The Hindu : British House praises SHGs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

British House praises SHGs

HYDERABAD JUNE 25. The pioneering work done by women's self-help groups in Andhra Pradesh has come in for praise in the British House of Commons in London.

In a written answer yesterday, Hilary Benn, the Minister of State, Department for International Development, said more than 250,000 groups with a membership of around 6 million women, had been established in Andhra Pradesh, the largest number in any State in India.

She said the Department for International Development had been supporting the work under the Credit and Small Household Enterprise (CASHE) project, which provided funding to local organisations.

The groups were centres on savings and credit, enabling the members to build up their own savings and to borrow from group funds to cover unexpected expenses such as illness or as start-up capital for income-earning activities, for purchasing livestock.

The project operates in five of the poorest districts in Andhra Pradesh, and also in Orissa and West Bengal districts.

The Minister told Tonge that Andhra Pradesh had one of the highest incidences of child labour in India.

Since 2000, DFID has been supporting the International Labour Organisation's Integrated Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour in the State. The programme works with trades unions, parents, employers and non-governmental organisations to build support for eradicating child labour.

It works in parallel and as a support to the State Government's own efforts to eliminate child labour and to ensure that all children attend school; the Government has set universal primary education as a target to be achieved by 2005.

``It is not possible to determine how many children have been taken out of child labour by the ILO-IPEC project and how many from the Government's own efforts. The Government has estimated that combined effect of these actions in 2002 was that almost 500,000 children were taken out of child labour,'' the Minister said.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Government of India's District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) includes establishing "bridge'' schools for former child labourers. Children attend these schools for around four months with the aim of moving into mainstream schools at the end of the period. DFID is one of the donors supporting DPEP in Andhra Pradesh, providing up to 46.5 million pounds over nine years.- PTI

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