BRIDGING POVERTY AND GENDER DIVIDES: TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGES THROUGH HAND IN HAND INDIA SHGS IN BIHAR AND JHARKHAND, INDIA.

Economic growth accompanied by poverty reduction and gender equality are critical development goals for all rising economies. However, despite significant improvements in economic growth metrics, India still lags behind in several social and development indices. In this context, the self-help group (SHG) movement of ‘women collectives’ has played a critical role in addressing development challenges related to poverty, gender inequality, and socio-economic development by promoting social capital, skills, livelihoods, financial services, and social and economic empowerment of women. Through field studies and impact evaluation findings, this paper expounds the efforts of Hand in Hand India, a leading NGO in India, in bridging gender and poverty divides by forming women into collectives and addressing issues of education, health and livelihoods in over 80 villages in two of the most backward districts of India, Bihar and Jharkhand. The project areas in both states suffer from high incidences of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, lack of skills, limited employment opportunities, and deep-seated gender inequalities, leading to excessive occurrences of child labor, poor health, and gender-based disparities in communities. In one of HiH India’s flagship projects, we are working with over 2,000 families of ‘out-of-school children,’ supporting them with school enrolment, better health, and nutrition. Additionally, we are working with the mothers of these children by forming them into ‘mothers' collectives,’ training them in the importance of education, health, skills development, livelihoods promotion, finance, and accounting. This enables them to start income-generating activities to support themselves and their families and ensure continued education and improved health standards for their children. This strategy has been successful, as the mothers' collectives have gained knowledge, skills, social solidarity, self-esteem, and economic self-reliance, leading to their social and economic empowerment. Through community engagement, networking, and advocacy, have become formidable agents of socio-economic change in their villages, successfully addressing issues related to school education, clean drinking water, toilet construction, sanitation, child and maternal health, family planning, immunization, livelihoods development and market linkages, delivering positive results. Going forward, our endeavour will be to capitalize on their collective strengths to drive deeper transformative changes, gender equality, and inclusive growth in society.