Proceedings of the International Symposium on

Sustainable Systems and Technologies, v4 (2016)

Diary Reading of Grass Root Level Institutions to Locate Participation,
Empowerment and Sustainability:
Story of a Farmers Self-help Group (SHG) in South India
Mini Kachumbron Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
minikdileep@gmail.com
Abstract. The concept of Self-help groups (SHGs) became one of the central themes for
participatory development approaches as a strategy to empower the disempowered. There is a
presumption that a group possesses the characteristics of homogeneity which in turn will get
translated to participation of all members in the decision making process, resulting in
empowerment and ultimately leading to sustainability. Hence, the assessment of the
performance of SHGs in terms of these development metaphors viz. participation,
empowerment and sustainability, will signal, to what extent, the realized objectives of the
programmes are in tandem with the perceived objectives. But, most of the existing
methodologies view the SHG as a single homogeneous entity and fail to see the underlying
heterogeneity masked by this homogeneous imagery. In this context, this paper proposes
employing diary reading as a methodological approach to study the grass root level institutions.
My attempt is to unfold the story of an SHG by reading its diary in the form of decade long
minutes of its meetings from 2004 to 2015 to get an in-depth study of actors at the last mile. The
conclusions are drawn from an original ethnographic study of a farmers Self-help Group in
South India, affiliated to Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK), the
successor organization of a European Union aided agricultural development programme. The
diary tells us how the SHG took birth, how it passed through various phases of its life and how it
became a site of constant struggle and negotiation before it collapsed, exposing the cracks in a
system designed to sustain. Interestingly, amidst those struggles, a woman farmer from the
group become a director in the state level governing body of the organization. What
associations and what translations of interests shape her life and enable her transformation? I
would argue that it is not the programme alone but a combination of many factors that created
an empowered woman out of a collapsing SHG, and helped her to endure amidst the conflicting
ideas, information, people, programmes, events and situations. The conclusions drawn in this
attempt to locate the ideas of participation, empowerment and sustainability in the realm of
participatory agricultural development revealed that diary reading can be employed as an
effective methodology to support an ethnographic study of grass root level institutions.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies (ISSN 2329-9169) is
published annually by the Sustainable Conoscente Network. Jun-Ki Choi and Annick Anctil, co-editors 2016.
ISSSTNetwork@gmail.com.
Copyright 2016 by Mini Kachumbron Licensed under CC-BY 3.0.
Cite as:
Diary Reading of Grass Root Level Institutions as an Ethnographic Tool to Locate Participation, Empowerment and
Sustainability: Story of a Farmers Self-help Group (SHG) in South India. Proc. ISSST, Mini Kachumbron. Doi
information v4 (2016)

