in the Indian context. Also, it is a fact that for many decades, women have been assuming the role of homemakers in the Indian subcontinent. Thus, to bring out the significance of time factor, it is considered in the model.

LACK OF SUPPORT IN THE FAMILY
Family support is an essential pre-requisite for the success of any activity undertaken by the individual and without -the support of the family nobody can achieve anything. Low support from the family (Vanitha and Krishnamurthy 2004) has been found as factor affecting the self help group's performance.
To bring out the significance of the support of family members, on the two groups, the variable is included in the model.

Inadequate loan amount
To carry out any enterprising activity, finance is

NON-AVAILABILITY OF RAW MATERIAL
Raw material is the most important input for any enterprises whether it is a micro or small or major industry. To bring out the significance of the non availability of raw materials on the two groups, the vanable is included in the model.

PROBLEMS IN MARKETING
Whatever produced should be marketed; then only there will be cash flow to the entrepreneur and there will be sustainability. Inadequate understanding of market, lack of customer awareness and poor business plan (Ramanunny 2005) and lack of understanding of goals (Bhuvaneswaran (2006) are some of the problems identified in India. Makumbe et al. (2005) found that the success of microfinance in Tanzania was due to marketing of the products.
Hence this variable was included in this model to differentiate the significance between the new and older groups and it will help the rural development practitioners and decision makers.

LACK OF COOPERATION
Sometimes there may be lack of cooperation between members in the group and this may create a problem. Kumari and Malathi (2009)  to study the significance of lack of cooperation among the members of the group this variable is included in the model.

ROTATION OF LEADERSHIP IN THE GROUP
The

OUTSIDERS PROBLEMS
Sometimes, outsiders such as politicians or some other social groups may interfere in the affairs of microfinance and it may be a problem or a constraint for the function of group activities. Political interference in the selection of the beneficiaries relating to microfinance schemes were reported by Vadivoo and Sekar (2004) and Rahman (2002).Thus to bring out the significance of the interference of outsiders interference, the variable is included in the model.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A stepwise discriminant analysis procedure was chosen to control the effects of multicollinearity if any.
The analysis was further attempted at each of the problems to understand whether any significant differences are evident across the groups in discriminating.

Source: Output of SPSS
The standardized discriminator function is The study reveals that there exists a significant difference between the two groups i.e. Group I and Group II and the study concludes that rotation of leaders, lack of cooperation and family member criticism are the major problems and constraints faced by the rural women in Vellore district.
Adarsh Journal of fVlanagement Research

CONCLUSION
The discriminant model concludes that there exists a significant difference between the set of variables between the groups formed earlier and recently formed groups; the old groups faced more problems than the recently formed groups and rotation of leaders, lack of cooperation among the members and family member criticism are the major problems contributing to this significant difference. The findings concur with the studies of APMAS (2005;2006), Kumari and Malathi (2009)

in India and
Ssendi and Anderson (2009) in Tanzania.

SUGGESTIONS
Group management training programmes and team management training programmes may be organised by the NGOs and the rotation of leadership may be ensured by the SHPIs,NGOs, banks and other development agencies while forming,nurturing and monitoring the groups. NGOs, SHG promoting institutions and rural development practitioners have to take effective steps to sort out the issues of group conflicts and rotation of leadership be ensured from the group formation stage itself and it is the lesson to be learned from the matured SHGs and if followed by all stakeholders it will ensure the sustainability of the SHG movement in India, which is the homeland of SHG movement.