Success story of Rampur Jaipal Village

Rita Devi a women lives in Rampur Jaipal village, District Muzaffarpur, State Bihar. But what is so special about her? She is a simple woman like others. She fights with her situation like other women; she has the same story of her life like other women but the most important thing which shows her different from other villagers is that now she saves Rs10 per week means at least Rs40 per month, Rs360 in a year, after enrolled with SHG, which became a big support for her whole family. Rampur Jaipal village comes under Bochaha block. It is situated 3 kms away from Bochaha block and it is well connected with national highway road going one side Muzaffarpur main town and other side Darbhanga district. The main occupation of this village is farming, but some people have migrated for better employment opportunity. The lands are also fit for cultivation where litchi and mangoes are one of the commercial fruits and maize, wheat and rice are the cash crops, but most families are unable to produce grains for more than four months requirements. Thats why, People are forced to go for more vulnerable occupations like wage earnings as migratory agri-labourers. Apart from these migratory works, villagers were also involved in some small-level Rita Devi at her house businesses like kirana shop, paan shop, gupchup shop etc. Rita Devi was 16 years old when she got married. She did not have time even to think about her marriage life. Her husband is a driver. His monthly earning is about Rs2000-2500. He works on daily basis and earns about Rs100 per day but the he do not get work daily. She lives in a mud house with her husband, mother in law and two children and her husband is the only earning person in her family, whose income is not enough to run the whole family. So she started taking money from moneylender at any emergency.But after some days situation get worst when interest got accumulated with principle amount. In June 2011 when she came to know about Jeevika and listened to other women of nearby villages about their experience and success after enrolled with SHG, not only she agreed to form the group but she convinced to

other women of her village to enroll with SHG. She took the risk of not losing money in front of all villagers. This was first step in her success story which turned it in her favour. It gave her a confidence that even a woman like her can accept some responsibility. When she fell ill she took loan of Rs5000 from SHG at 2% interest rate instead of taking from money lender at 5% interest rate, and if we compare to both loan from Jeevika and moneylender then we can say that she has saved Rs150 (explained in exhibit-I) per month. She took another loan of Rs2000 from SHG for repayment of loan to moneylender. She has taken only two loans from Jeevika, one was in February 2012 and second loan was in March 2012 and she has not yet started repayment. It is about one year of her joining with Jeevika. After joining Jeevika she got affordable loan to pay the liability of moneylender and get her life free of all this tension. For her, one of the most positive changes in her life and in that of her entire village is that she has become independent of moneylenders. The old power equation has shifted and now women can directly take loan from her own savings in Jeevika. She started saving Rs10 on weekly basis in SHG, which is the most important thing, Joining SHG not only help her to get loan but also open door of opportunity as she got aware of many socio-economic issue.

Exhibit:-I Difference between moneylender and Jeevika

Amount months Rate of Interest Rate of Interest to Saving jeevika to moneylender moneylender (difference) jeevika 5000 1 0.02 100 0.05 250 150 2000 1 0.02 40 0.05 100 60 Total loan from Jeevika = Rs7000 Savings of Reta Devi = Rs110 (in one month)

Ruchi kumari cimp