#2 | Deepa: Rural Women — Part II
By Soumya Mukund, Arpit Paurush and Dharmesh Ba
This interview is broken into two parts. The first part of the interview talks about Deepa’s family, background, income and expenses.
Short story:
Deepa is a 30-year-old married woman living in Tumkur with her husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. Their family occupation is agriculture, cattle rearing, and selling coconuts. However, cattle rearing is their most reliable source of income. Their agricultural land host a variety of crops such as ragi, paddy and others. However, the produce from the farm is consumed by the family themselves and they do not have a surplus to sell them due to uneven rainfall, inadequate irrigation system & shortage of fertile land.
One of the causes of inadequate irrigation is rocky soil and a shortage of groundwater.
Assets:
S: Do you own land?
D: Yes we have, a piece of land.S: What do you grow on the land?
D: Yes. We grow paddy, ragi, and other crops. We do not have irrigation here. So we cannot grow coconut trees. If there is rain, we will harvest it. We grow for our consumption only.
Loans:
- Deepa’s family has one outstanding loan from the bank. They took a loan to buy cows, On which they are paying a 4% p.a rate of interest. They pay Rs.2,500 per month.
- Fifteen members of the Sangha community took a loan of Rs. 7,00,000 in which every member received a sum of Rs. 50,000.
- Another loan of Rs. 25,000 was procured for agriculture purposes from sahakar sangha. This loan is an interest-free one if repaid the loan in 15–30 days.
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Sangha or Group lending:
Group lending is a mechanish which allows a group of individuals — often called a sangha to provide collateral or loan guarantee through a group repayment pledge. The incentive to repay the loan is based on peer pressure, if one group member defaults, the other group members make up the payment amount.Conversations from the transcript:
S: Have you taken any loan?
D: We have taken a loan from a bank. All of us have taken loan from the bank.S: How much instalment do you monthly pay for the loan?
D: We pay Rs. 2,500 in a month for the bank loan.S: What was the bank loan for?
D: We had taken a loan to buy cattle. It has been a year since we took the loan.S: What is the rate of interest?
D: They are currently charging us 4%. The bank will keep enforcing many other fees like vikasa charges, so the interest will be higher.S: Do you have any other loan also?
D: We had taken a loan of Rs. 7 lakhs from our Sangha. We are 15 members, we got Rs. 50,000 each.
Saving & Instalments:
- Her Family makes a note of everything to analyse how much they should save in a day to achieve a target of Rs. 2,500 (34.94$) to pay a bank loan every month.
- Deepa sets aside Rs. 15,000 (209.53$) every month in bank for emergency purposes.
- Her Family also invests money in Community (sangha). She has lent the money in sangha at a 1% rate of interest. It is a self-help community group in the village.
- Deepa had invested money in three chit fund schemes of Rs. 100, Rs. 200 and Rs. 500. They have utilised the generated money from chit funds to buy coconuts.
- They save and park the profit amount in the bank, which they make by
selling cattle and cow milk. They also generate partial revenue by selling coconuts and sheep farming.
Conversations from the transcript:
S: How do you keep track of each expense and analyse how much you should save for a day?
D: We have to pay Rs. 2,500 in a month for a bank loan. Now we make a note of how much we have to save in a day, whether it is Rs. 50 in such a way that we could pay Rs 2,500 by the end of the month.S: How much do you keep aside every month for emergency purpose ?
D: Once in 15 days we get the bill for cattle money. One bill is worth Rs. 15,000 (209.52$). It will be in the bank. 2 Bills will make Rs 30,000 (419.37$). On bill we keep aside in bank for emergency purposes.S: How do you save?
D: We have raised cattle. The money we make from selling cattle milk comes into our account, with that money we buy fodder. Some of the amount also goes as savings. Depending on how much we have to save, we will spend on the fodder. We also have 50–60 sheep. My father looks after the sheep. This forms some portion of our revenue, with it we buy some coconuts and sell them. We make some profit from this. If we buy for Rs. 20,000 we might make Rs. 22,000. This will be our savings.S: What all chit funds have you been a part of?
