Posted by: Katherine Oglietti
Onam celebration by sangam members of the Trichur Branch, ESAF, India
Interview with:
Benita Sarah Mathew and Sandhya Suresh, ESAF, India
The Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF) is a Christian-based non-profit that takes an integrated approach to economic development, incorporating social, environmental, and public health components into their program. ESAF established its Micro Finance Enterprises Development program in 1995, which covers nine states in India. ESAF focuses its efforts on women, youth, and children.
MIX: ESAF has a greater percentage of female middle managers and loan officers than any other MFI reporting from India. Are your high rates of women staff related to gender-specific hiring policies? Are there ways in which women staff can better support ESAF's mission of targeting female clients? If so, in what ways?
ESAF: ESAF believes in providing equal opportunity to the deserving candidates irrespective of their gender, though preference is given to women candidates especially at the level of loan officers. Women are better positioned to establish rapport and build close relationships with the clients that are not merely ‘financial’ in nature. Female loan officers are able to relate to the social, economic, and emotional needs of the client as they belong to the same socio-economic strata of the society. Daughters of the sangam (village bank) members who possess essential and desirable qualifications for a required post are given the priority to serve. ESAF sangam meetings provide a platform for the women members to not only engage in loan operations, but also to share their concerns regarding their homes and communities. We believe that a female loan officer can facilitate an environment of mutual trust and ownership within the groups.
Similarly, female staff can better envision new initiatives for the welfare and overall empowerment of women clients. Thus it has been found that women staff has certainly played a vital role in successfully targeting the women clients.
MIX: While many MFIs reporting to MIX claimed to target women clients with the goal of assisting their empowerment, few offer as many empowerment services as ESAF. What sorts of specialized trainings for women does ESAF offer, and why are these important?
ESAF: Training has been an indivisible component in all the strategic decisions and implementation of ESAF operations. Regular training is provided at the level of staff and also at the level of the clients. A panel of external resource persons from different development sectors is formed and their services are sought from time to time to provide specialized training to the staff as well as to the clients.
Loan officers bring the community and familiar discussion topics raised by each sangam to the branch managers. Accordingly awareness on the topic is provided to the group either by the branch manager or the loan officer. Apart from this, monthly awareness sessions are conducted on topics such as how to manage a family budget, economics of savings, women and childcare, and women’s participation in socio-economic development of a society.
ESAF also offers specialized training, which consists of leadership and self-esteem development as well as Micro Enterprise Development (skills building, design and packaging of the produce, marketing, negotiation and networking, quality check, and book keeping.)
These trainings have definitely helped in enhancing the quality and services of business operations of ESAF. The trainings foster women’s empowerment through increased knowledge and awareness levels, and the clients better understand the concept of micro credit, the need for timely repayment, and the importance of micro savings and insurance.
MIX: ESAF is one of 13 MFIs who reported that they include counseling and legal services for women who suffer from domestic violence. What sorts of services to you offer for victims of domestic violence? What challenges has your program faced in implementing these programs?
ESAF: ESAF believes that improving the economic situation of women can only be a partial contributor towards the holistic empowerment of women. Unless women are aware of their rights and the means to access and legitimately claim their rights, they are not in a position to seek rightful space both in their personal and public domain. Therefore efforts are made to raise their awareness on the issues such as women’s rights as enshrined in the National Constitution in informational sessions during sangam meetings.
ESAF is in the process of building the skills and capacities of sangam members who have shown interest and zeal to offer their voluntary services for the welfare of women and children. At present 20 women, called “Barefoot Counselors,” offer their voluntary services to clients who need counseling to various traumatic experiences they undergo, either due to domestic violence or disputes with family members, neighbors, or co-workers. Barefoot Councilors work with both husband and wife as ESAF believes that unless men are also taken engaged, the approach remains one-sided with negligible levels of impact. If problems cannot be mitigated through the Barefoot Counselors, clients are referred to ESAF branch office or head office for further assistance. Because of the trust and goodwill developed by ESAF at the community level, men have never questioned the intervention of ESAF in providing information that relates to women empowerment.
MIX: ESAF’s social performance report shows that 16% of clients who receive individual loans are women, while 99% of clients who receive group loans are women. How does ESAF determine which clients can receive individual loans? Do women show a preference for group or individual loans?
ESAF: In fact, almost 99% of the loans are individual loans but have a ‘group guarantee’ so as to upload the principle of group ownership among the members. Usually, the credit history of the client is recorded by the loan officers as one of the means to determine whether the client has the capacity to take out an individual loan. Based on the report by the loan officer, a Loan Sanctioning Committee (LSC) comprised of the Branch manager, Account assistant and Area manager reviews the loan application form and approves it. Among the loan products women have comparatively shown lesser preference for the individual VVY (Vyapar Vikas Yojana) loan, which is meant for the expansion of their entrepreneurial unit. An action research is planned to see how ESAF can improve women entrepreneurial capacity in various aspects of business development so that they too use the loans to meet the larger goals of business development and contribute their share in the economic development of their community.
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