Cairn India establish 12 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in western Rajasthan

Cairn India today claimed to have created 12 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Barmer, Rajasthan, with a membership of 195 women out of whom 25 have set up their own enterprises. It all began with spearheading special self-employment programmes (SEPs) for women funded by Cairn India and the International Finance Corporation in January 2009. Under the SEPs, customised training was provided to women from all the villages of Barmer district on making products such as ropes and twines, key chains, mangalsutras, handicrafts like applique, embroidery, tagai, tie and dye. So far, 76 SEPs have been carried out and 1,818 women are involved in these trainings. On completion of the training, the women were apprenticed with a number of traders and exporters based in Barmer or Ahmedabad to convert the raw material into finished products and thus generate household income for themselves.
Subsequently, the women began to organise themselves into SHGs so as to look at more self-driven self-employment and avail support from other programmes, schemes and institutions which would aid the future sustenance of their work. So far, 12 SHGs have been created with a membership of 195 women. All these SHGs have opened their bank accounts and are learning to handle group-based activities, a Cairn India statement here said. Forty one women were also imparted an intensive 3-week entrepreneurship development programme, followed by intense follow-up to finalise business plans and undertake market surveys. As per May 2010 statistics, the average monthly income for each woman, depending upon the skill level, the time spent and the trade chosen, ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 2000.