No.2, Service Road
Domlur Layout
BANGALORE 560 071. INDIA.

We are often asked how we decide when a group can begin to function on its own without day-to-day contact with MYRADA. ‘Phasing out’ does not happen suddenly; it is a gradual process. When groups are new our staff are present at almost all their weekly meetings. This is followed by a period over which our Training Staff provide regular trainings to the group members on group development, income-generating programmes, credit management, common fund enhancement, documentation and book-keeping, responsibility sharing for group administration, establishing linkages with other institutions, and awareness on various social and developmental issues. All these training programmes have a bearing on the groups’ day-to-day functioning. Meanwhile, our staff slowly reduce their presence at group meetings to once or twice a month or even less.

There comes a point when our staff stop attending group meetings of the older groups altogether. If the groups do require our assistance once in a while, they come to our Office and ask for it rather than the other way around. Our contacts with these groups may be at Federation/Apex Body meetings of which they are members. We have had instances where older groups requiring training inputs are even paying some faculty charges; in other cases, some of the group members themselves are providing training to other groups, independent of MYRADA. The audit of group accounts is also paid for by the groups themselves.

A single staff member, who can only work with 10 to 15 groups at the initiation stage, can now support over 50 groups once they reach this stage of managing most or all of their affairs independently.

Total discontinuation of all forms of contact results in some of the groups deteriorating or collapsing. After a decade of experience in working with self-help groups, MYRADA has realised that many groups do need a ‘rallying point’; a psychological reassurance that "some one out there is interested in us". We, therefore, recommend staying in touch through Federations/Apex Bodies but interactions are far less frequent and qualitatively different. The Guidelines that follow are an indicative check list of whether that stage is reached.

Month and year of group formation/Age of the group :  ________________

Funds available with the group as on date of this evaluation :

  (Section B follows)                 B : Essential criteria that the group must fulfil

Score ‘1’ if point is fulfilled and ‘0’ if not. There are no scores in-between.

These criteria must be essentially present in every group; Even if one is not present, it means the group requires focused attention for some more time.

These criteria are optional; they need not be considered in deciding whether to withdraw from a group unless the evaluator has some specific concern in mind.