Rural Management Systems Series

2.0. GROUP MEETINGS :
Normally members of a group come together every week to discuss issues which are of a concern to them and to save whatever money they can with the group. The issues which come up in these meetings and the participative processes adopted for seeking and analysing information and making decisions provides opportunities to the members of the women groups to enhance their knowledge, awareness and skills in areas which are relevant to the development of the group. Appropriate changes in the negative attitudes and values of the women are fostered through these informal meetings; positive attitudes and values of women are nurtured. However, this process of learning takes a lot of time; depending on the size, composition and dynamics between group members. Areas in which opportunities are provided to the members to learn and develop through village meetings, and the role of MYRADA staff in facilitating such processes are given below :

Areas in which regular meetings of the group provide opportunities to the members to learn and develop

Role of MYRADA in the learning process

Skill Development

The regular meetings provide opportunities to the members to enhance their ability to:

express their views clearly.
cope with rebellious and dominating members and make the non-participative members talk.
work together as a group.
cope with dominating men (including their own husbands who interfere during group meetings).
identify the real problem and the cause for it in a given situation.
to manage finance.
to evolve and observe appropriate rules and regulations.

To foster such participatory processes MYRADA staff try to :

Make sure that all the members understand the issue which is being discussed.
Make the non-participants express their opinion. Further, the staff encourage the groups to nominate non-participants to chair meetings.
Encourage the members to share and reflect on their experience, knowledge and skill with regard to the issue which is being discussed.
Encourage the members to listen to each other and seek clarifications.
Encourage the members to summarise the discussions on the issue and see whether a consensus is emerging.

Areas in which regular meetings of the group provide opportunities to the members to learn and develop	Role of MYRADA in the learning process Knowledge Building
The group meetings provide opportunities to the members to encourage their knowledge on : · Subject matter areas: agriculture, animal husbandry, sericulture bee-keeping, health.Government programmes and the procedures for availing of the same.	Same as above, however, MYRADA staff in addition, share their own knowledge on the subject being discussed and encourage the members to reflect on and analyse the same.
Development of Appropriate Attitudes/Values: The group meetings provide opportunities to members : to develop confidence in themselves and thereby develop and identify on their own. This in turn fosters a change in the attitude of men towards women to develop a healthy attitude towards women and so also others from lower castes. to strengthen traditional values. values like concern for the family and each other, the village, a sense of what is right & wrong, mutual trust etc.	MYRADA staff not only try to provide opportunities for women to take responsibilities and prove that they can do the job but also make these the subject of the future group meetings to reinforce their confidence and positive self-concept.
Development of Positive Behavioural Patterns : Group meetings reinforce behaviour patterns such as punctuality, attentiveness, regularity and dependability, accountability, and an instinctive concern for fellow members during times of distress. The members build up a system by exerting pressure in order to discourage what they consider to be inappropriate behaviour and encourage what they consider to be, appropriate.	In ways similar to what has been described above.

How are the issues for discussion in a meeting decided ?
The issues for discussion in a meeting emerge from the members of the group themselves. MYRADA staff, if they attend the meeting, do not interfere in this process. This approach is adopted as our staff have realised that the members participate and learn in the meetings when issues for discussions emerge from themselves. However, the staff of MYRADA encourage the members to record and implement the decisions taken in the meetings.

Venue and Schedule of the Village Meetings :
These meetings are held in the village itself in a place where it is convenient for all members to meet and talk without being unduly disturbed. Availability of space for sitting in a circle, which the staff perceive as essential for participation, is another consideration while choosing the venue of these meetings. As the women are busy in the mornings with household work and in the afternoons with earning a wage; the meetings normally start around 7:30 pm - 8:00 pm, after they have finished cooking for the night and at times even after eating their dinner. The meetings normally last for 1-2 hours; beyond that the members with children and those who have not given their family their dinner start getting restless. Some of the male relatives of the women start coming to the meeting to call them home when it gets around 9:30 - 10:00 pm. The women participate and learn faster when men are not around, including the male staff of the Project till they get used to them. These realisations have helped the Project staff to modify their approach and strategy for working with women.

3.0. INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS WITH WEAKER MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
In every women's group there are a few members who do not participate effectively in the decision making process in the initial stages. These women normally have a very low opinion of themselves or have major personal problems with which they are pre-occupied most of the time. Though efforts are made in group meetings to draw them out; these sometimes do not yield much results. To provide opportunities to such weaker members to develop confidence in themselves and cope with their problems along with their peers from the group, the project staff visit them individually in their family setting or at any other suitable place. During these visits the staff and peers try to assist these weaker members to understand the reason for their low opinion about themselves and personalise the problems. This helps them to slowly develop confidence in themselves and learn to cope with problems which arise in their lives. However, in case of major personal problems, for example, an alcoholic husband, the staff and peers spend a lot of time counselling not only the member but others who are directly concerned.

The Project staff feel that the extent to which these efforts yield results depends on many factors; importantly the nature of the problem faced by the particular woman, her interest to develop herself, her own and her peers' capabilities. The time required for such efforts therefore varies from case to case.

4.0. NON FORMAL EDUCATION (NFE) :
The weaker members are in addition, given special attention by the animators of the non-formal education centres; which are run by the groups with the support of MYRADA. These centres are run with the objective of providing opportunities to :

the members to develop their ability to recognise, memorise and write numbers and do simple and relevant mathematical calculations; and later on to read and write in the local language; we find that the women are more interested in numeracy than literacy.
weaker members to enhance their knowledge, skills and capabilities and thereby develop their confidence in themselves. The NFE centres also provide a forum for the weaker members to share their personal problems with others and jointly seek solutions.

At present the stress of the NFE centres continues to be on numeracy. The animators of these centres start off from traditional systems of counting and calculating, which the members are familiar with, and use them as the basis to develop the numeracy skills of women. Further the centres restrict their sessions to areas which are of interest and relevance to the members. For example the sessions on numeracy are limited to helping the members to recognise, memorise and write numbers and do simple mathematicalcalculations. The members who have picked up these skills feel that it has helped them to improve their ability to cope with transactions of the group and develop a better understanding of the books of accounts of the group.

The groups evaluate the NFE centres every month. The number of sessions held, attendance in each, improvement in numeracy and literacy skills of members are some of the areas which are looked into during this evaluation. Recognising that several of the centres are not functioning effectively, the Project now plans to organise a workshop on "How to make NFE centres interesting and useful". Some of the Project staff, animators of strong and weak centres, and members participating in these centres will be the participants in the workshop.