Title of paper goes here

Introduction.
In development discourse, the concept of sustainability has been taken up at different political
levels and is being associated with concrete policy initiatives. But the term assumes various
meanings and connotations in different contexts. Multiple actors conceive, convey, perceive,
understand and interpret the term sustainability in different ways at various levels. As pointed
out by many scholars sustainability is a highly contested terminology which was often described
as creatively ambiguous. This ambiguity is both the strength and weakness of the concept,
depending on the way it is being employed. Obviously it offered ample space for the policy
experts in designing the strategies to manage complex social systems. It was readily embraced
by development machinery in shaping the alternative development approaches and the concept
of self-help groups (SHGs) offered an avenue to operationalize this novel approach. The aid
policies were crafted by integrating these mutually reinforcing twin concepts- sustainability and
self-help groups- with the development goals. The last two decades of the 20th century
witnessed the emergence of the concept of Self-help groups (SHGs) as one of the central
themes for alternative development paradigm. A powerful imagery of sustainability was created
by the donor agencies by making the targeted beneficiaries being placed in the driving seat of
the development vehicle. It was conceptualized as a strategy to empower the disempowered
and showing them the path to sustainability. It has been acting as a guiding light house for both
the implementing agencies and the beneficiaries of the participatory development programmes.
The imagery is so powerful that we often disremember when the concept of Self-help Groups
(SHGs) found place in the development dictionary historically. It can be traced back to the
Power-to-the-people movement started in Western countries during the second half of the
twentieth century. It stemmed from the people's desire to meet their needs and determine their
own destinies when state institutions failed to deliver the services they offered. This movement
was viewed by the academia both as a reflection of anarchy and evolution of a democratic
society at the same time.
But the idea, undoubtedly, could evoke a sense of egalitarianism in the development paradigm.
There is a presumption that a group possesses the characteristics of homogeneity, uniformity
and egalitarianism which in turn will get translated to participation of all individual members in
the decision making process, in turn resulting in empowerment and will ultimately lead to
sustainability. Assessing the levels of performances of the SHGs forms an integral part of
evaluating the performance of the programme at the grass root level. Various methodologies
have been developed and employed for this purpose. However, most of the methodologies view
the SHG as a single entity and fail to see the underlying heterogeneity masked by the
homogeneous imagery of the SHG. This paper proposes employing diary reading as a
methodological approach to study the grass root level institutions in development programmes.
It is to be noted that, unlike their Western counterparts, self-help groups in the third world
countries were often more narrowly defined and largely entrapped in an imagery of
homogeneous groups of poor women, organizing themselves to manage micro-credit.
But in this paper, I try to move away from this imagery and narrate the story of a farmers selfhelp group in the South Indian state of Kerala. The SHG under study in an ensemble of people
differing in gender, faith, education, income levels, political affiliations etc. and yet sharing a
common purpose that glued them together.

Main Author name (i.e. F. Tedasa et al.)

Objective of the study

In this study, I tried to locate the ideas of participation, empowerment and sustainability in the
realm of participatory agricultural development. What roles did the policies and practices play in
shaping these concepts in a Self-help Group? How did the bottom-up and top-down approaches
of development dovetail together in defining and producing success? How did the actors deal
with the perpetuation of hierarchy and patriarchy? How did different actors negotiate in realizing
their own individual objectives within the collective objectives of the group? What associations
and what translations of interests shape the life and enable the transformation of specific
actors? In the process, I tried to explore how the methodology of diary reading can be
integrated in an ethnographic study of grass root level development programmes.
Investigative Method.
This paper is a part of my doctoral research which is primarily based on a multi-sited
ethnographic study of participatory agricultural development programme in the South Indian
state of Kerala. I also employed the Bruno Latours Actor Network Theory (Latour 1996) to
explain certain associations. For this paper, I also followed the footsteps of Laurel Thatcher
Ulrich who narrated how New England frontiers of eighteenth century lived by reading the diary
of a midwife (Ulrich 1990). My attempt is to unfold the story of an SHG by reading its diary in the
form of a decade long SHG minutes, to locate the ideas of participation, empowerment and
sustainability in the realm of participatory development. The methodology adopted was
Ethnography wherein, in this case, the ethnographer is both an insider and outsider. The author
worked in this organization from 1999 to 2011.
The SHG under study was organized by Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam
(VFPCK), the successor organization of a European Union aided agricultural development
programme called Kerala Horticulture Development Programme. It was introduced as the first
ever participatory agriculture development intervention supported by the European Union in the
state of Kerala and had a clear motto of self-help-participation-prosperity. It was a farmer owned,
governmentally organized company with farmers as the major shareholders with voting power to
elect their representatives. The director board of VFPCK was headed by agricultural minister
and it had four farmer members, one of which had necessarily to be a woman. Small groups of
15-20 farmers were formed based on neighbourhood principle. Since the ultimate aim was to
empower the group towards sustainability, it was necessary to mould leaders within farming
community. Every SHG had to select three master farmers to lead the group in areas of
production, credit and marketing. They were given trainings to undertake their duties. The
master farmers were to be replaced when their terms were over and select three new members,
so that everyone gets opportunity to empower themselves. About 10-15 such SHGs together
establish a marketing centre and bulk their produce there and the traders are invited to
participate in auction. The objective was to improve the bargaining power of the SHG. SHGs
were thus the basic institutional units of VFPCK. The vision statement of VFPCK, Empowered
self-help groups leading the nation in reaping the fruits of self-help justifies my choice of site for
locating participation and empowerment.
The SHG under study (Perumthaloor) is in a village in southern Kerala and shares one of its
borders with the forest of Western Ghats. The SHG functions under a VFPCK market there,
called Kalanjoor. The minutes of this SHG from 2004 to 2014 were read, analysed, compiled
and the information were further verified through focus group discussions in the SHG, personal
interviews of the SHG members and participant observation through village stay with the actors.
An ethnographic account of the parallel events and the everyday life of a woman farmer who
served as the woman farmer director in the VFPCK director board from 2008-2010, were also

