• Our Objective
  A national concern since independence has been to bring the poor women into the mainstream of national development. The Government has promoted the concept of MAHILA MANDALS, or Women working groups. These working groups contribute to community and social development. They can also make decisions on matters that concern women and the society and also implement their decisions.                                                                     

• Our Endeavor
  NIRPHAD extended the concept of MAHILA MANDALS into what is called Womens Self Help Groups (SHG). The SHGs are formed with the main objective of developing and strengthening inherent skills among women and organizing  them to grow to their full potential and make a socio-economic  contribution to the family and to the development of the community.

• NIRPHAD's Accomplishments
  NIRPHAD has helped to establish 65 SHGs in 46 villages and the number is growing steadily. The movement is extended in to new villages by NIRPHAD's staff and is assisted by the existing SHG members. This programme will be extended to the 6 districts through 10 FNGOs. 

SHGs attempts to

• Emancipate debt laden, poor women from the clutches of the greedy village money- lenders. Loans from SHG's funds are given at an  interest rate of 2%, which is much lower than that charged by traditional  village money lenders. Collateral is not required.

• Educate women on home and child health care - especially ORS therapy (for diarrhoea )   contraceptives,  birth spacing, STD  and  AIDS awareness and common  disease, which can be prevented. The staff encouraged the women to share their knowledge with others in the community.

• Equal participation is an important ingredient  of social organization and  allows all SHG's members to  voice their issues  so that they are heard in the family and in the community and a common platform is available to discuss social problems such as incest, rape, wife beating and abandonment. The increase in confidence of the unemployed women is through vocational training.

• Credit Mechanism was formulated by the SHG's which extends credit and recovers money from the borrower according to rules and regulations formulated by the SHG committees. 

• We Need Your Help
  Income generation and removal of gender based social issues are the central plans and cannot be implemented/extended in full due to paucity of funds.  The continuation of effective organization and marketing of village products requires funding for administration, logistics and upfront cost in procurement of raw material. The profit margin is not large enough to sustain these activities and also provide women with an adequate income thus the carpet weaving and stone carving centers had to decrease their activities due to paucity of funds. NIRPHAD welcomes your assistance to help the economically deprived women, who can make a significant contribution to better the lives of their families and the community.