In the male-dominated rural landscapes of Haryana, wom-en have little economic freedom. They balance household chores, animal husbandry and agriculture, while following a strict purdah system. Shobha Lal of Gur-gaon has formed 250 self-help groups (SGHs) in these villages of Mewat to fight such patriarchal mindsets, empowering over 2,500 women. When the savings from the inc-ome these women generated crossed Rs 40 lakh, banks got interested in financing them, giving a Rs 1 crore loan to upgrade their activities and add new revenue streams, like growing seasonal crops and medicinal plants.

Lal started her journey in 1990 with the additional district commissioner’s office in Gurg-aon, where she was the women’s representative for rural development. By the time she retired in 2011, Lal had gained an unique perspective into rural development and women’s empowerment, from both inside a government office and outside. For a while, she worked on the same issues with various NGOs. “The government does a lot of work, but it lacks vision,” she says.

An All India women’s conference in 2005 convinced her to start its rural branch in Gurgaon, which alone formed some 600 groups in villages around the city, training women to make bakery goods and cloth bags, stitch and become beauticians. The Gurugram Gramin Mahila Mandali began to grow. Now it has around 1 lakh members and 15 training centres within a 20-km radius.

The training centres had to be shut down during the lockdown. Funding from donors also dried up. Lal and other members started making cloth bags and face masks from their homes.

Lal has now landed a CSR project of a private bank to work on digital and financial literacy. Computers were set up at the centres and wom-en began to receive training in these.

Adding new disciplines at the training centres is great, she feels, but adds that SGHs will never stop making cloth bags. “They will always be clo-se to my heart. The double benefit of providing income and preventing plastic bags from harming the environment is a win-win for all.

(This appeared in the print edition as "From Saved To Saviour")

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Text and photograph by Vikram Sharma