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employed to draw the conclusions. The content analysis of various policy documents was also
done for triangulation.

Results and Discussions.

The figure 1 shows the annual frequency of the meetings from 2004-2015. During the period,
the SHGs met for 53 times. The frequency of the group meeting was increasing in the first three
years and started declining after that. After a no-meeting year of 2010 it met only once in a year,
except in 2014 when the members met twice in that year. I quote an observation made by one
field staff here.

We have three kinds of SHGs. Some are active and some are inactive. Some other SHGs do
not belong to either of these. Their brain death is over. But for some reasons we just cant let
them die. So we keep them in ventilator. We visit it once a year or so, to make sure that it is still
alive.

Main Author name (i.e. F. Tedasa et al.)

Symptomatic diagnosis shows that the SHG under study is such an SHG, kept in ventilator, for
some reason. The life of the protagonist of my story, Icheyi, who is a member in that SHG gave
a different picture. She was borne in 1947, dropped out of school in VI grade, married at the age
of 16 to an alcoholic husband who died soon widowing her at the age of 34. Left with two small
kids, she began cattle rearing to make a living and went through a long period of hardships. In
2004 she joined VFPCK SHG, and became a master farmer, became share nominee, became
Farmer Director and remained in that position for three years. In between she expanded her
farming in lease lands. In 2010 her only son was diagnosed for throat cancer and undergone
nuclear treatment. Though he survived, she lost all her savings and a major share of her small
patch of land in the process. Emerged from the fall she became the best woman farmer in that
village from 2011 2015. Technically speaking, the SHG took birth on Tuesday, February 10,
2004 with 7 members. Master farmers were selected in the next meeting, which included our
Icheyi. AM resigned after getting another job and new officer (Roy) took charge. He was a
trained plant breeder, and was known for his profound knowledge in the subject. He groomed
the SHG. The Master farmers were trained, taken for exposure visits, who in turn trained the
fellow farmers, they expanded cultivation, availed credit, and conducted experiments.
Discussions were wider and deeper. And finally after a long process of mobilizing people and
resources, a new market was established. In the following months, they wrote the market is a
blessing for the farmers; many times. In the meantime, persuaded by Roy, the group took share
in VFPCK and nominated Icheyi to represent them.
The conflict began, when the credit master farmer manipulated the credit plan and was caught
by Roy. As the Credit MF was the record keeper he started criticizing Roy and recorded it in the
minutes as the opinion of the group. When in one meeting when he called him unfair and
inefficient some other farmers noted at the end we disagree with what is being written about
RoySir. In the next meeting the farmer was removed from the post and new master farmers
were selected.
The market was also in trouble. Slowly cracks appeared in the structure revealing the inner
weakness of the system. Actions of a local money lender aggravated the situation. Sooner,
there appeared minutes entries highlighting the problems of market. Roy got a transfer to his
native district and left and new officer took charge. When there was a vacancy of Women farmer
director, the group nominated Icheyi and she won. The group congratulated her in their next
meeting. New officer, an MBA graduate, took charge. He was an efficient worker in his field, but
was clueless about technical field problems. He avoided such situations. Discussions got
narrowed to subsidies, and materials. Five officers came and left in five years. Because of staff
shortage, most of them were given the responsibility as additional charge. They had enough
problems to solve in their own area and paid less attention to Kalanjoor. The meeting became a
ritual to change the master farmers once in a year. After a long gap of sixteen months of nomeetings, the members assembled themselves. On Friday, August 22, 2014, the diary read
The Perumthalloor SHG which was functioning in Kalnjoor FC withdrew its common fund and
distributed among the farmers. It was signed by nine farmers. That moment marked the brain
death of the group. As the group is a shareholder with voting power, it continued to be there in
the data base of the organization.
By definition an SHG is homogeneous in nature. I wanted to know whether this applies to my
SHG, which has 25 registered members. This is what I got. It included both men and women,
their age ranged from 45 to 80, varied education and main livelihood varied a lot. Even among
those who were farming, area ranged from a few plants on the back yard to cultivation in 3
acres. Members were from three different religions, affiliation with five different political parties.