D: We haven’t given it any label, we have been a part of chit funds of Rs.100, Rs.200, Rs.500 around 3–4 times. The amount that is given as loan to an individual in a month will be generating interest. The money that the rest of the members put in every month will also from the savings. Once in 2 or 3 years the entire amount is distributed among all the members.S: Do you have FD/RD? Why?
D: Post office do RD & banks take FD. We haven’t done any of those. We need money for it in the first place. We have no money hence no savings.
Insurances:
- The family has 2- Bima Yojana, one for Deepa and the other for her father in law. They have to pay Rs.1000 for six months, which is a challenge according to the financial condition.
- The family has vehicle insurance for tractor and bike. They pay Rs.15,000 to renew the insurance every year.
- None of the family members have life insurance.
Conversations from the transcript:
S: Have you heard of insurance?
D: Yes, we have 2 LIC insurance. Bima yojana. I have one and my father. We have to pay Rs. 1,000 for 6 months.S: Do you have health insurance?
D: No.S: Do you have life insurance?
D: No.S: Do you have vehicle insurance?
D: Yes. We have insurance for bike and a tractor. We have to pay Rs. 15,000. If we do not pay then it means trouble for us. We have to keep paying Rs. 15,000 for renewal.
Technology:
- Deepa’s Family has two phones, one phone she carries with her whenever she steps away from the house, while the other stays at home for communication purposes.
- The usage of the internet is there on one phone. They use Facebook and what’s app.
Conversations from the transcript:
S: Do you have a phone?
D: We have two phones at home. We have one phone for the home and the other one that I use when I step out of the home. Each one is recharged for Rs.100 (1.40$).
Goals and Lifestyle:
- Deepa and her friends want to learn to tailor so that they could give financial support to the family.
- Providing good education to her kids is one of the deepest desires of Deepa. She believes that her kid’s education would one day uplift them from poverty.
- The family wants to repay the loan so that they could succeed in attaining their other desires.
- Deepa also wants to have a house with molded rooftops someday.
Conversations from the transcript:
S: What do you want to do through BuzzIndia?
D: They have given us training, we cannot step outside, so if they provide us with necessary facilities we can all get together and do something of our own. Now we are facing difficulties, but if together if we are able to get some benefit from it, we can help others in future. That is our desire.S: What are you interested in?
D: If tailoring training is for free, we would like to do that. If we can sell anything by going in vans to different places, people are interested in that as well. You have to provide us with all these facilities, then we can do it. Until now nobody had taken this kind of an initiative. Now that you have done it, everyone has grown a desire to do something. If you help us we can make progress.S: What are your future goals?
D: Now we have a lot of loans. We must repay them. Because of the huge loans, none of our desires will be fulfilled. If we are able to get something useful out of BuzzIndia, we will be able to fulfil some of our dreams, that is our desire.S: Imagine you have no loans now, what will be your goal then?
D: Children’s education will always be there, even in the absence of loans. We will have the desire to give them education for a certain level. For this we need money. We have ended up like this, at least our children should live happily, with all kinds of facilities. Some people have molded rooftops, we also would like to have that.
Aha Movements:
- Social bonding that Deepa share with the relatives and the neighbourhood is a huge asset for her, as it paves her at the time of emergency.
- Deepa even wants to start a small clothing business where a group of women from the village will make and sell clothes with the objective to improve the financial condition of the family and the community.
This interview is broken into two parts. The first part of the interview talks about Deepa’s family, background, income and expenses.
Credits:
Interviewed and transcribed by
Soumya Mukund
Edited and published for Medium by
DHARMESHBA & Arpit Paurush
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About the research:
This documentation is a result of the in-person interview along with the participants’ consent. The interviews might be conducted in their native languages and translated to English in the best possible way to reach a large audience.
Disclaimer: The names and organisations in this documentation are masked to honour the privacy of the participant.
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