Getting rid of Shylock

The NGO Sampark has also made a seminal contribution in yet another area. This is in tackling the problem of usury through self help groups. The Bhils traditionally had an informal credit support system called "uchhna" wherein anybody could get a loan from someone else in the community to be paid back without interest later. However, with the monetisation of the economy and the penetration of the money-lender trader "sahukars" who also doubled as tax collectors for the British this system slowly fell into decay and the Bhils fell into debt. Sampark introduced the concept of self help groups to the Bhils in Petlawad and inculcated the small saving habit among them. With time these SHGs were linked with Banks which provided them larger loans at interest rates much lower than that charged by the sahukars. The SHGs brought the people together again. Traditionally they had been together as their whole life depended on it but later they had been separated by the machinations of the sahukars and the state. However, when they scraped the bottom of the barrel and had only a bleak future as migrant labourers to look forward to they found the SHGs a good way out of the dead end. This augmentation of social cohesion is a by product of SHG formation but when attention is paid to this process then it can become a potent tool for organising people to demand much more than just temporary economic benefits. SHGs in tandem with Panchayati Raj Institutions can empower the rural poor no end and this is the direction in which future mass organisation work should proceed. Sustainable livelihoods can be possible only on the bedrock of social cohesion. Thus there is a need to look at the social and political potential of SHGs instead of dismissing them as cooptive sops introduced by the capitalist class for further depoliticisation of the masses.