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It was not homogeneous from any of these angles. It was the common purpose that glued the
members together. Homogeneous Imagery of the SHG was masking the underlying
heterogeneity which got revealed during conflicts and came to light when the common purpose
was not there anymore.
The parallel story of Icheyi had a different picture to show. When VFPCK started functioning in
the village, she was leading a lonely life in her house. She found the SHG as an avenue to
interact with people. She maintained a good relationship with the officer and did not miss any
meeting. Of the 53 meetings, she attended 48, missed four meetings whenever Roy could not
make it and once when she went to meet a hospitalized group member. She also maintained a
very cordial relationship with other staff and also with the district manager. She performed all the
given tasks in the best possible way, supported and protected Roy whenever required and
showed keen interest in updating her knowledge and skill. As Roy said What really surprised
me was her mathematical skills. She used to oversee the financial transactions of the market
and used to make quick approximation of transactions mentally. Whenever she was around
there were no malpractices.
Obviously when there was a vacancy of farmer director she became the first choice from the
district. When interviewed about the choice, the District Manager, also a woman, said.
Mainly because of her attitude and approach to us. There was one more reason. I had a rift
with (Name). He was pushing a candidate. I took it as a mission and pulled all the strings. I
called Roy and asked him to convince her. And he did. It was essential to get political support.
So I asked to meet CPI leaders in the district who recommended her name in the ministry. I also
sent her to neighbouring districts to meet officers and farmers. In the meantime, everyone in the
office also tried our level best to mobilize votes. Finally she won. I dont remember the margin
now. But she was far ahead of the other candidate. People at HQ now call me the kingmaker
(laughs).
A sixty-one year old lady, a sixth grade dropout, who never crossed the boundary of the district
alone and who never delivered a public speech, found her way to that prestigious position and
occupied it for three consecutive years. She had round table conference with the Agricultural
Minister and Agricultural Production Commissioner in Ministers Chamber or Five Star Hotels.
Her name adorned the Annual reports. She travelled across the state. She started signing
committee meetings in the market as Sarasakshiyamma, Director Board Member. It was a
transformation.
In her words;
I found it very difficult in the beginning. Dont you remember Madam, it was you people who
prepared the speeches for me. Now I learned to manage it.
Can we say that this is the empowerment envisaged in the policy? The author attended two
board meetings as a record keeper, when Icheyi was there in the board. The farmer directors
including Ichey did occupy the seats physically, but they seldom opened their mouth. Whenever
opened it was for parroting the demands of officers or specific cases of interests. Very rarely
they spoke about anything pertaining to the larger society they were representing.
During my diary reading, I did not specifically look for caste hierarchy or patriarchy. But there
were occasional encounters with these, one in a subtle way but the other made a grant
appearance. I could not find any discrimination in memberships, meetings or MF selection from
the minutes entries. But subtle expressions were there. For eg. name of Santha (a woman
from a lower caste) , who wrote and signed her name clearly as Santha in English became
Chantha, when someone else wrote her name. During the last two centuries, the upper castes

