Manjari Corner
Two new 'Didi Ki Dukan' shops unveiled in Dholpur, Rajasthan. Capacity-building workshop hosted on effective communication in finance & accounting. Solar pump installation for irrigation in Sitarganj (Uttarakhand) under the FRDP project. New Production house inaugurated in Nurabad, Muraina (MP), in collaboration with JK Tyres. Training session organized for SHG members at Dariba location on MGNREGA, labour rights and entitlement. Training and animal feed distribution program organized at the Manjari office in Sarmathura, for 100 scheduled tribe goat farmers.

Women's Institutions

Women's Institutions: Collective Effort For A Better Future

We are committed to empowering women from marginalised communities so that they can live their lives with dignity.

Our Institution Building model comprises a three-tier architecture with SHGs at the foundation, followed by Village Organisations and Federations. These institutions are the building blocks for our interventions around financial literacy, inclusion, livelihoods, governance, education, nutrition, health, governance etc

In an effort to scale up, we partnered with Camide, an NGO from West Africa, and successfully replicated the Manjari Model in Mali and Senegal.

Till date, our microfinance work has resulted in the inclusion of more than 89,203 unbanked women in the financial system, who have been organised into 6277 SHGs, 741 Village Organizations and 23 Federations. These institutions have disbursed a cumulative credit of INR 30 Crore. (4 Million USD).

Women have gained a sense of dignity and confidence and there has been a reduction in distress borrowing and pawning and an increased sense of agency and optimism about attaining future financial and well-being goals. Women's participation in family decisions has also increased as a result.

In an effort to scale up, we partnered with Camide, an NGO from West Africa, and successfully replicated the Manjari Model in Mali and Senegal.

Women's Institutions

Creating opportunity, access and control over resources and entitlements for women

Owned, governed and managed by women

Self-reliance is one of the core values of the Manjari Foundation. Building strong and vibrant women's community-owned and managed institutions that meet the diverse development needs of a village has always been at the core of all our efforts.

We encourage women to take greater responsibility and to be their own leaders; therefore, Self-Help Groups are the prime approach to social mobilisation at the grassroots.

We facilitate the formation of women's institutions that are owned, governed and managed by women members. SHGs are designed to function as self-sustainable institutions. As a result, our women's institutions serve as vibrant vehicles of change, that help identify challenges and play a pivotal role in designing, implementing and supervising our thematic interventions.

Programme pillars

Mobilisation

Mobilisation of women in Selp Help Groups and associated tiers

Capacity Building

Capacity building of members and institutions to foster a sense of agency

Access to Services

Facilitating linkages to access services that impact lives and livelihoods

Institution architecture

The institution platform is a three-tier structure starting with SHGs at the grassroots
level, that merge into Village Organisations and eventually come together to form Federations at the block level.

Federations

A federation is owned, governed and managed by women themselves. It’s a platform for collective voices, solidarity and self-expression as well. Federations deal with issues of socio and economic development. They also provide technical services to VOs and SHGs to ensure their sustainability in the long run. The outreach of one Federation is generally 3000-5000 members.

Village Organisation

Village Organisations (VOs) are formed by SHGs coming together. They enable peer-to-peer learning and help address village-level issues such as livelihoods and other social, and political issues. VOs generally have an outreach of 10-15 SHGs (100-200 members).

Self Help Groups

Self Help Groups (SHGs) are the primary unit of community institutions. They provide opportunities for mutual help, financial intermediation and address the basic needs of members along with livelihood and social development.

Digitised record keeping

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide new opportunities for developing economies in terms of increased efficiency and productivity, access to new services and occupations and increased connectivity.

However, the extent to which developing economies are able to reap these potential benefits is contingent on a host of social, economic and institutional dimensions.

While economic growth and rising productivity are the major expected outcomes of digitalisation, digital divides and related forms of exclusion and inequalities are commonly observed too.

Imbibing data-driven transparency

India, one of the largest economies in the world, with a remarkable pace of ICT diffusion, represents a relevant case to investigate the impacts of digitalisation on economic development.

The digitalisation of any programme is the need of the hour. We have digitalised all our SHG programmes. We have developed a unique “Safal Saral Software” in-house, which is helping us to digitise all accounting and microfinance aspects pertaining to women's institutions.

Linkages with financial institutions

The software offers several unique features and is helping members to access all the relevant information, which includes financial data, socio-economic profiles of the members etc. The software will improve the interface between women members and financial institutions. A special feature of this software is its ability to work both online and offline which is useful to cater for the needs of members in remote geographies. We have offered the facility of a tablet and printer to our SHG Sakhis (Community Resource Persons), for easier access.

These devices are helping them to fill out data and relevant details at the village level in live meetings and send them to a server for generating reports. This is a big leap towards digital literacy among rural women. The usage of tablets has brought flexibility, accessibility, accuracy, and transparency in the functioning of SHGs.

 
Photo Credit: Sakhi Project

Impact Stories

Our Testimonials

What People Say About Us

'Manjari’ literally translates to “seed of Tulsi”, a sacred Indian plant. When women mobilise themselves to form institutions, they are empowered to sow their own ‘seeds of change’.