Stree Shakti Scheme (Karnataka women's self-help groups)

What is the Stree Shakti scheme?

Stree Shakti is the Women and Child Development Department, Government of Karnataka's self-help group programme for rural women. The department lists it among its main women's welfare schemes alongside Gruha Lakshmi, and describes its purpose as the economic and social empowerment of women.

The design is the standard, and well-proven, self-help group model applied statewide through the department's anganwadi network. Rural women in a village come together in a group of roughly 15 to 20 members, save a small fixed amount every week or month into a common fund, and lend that pooled money to each other for small needs at rates the group itself decides. Once the group has been functioning with discipline for a few months, it receives a government revolving fund, and is then graded and linked to a bank for larger credit to run small enterprises, buy livestock, or fund trading and processing work.

The anganwadi worker is the field-level organiser. She identifies eligible women, helps form the group, sits in on early meetings, and is the link to the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) at the taluk, who is the officer administering the scheme locally. Stree Shakti groups in Karnataka number in the lakhs and cover a very large number of rural women, which is why the scheme is often the first formal financial relationship a village woman has.

What the programme does, in order

• Forms a group of about 15 to 20 women from one village or habitation.
• Builds regular savings and internal lending, recorded in a passbook and a minutes book.
• Releases a government revolving fund to the group once it is functioning.
• Grades the group on savings regularity, meeting attendance, book-keeping and internal loan recovery.
• Links the group to a bank for credit, with the group's own savings acting as the security and the group's grading deciding the amount.

Who is eligible for Stree Shakti?

You can join if:

• You are a woman resident in the village or habitation where the group is being formed.
• You belong to a poor or economically weaker household. Groups are formed primarily among below-poverty-line and low-income families.
• You are willing to save a fixed amount regularly and to attend group meetings. This is not a formality, the group's grading and its access to bank credit depend on it.
• You are not already a member of another self-help group under the same programme.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a man. Stree Shakti is a women-only programme.
• You are already in another Stree Shakti group. One woman may hold membership in only one group, and duplicate membership is removed when the group is registered.
• Your household is not from the village or habitation the group belongs to. Groups are deliberately kept local so members know each other.
• You are unwilling or unable to keep up regular savings, since a member who stops contributing weakens the whole group's grading.

There is no age bar written into the scheme in a way this guide can quote from an official order; in practice groups are made up of adult women. There is no requirement to be literate. The group elects a president and a secretary from among the members, and where no member can write, the anganwadi worker or a local resource person helps maintain the books.

What documents are required?

How to apply to form or join a Stree Shakti group

1. Speak to the anganwadi worker in your village. She is the field officer for Stree Shakti and the correct first point of contact, not any online form.
2. Bring together 15 to 20 women from your village or habitation who are willing to save regularly. Members should be from different households so the group is not dominated by one family.
3. Hold the first meeting and pass a written resolution forming the group. Record the group's name, the list of members, the elected president and secretary, the savings amount each member will contribute and the meeting day.
4. Open a joint savings account in the group's name at a nearby bank branch, with the Aadhaar and KYC documents of all members. The account is normally operated by two office-bearers signing together.
5. Start saving and meeting on a fixed schedule, and write every contribution in the passbook and every decision in the minutes book. Begin internal lending from the pooled fund with the group setting its own terms.
6. Register the group through the anganwadi worker with the Child Development Project Officer of the taluk, so it enters the department's records and becomes eligible for the government revolving fund.
7. Get the group graded after it has run for the required period, and apply to the bank for credit linkage on the strength of that grading and the group's savings.

How much money does a Stree Shakti group get?

Stree Shakti works in two layers, and confusing them is the commonest misunderstanding.

The first layer is the government revolving fund, a one-time seed amount released to a functioning group. The amount is fixed by government order and has been revised over the life of the scheme, so this guide does not quote a rupee figure that may be out of date. Ask the CDPO at your taluk for the amount currently sanctioned per group.

The second layer is bank credit. This is the larger money, and it is not a government grant. A graded group borrows from a bank against its own savings and track record, and the amount depends on the group's grading, its savings corpus and the bank's assessment, not on a flat entitlement. The group repays the loan, and the group as a whole is answerable for repayment, which is what makes group lending work.

Some Stree Shakti groups also access interest subvention or subsidy under other state and central programmes for which they qualify as a registered SHG. Those are separate schemes with their own rules and should be checked separately.

How to check your group's status and revolving fund

1. Ask the anganwadi worker whether the group has been registered with the CDPO and what grading it has received.
2. Visit the Child Development Project Officer's office at the taluk with the group's minutes book and passbook to ask about the revolving fund release.
3. Check the group's bank passbook for the credit of the revolving fund and for the bank loan disbursement.
4. For a bank-side delay, take the group's grading record to the branch manager, since credit linkage is a bank decision made on the grading.

Why a Stree Shakti group's credit gets held up

• Irregular savings. Members skipping contributions is the single biggest reason a group is graded low.
• Meetings not held or not minuted. Banks read the minutes book, and a gap in it reads as an inactive group.
• Poor internal recovery. If members are not repaying the group's own loans, no bank will lend to it.
• Incomplete KYC for one or more members, which stalls the account and therefore the disbursement.
• Duplicate membership discovered during registration, where a member is already recorded in another group.
• Office-bearer disputes, where the signatories on the account are no longer agreed by the group. This has to be settled with a fresh resolution.

Help and grievance redressal

• Anganwadi worker in your village, the first point of contact for group formation and registration
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of the taluk, for revolving fund, grading and registration grievances
• Deputy Director, Women and Child Development, at the district office for matters the CDPO cannot resolve
• Women's helpline: 181
• Department portal: dwcd.karnataka.gov.in, which lists the department's schemes and district and taluk office contacts

Joining or forming a Stree Shakti group is free. No official, agent or intermediary may charge a fee to register a group, to grade it, or to release the revolving fund, and any such demand should be reported to the CDPO or the district Deputy Director.