Main Author name (i.e. F. Tedasa et al.)

in Kerala used to name their kids after the names of the goddesses. But the lower castes were
not allowed to use it as such. Sreedevi became Chirutheyi, Lakshmi became Detchu and
Parvathy became Paru, when those in the lower strata named their kids. The SHG minutes
showed the perpetuation of this caste system.
But there was explicit expression of patriarchy in the minutes. In the second meeting The
Assistant Manager informed that three master farmers are to be selected. Among them, one
should be a woman. So the member were forced to select her. But later they wrote, Since the
men have more jobs, it has been decided to elect Saraskshiyamma as the leader of the group .
After two years, they were blunt in their decision. Last time a woman has been elected as the
leader. It has been decided not to do so, this time.
In 1992, citing the life of K.R. Gauri, Robin Jeffrey penned down his observation about the
status of women in Kerala To go to school, read a newspaper, attend an office, draw a salary
or seek trained medical care are widely approved activities. To contest an election and give
orders to men are not. Almost a quarter century down the line, the minutes entries of a grass
root level group echoed the same.
Only 15.60% of SHGs were eligible to elect the farmer representative. Were they representing
the larger mass? And finally if it is the state vote that decides the winner, who did the elected
candidates represent? Farmers or the ruling party? Though the market was facing a multiple of
issues, 43.33 % of farmers were still participating in market. In my research of all the services
the Council had been offering, the farmers valued the markets the most. Many of them told it
saved from committing suicide.
A farmer told me It is politics.. Politics.. everywhere.. The President, Vice-President and the
lady secretary belonged to an influential political party, in influential capacities.
The VFPCK database shows that there are 25 members in the SHG, but five of them died in
between. As in the case of SHGs the organization just cant let them go. They cant delete their
names, because the Govt releases plan fund mainly based on the additional farmer they were
catering. The totals and averages did not reflect the reality in the field, whereas agglomeration
of these figures plays a crucial role in producing success.
The main, sometimes the only agenda of these ritualized meetings was to rotate master farmers
and elect share nominees. The system created the rules, it also created the ways to overcome
these rules. But in this participatory approach, there was room for questioning this and
demanding justice.

Conclusion.
If we look at the popular narratives on VFPCK story, it was always about the successful saga of
an innovative and pioneering approach, the essence of which was captured in a national
publication;
Unknown to many, one of Indias most successful agriculture development projects called
Kerala Horticulture Development Programme is being run in Kerala. Its activities and
achievements put to shame much of what our state agriculture departments in this country have
been doing since independence. (Agriculture and Industry Survey, November 2000)
The diary tells us how the SHG took birth, how it passed through various phases of its life and
how it became a site of constant struggle and negotiation before it collapsed. The working of
this SHG under study proved that there is no absolute bottom-up approach. During the process

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of producing success both bottom-up and top-down approaches are seen dovetailing in many
occasions. The attempt to mask the heterogeneity and hide the hierarchy behind the image of a
self-help-group as a single entity seemed to fail repeatedly. Political shaping of power,
reconciliation with patronage, perpetuation of caste hierarchy and patriarchy etc. were staged
during the process.
This story supported the David Mosses observation that the schemes may be secure in papers,
but become fragile in practice. Policy does give an entry point, an ideological base and a canvas
to draw the picture. But how the final picture will look like is unpredictable and is shaped by
innumerable number of factors; everyday practice, social relations, individual aspirations, power
dynamics, associations and translation of interest, biotic and abiotic environment, dead or living
people and organisms and even molecular makeup. In a policy, to what extent the realized
objectives will be in tandem with the conceived objectives depends on how all such factors fell
in place for a particular actor. Perception of a concept in the policy will be different from that of
actors. The actors make their own ontology and their own definitions.

Acknowledgements.

References

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